Ready to take off

The first convocation of Guru GobindSingh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) was recently held at its Kashmere Gatepremises in the Capital. The convocation was presided by the President of India,A P J Abdul Kalam, besides B L Joshi, Lt Governor, Delhi and chancellor GGSIPU,Shiela Dixit, chief minister, government of NCT of Delhi and K K Aggarwal,vice-chancellor, GGSIPU. Nearly 5,000 students of the university and itsaffiliated institutions, received their graduating degrees on the occasion outof which about 80 meritorious students were felicitated with goldmedals.Addressing the occasion, Kalam said in India 26 per cent ofthe population is below the poverty line and our aim should be to uplift thosepeople. "Our present GDP is about 6 per cent and to uplift the downtroddenmembers of the society, we need to increase and maintain it at a minimum 10 percent. And to achieve this goal, there are five important areas we need to focuson - education and health, agriculture and food processing, informationtechnology and communication technology, infrastructure development and beingself-reliant in critical technology," Kalam said.Addressing thegraduating lot, he remarked, "There are 540 million youth, below 25 years ofage, in India. The nation needs young leaders who can command the change fortransformation of India into a developed nation embedded with knowledge society.The mission of GGSIPU is to build a capability of creative leadership amongstudents which will generate many young entrepreneurs for participating into thetransformation of India into a prosperous and strongcountry."Earlier, while welcoming the dignitaries, Aggarwal said theuniversity has planned two state-of-the-art campuses at Dwarka and SurajmalVihar. Stating that the university plans to focus on entrepreneurship with aview to enabling graduates to become job providers rather than job seekers, heremarked: "We intend to introduce some of the more socially relevant programmesin the near future in disciplines like disaster management, water harvesting,bio-informatics, intellectual property rights, hospital administration, andremote sensing and GIS applications to name some."