President Calls Upon Nits to Take the Lead in Creating Capacity for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee addressed the 13thConvocation of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology- Nagpur today (September 15, 2015) at Nagpur.

Speaking on the occasion, the President saidNITs, as institutes of national importance, have to take the lead in creating capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. They must align their activities with national development goals. He called upon VNIT-Nagpur to do its utmost in this direction.

The President saidtechnologists are problem solvers who search for quicker, better and less expensive ways of meeting tough challenges.They play a pivotal role in understanding and furthering the relationship between science, technology and society for a bettertomorrow.He called upon students to take a pledge to make full use of technology for the benefit of mankind and to see that the use of technology spreads happiness, prosperity and general well-being amongst the people of our country.

The President said the government has initiated the "Start-up India, Stand up India" campaign. The success of this initiative will depend on how innovatively we can use technology as well as human resources available in our country. He called upon students of VNIT-Nagpurto become entrepreneurs, who create job opportunities for people rather than merely seek job opportunities. Creating enterprises which will create wealth for the nation, society and people will be their biggest contribution to the inclusive and sustainable development of the country.

The President also paid tributes to Sir M. Visvesvaraya on the occasion and said he is happy that the Convocation of VNIT is usually organized on his birth anniversary, which is marked as Engineers Day in India.

This release issued at 1220 hrs