Sambalpur: Sambalpur University conferred 37 gold medals, three Doctorate of Literature and 57 Doctor of Philosophy degrees on eminent people and students on the occasion of joint celebrations of its 28th convocation and 51st Foundation Day at Biju Patnaik Auditorium in the university premises Saturday. Masters degrees were also awarded to students at the convocation.
The prestigious Gangadhar National Award was given to well-known Telugu poet K Siva Reddy.
Orissa Governor SC Jamir, as the chancellor of the university, in his convocation address, urged the universities and institutes in the state to become habitats for start-up ecosystem. He wanted them to encourage students and researchers to take up technological and commercial ventures, facilitating their link-up with government agencies and incubators.
The governor said the state government has started working towards creating a hub of start-ups by 2020 and create a conducive ecosystem of infrastructure, funding, know-how and access to markets through a network of incubators, accelerators and academic institutions.
Pointing at skill deficiency, the governor said, “we need to deal with the challenge by addressing the flaw in our system … with digitization and automation, there is a technological paradigm shift … skilled jobs have outnumbered the less skilled ones.”
Describing academic development as multi-pronged strategy, the governor said that apart from nurturing inter-disciplinary education, fostering creativity and innovation, a dedicated cell in the university would strengthen linkage with the industry.
Chief guest Subroto Bagchi spoke about the role of real leadership and cited examples from mythology and modern history to drive his point.
Sambalpur Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) DV Swamy, in-charge vice-chancellor, said that Sambalpur University has rendered dedicated service to relatively underdeveloped region of the state over a span of 50 years in terms of human resource development and social transformation.
He said Sambalpur University, with 223 affiliated colleges, provides 30 per cent of the state’s work force. Describing some of the achievements of the university, he said that it has four professors emeritus and signed 18 MoUs with research institutes in India and abroad. It also has three patents, including two international.
He added that a sponsored research and industrial consultancy cell was set up in 2016 to promote and help researchers for collaboration. PNN