LINGAYA’S VIDYAPEETH CONVOCATION, FARIDABAD
Mr Chancellor of Lingaya’s Vidyapeeth Dr Picheswar Gadde
Vice Chancellor Prof Arvind Agrawal
Shri Ravindra Raju
Shri K Dileep
Pro Vice Chancellor, Academics, Prof Jaskiran Kaur
Prof Vice Chancellor, R& D, Prof GM Patil
Registrar Shri Prem Kumar Salwan
Members of Board of Management, Academic Council, Deans, Finance Officer, Faculty Members, Media persons, Students, Ladies and Gentlemen!
1. I am glad to be among you all on the occasion of 10th convocation of Lingaya’s Vidyapeeth, an important seat of learning in the private sector, a deemed-to-be university. Let me at the very outset put on record my congratulations and best wishes to the entire family of Lingaya’s Vidyapeeth for playing an important role in imparting quality education to our students, who are the backbone and future of the nation.
2. It gives me immense pleasure to know that today 750 students from the streams of Science and Technology, Commerce, Management, Humanities, and Law. It is encouraging indeed to note that two hundred sixty two of them are female students. Out of a total of 29 students who have scored 8.50 CGPA, sixteen are girls. I am really happy to see our daughters marching ahead in their pursuits to achieve excellence and self-reliance. It is a good omen indeed!
3. Ladies and gentlemen, India is on the cusp of a total metamorphosis. The whole world is looking towards us with a great deal of hope. Our exemplary fight against Covid-19 showed the world our collective strength and determination to rise to the occasion and deal with any challenges with ease. Our companies did not only produce anti-Covid vaccines for ourselves but for the whole world. A new India is in the making and you all have to be an important partner of the build back process.
4. Accordingly, we need to be ready to face challenges and convert them into opportunities. We have to move forward to become a knowledge society. The market for the developed world has reached a plateau and new search has been launched for new markets for trade and new avenues for cheap labour and services. New developments of information technology further fuelled the process of globalization.
5. Our students need to be a Jack of all trades. Diversity in learning and exposure to multifaceted experiments, researches and skills have become the need of the order. Run-of-the-mill approach won’t work. R&D spurs innovation, invention and progress. Every campus should be a hub of R&D activities so that our students are aligned with emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain Smart spaces, generative AI, graph technologies and metaverse.
6. Dear students, our expectations from you are very high. We don’t only wish to see you a life of happiness, prosperity and good health but also want you to give back to society so that one is left out. I shall be happy if some of you become good entrepreneurs and create job opportunities for others. As per the 6th Economic Census, we have nearly 59 million entrepreneurs in the country. It is indeed an impressive number but we want to have more and more entrepreneurs.
7. Similarly, we are all aware of the fact that many aspiring students have to give up their studies for want of resources, opportunities, facilities and guidance. Never ever forget that you have a great responsibility towards the students – boys and girls – hailing from weaker sections of society such as backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities. Do take care of them. Do their hand holding! We know all fingers cannot be equal but all fingers have to be equally strong to make a strong, vibrant and inclusive India.
8. I would like to appeal to all degree holders to focus on building empathy, sympathy, patriotism and social cohesion. Our diversity is our strength. You have to be the harbingers of hope, reform, transform and perform. You all have to be the agents of positive changes. Through the alumni association you can always do wonders. You can run incubation centres, career counselling programmes, and offer sponsorship to poor students and what not! I call upon you all to actively participate in Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and give your best during Amrit Kaal so that when India celebrates the centenary of Independence, our country should be an ideal epitome of equality, fraternity, liberty, justice and prosperity of all.
9. Ladies and gentlemen, whatever I have stated so far in my convocation address is in sync with our new National Education Policy-2020, which has to be implemented by 2030 nationally but Haryana is geared up to achieve the task by 2025 itself. NEP-2020 effectively takes care of almost everything. From entrepreneurship, digitization, accreditation, inclusivity, innovation, flexibility, smart classes, moral values to skill development, NEP-2020 strives to achieve excellence through affordability, accessibility, quality, equity, and accountability.
10. In conclusion, I would like to share some of the great observations made by the great monk Swami Vivekananda who said that education should cover all aspects of life – material, physical, moral, intellectual, spiritual and emotional, as education is a constant process. He once said: “Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making, assimilation of ideas.”
Let us resolve collectively to use education as a tool for empowerment of all in general and those left out in particular.
I congratulate the medal winners, degree awardees and wish good luck to all of you and thank Lingaya’s Vidyapeeth administration, faculty members and students for successfully organizing this convocation.
Thank You! Jai Hind! Jai Haryana