A “massive wave” of entrepreneurial energy is coursing through the nation’s arteries and if we could connect this enthusiasm with excellence in our basic and applied research at higher educational institutions then new growth engines for our society is within reach, noted entrepreneur Vijay Chandru said here today.
Addressing the graduating students at the Convocation 2016 of BITS-Pilani, the co-inventor of the ‘Simputer’and currently chairman and managing director of Strand Life Sciences, urged them to dream and innovate more to “reap India’s demographic dividend”.
“There is a massive wave of entrepreneurial energy coursing through the nation’s arteries.”If we could connect this enthusiasm with the excellence in basic and applied research at our higher educational institutions, the possibility of a new growth engine that has more enduring value to society seems within reach,” he said.
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A graduate of BITS-Pilani 1975 batch in Electrical Engineering, and a Distinguished Alumnus of the institution, Chandru authored the Atal Innovation Mission report in 2015 and continues to serve on the mission’s high-level committee at NITI Aayog.
Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, the Chancellor of BITS-Pilani, who could not attend the function, sent a message, which was read out by its Vice-Chancellor Souvik Bhatttacharyya.
“You are privileged because the education you have received is among the best the country offers…
“This privilege places an obligation on you, to be aware of the responsibility on you to better the world around you, and reach out to those who are not as fortunate as you have been.
“So think beyond yourself,” Birla said.
“Also, think big. Do not trap yourself into an insulated cocoon of timidity. Do not be slave to the small, the incremental, the usual, the routine, the accepted, or the safe.
“In setting your targets turn your gaze to the heavens, the stars, the oceans, the vast forest and the mightiest peak.”Get your inspiration from your heroes, the titans of civilization, no matter who they are – Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison.”Steve Jobs, the Dalai Lama, Don Bradman, whoever. “You pick the star you want to navigate by,” he said in his message.
The famed institution which owns its inception to a ‘Pathshala’ started in 1901 by the Birlas has now grown into a full-fledged institution since it came to being in 1964 with G D Birla as BITS-Pilani’s Founder Chairman.