Srinagar: Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) has conferred Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) on Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation (NSF), USA during the Institute’s 37th annual convocation.
According to a press note, the 37th annual convocation of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore was conducted on August 18, 2022. Tamil Nadu Governor Mr. R.N. Ravi took part in the convocation as chief guest and Judith Ravin, US Consul General in Chennai was the Guest of Honour. A total of 8383 undergraduate, postgraduate and research scholars received their degrees.
Delivering his address during the convocation ceremony, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi urged students not to allow failure to defeat them. “Take risks, think of something revolutionary, something big to start with and if you fail, let it be a lesson for fresh initiative. Do not allow yourself to be defeated by your setbacks,” he said.
Governor Ravi urged greater collaboration between institutions of higher education in science, technology and research in India with the National Science Foundation of the USA. On India – US relation, the Governor stated how over these decades and more so in recent years the relationship between India and USA has matured from shared values to shared interests to shared responsibilities.
VIT founder-Chancellor Dr G Viswanathan said that VIT has been ranked among the top 3 universities in India and within the top 601-700 Universities of the World in the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).He called upon Central and State governments to invest more on education and research.
The US Consul General in Chennai Judith Ravin in her speech thanked VIT for their long standing collaboration with the U.S. Consulate, which includes promoting higher education opportunities in the USA, jointly hosting events focused on U.S. foreign policy, cyber security and intellectual property and being a valuable partner of the Fulbright program by both sending Indian Fulbrighters to the United States and hosting them.