Governor awards 882 degrees to scholars, students

Tribune News Service

Kakryal, April 18

Governor NN Vohra awarded 882 degrees, including PhDs, masters and bachelors degrees, to scholars and students at the sixth convocation of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University on Wednesday.

He also presented nine silver medals to meritorious students.

President Ram Nath Kovind, who was the chief guest, gave away 10 gold medals to students. First Lady Savita Kovind was also present on the occasion.

Congratulating all those who received degrees, medals and awards, the Governor wished them success in their careers. Vohra said he expected them to maintain high ethical and moral standards in their personal as well as professional lives.

Welcoming the President and First Lady, the Governor said it was a proud moment for the university that Kovind had come to attend the convocation.

Recalling the objectives of the university, he said the institution, which was set up and fully funded by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, would complete 14 years in August this year.

Vohra said the university laid high emphasis on merit at the time of admission to various academic programmes. Post-admission, efforts were made to encourage and reward performance. In addition, merit-cum-means scholarships are provided to students at all levels. During the past year, the university has provided Rs 176 lakh to the meritorious students.

The Governor said when the university began functioning, it faced varied challenges among which perhaps the main was the connectivity factor. He said in the past several years, several roads and bridges were constructed to link it with the Pathankot-Jammu-Srinagar highway and with the Katra railway station. These have virtually reduced the journey time from Jammu to half of what it was earlier.

The university is now able to attract renowned teachers and eminent researchers, who fly to Jammu, deliver lecture and return the same day, if they so wish.

The Governor said it is a matter of considerable satisfaction that though in its infancy, the university was ranked among the top 100 engineering institutions in the country and found a place within the top 150 universities of the country as per the recent National Institutional Ranking Framework-2018.

The Governor thanked Prof KL Chopra, former Director of IIT, Kharagpur, and RP Agrawal, former Union Education Secretary, members of the executive council, for their continuing support and advice regarding all matters relating to the management of the institution. He also thanked Prof DP Agrawal who recently steered the academic audit of the university.

He complimented Vice Chancellor Prof Sanjeev Jain, deans, faculty and the staff, for their sustained efforts to take the university forward on all fronts.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor presented a report, highlighting the achievements and plans.

He gave details of the campus placements, publications, research projects and various workshops and conferences organised by the institution. He said various initiatives were being taken to build the institution as a centre of excellence.

Honorary degrees for Mittal, Munjal

• Governor NN Vohra said Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, set up essentially as a science and technology institution, was striving to establish close connectivity with centres of excellence and with the leading industrial and business enterprises. 
• Vohra noted that as a step in this direction, two outstanding entrepreneurs of India, who are steering well-known enterprises, were being honoured by the university. 
• He conferred honoris causa degrees on Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman, Bharti Enterprises Ltd, and Pawan Munjal, chairman, managing director and chief executive officer, Hero MotoCorp Ltd.
• He said he looked forward to Mittal and Munjal periodically visiting the campus to interact with faculty and students and to advise the university regarding the pattern on which technology and business learning programmes should be developed for effectively meeting emerging challenges.