Human intolerance, climate change disturbing: Kakodkar

Panaji: Climate change, degradation of environment and ecology and growing human disconnect and intolerance are some of the very disturbing trends in the world today. Leveraging new technologies to fulfill human needs will hopefully help make the world a better place, said Anil Kakodkar, Padma Vibhushan awardee and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, in his address to graduating students at the 11th convocation ceremony of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Goa.

“You all are graduating at a time of unprecedented global challenges, but that also brings with it unprecedented opportunities. Some of the challenges are climate change threat, degradation of environment and ecology around us, much accelerated pace of change primarily driven by rapidly evolving technology, growing human disconnect and intolerance. They are very disturbing trends and appear to threaten our very existence.


Amid all this, humanity is forging ahead leveraging new technologies to fulfil human needs and aspirations and further attempts to make this world hopefully a better place,” Kakodkar said.

He said there are plenty of opportunities for each one in these circumstances to shape a better tomorrow.

Kakodkar also said that while trying to make India a global leader, it has to be ensured that we give our citizens the best possible quality of life. “As economy grows, wealth tends to concentrate at the top socio-economic level. One needs to realise a more equitable income across levels. Luckily, the modern knowledge era technologies do facilitate decentralisation and democratisation. We need to bridge the urban-rural gap. Empowering rural youth is crucial to do away with social disparity,” he said.

Kakodkar said that a new institute like NIT Goa has plenty of opportunities to align itself with the changing needs of the times of come.

A total of 216 graduates were awarded degrees at the 11th convocation ceremony held at the institute’s campus in Cuncolim, of these 162 were BTech degrees, 20 were MTech degrees, and 24 were PhDs.

Institute director Omprakash Jaiswal said that NIT Goa is continuing its steady progress as a growing institution of national importance and the full scale functioning of the institute from its permanent campus at Cuncolim has marked a significant stage in the NIT’s evolution.