Agartala: T. Ramasami, Science and Technology Secretary, said that India accounts for nearly a third of the world's engineering graduates every year and offers a million students the opportunity to pursue technology courses annually. He also added that Indians represent nearly 30% of the global annual supply of graduate engineers. Mr Ramasami, who is also a scientist, has made the announcement while delivering the important address at the second convocation of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala.
Further, Mr Ramasami added that engineers should prepare themselves both mentally and professionally, for innovations with twin priorities of quality and affordability. “Nano and Chandrayaan-1 are examples of affordable innovations where cost optimization has been accomplished with relatively low levels of investments, he added. As per sources, at Saturday's convocation, i.e. February 6, 2010, 256 students including 60 girls were awarded degrees in engineering, with eight students bagging gold medals.
NITs are leading engineering and technology colleges, earlier called Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs). In 2002, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry decided to upgrade all the 17 RECs as NITs in phases. There are currently 20 NITs, the one in Agartala being the latest.
