NITs for social endeavours - no comparison with IITs

NITs for social endeavours - no comparison with IITs

Mangalore Today News Network

mangaluru, Dec 19, 2015: Speaking at the 10th Global Convention of NITK Surathkal Alumni Association at NITK on Dec 18, Friday. NITK (Surathkal) Director Prof Swapan Bhattacharya said that NITs will take up social programmes, such as adoption of villages in future, according to the schemes formulated by the Union government. National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will be associated with the endeavour of fulfilling the social needs.

NITK has to convert itself into a 24x7 campus from the present 8 am to 5 pm campus. Also, it has to transform itself from a teaching-oriented system to a learning-oriented one. NITK is planning to offer a summer internship programme with an intake of 100 students, who will visit the top five laboratories in the world, he said and sought the cooperation from its alumni towards making the plan into reality.

Recalling the role of NITK Alumni Association, he said NITK is the only NIT to have a Dean for Alumni Affairs.  He lamented that the NITs are often compared with IITs. But, several NITs are better than IITs. Hence, the NITs should be evaluated on their own merits.

Titan Company Ltd Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat, who was the chief guest at the programme, in his keynote address, said India is a place where people aspire for better lives with rising personal income. India is like a country which is smart, liberal, progressive and tech-savvy. The country’s ability to deal with VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) is an advantage for it, he noted.

Alumni Lawrence Mendonca, G Shankaram, Prof B Gopal, Kedarnath Mudda, Rudramani, Fekadu Mengistu and others were felicitated on the occasion. Fekadu Mengistu, an alumnus, attended the programme with his eight other fellow mates. He is the Deputy Managing Director of RIES Engineering in Ethiopia. He is also the Executive Council member of the Alumni Association.

’Smrithi’, the souvenir, was released on the occasion. Spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was the guest of honour.