The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Students should continue to learn, earn and yearn to serve with clear vision, pure heart and strong shoulders. He was addressing the Eighth Convocation of Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), in Hyderabad today. The Minister for Irrigation, Marketing & Legislative Affairs, Shri T. Harish Rao, the Chancellor of GITAM University, Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.The Vice President congratulated the students for acquiring the coveted degrees, prizes and medals and also congratulated the teachers for sharing and imparting invaluable knowledge to mould the young minds in different disciplines.The Vice President has expressed his happiness that the University has established Centralized Research Laboratories in key thrust areas, such as Water Quality, Nano-Technology, Medical Bio-Technology and Advanced Materials & Processing. He also commended for setting up of research centers in the areas of Cancer, Urban & Sustainable Development, Integrated Rural Development, Climate Change & Disaster Management.
The Vice President said that India is on the threshold of emerging as a major economic power and we are an old civilization with a young population which is a great demographic advantage of country.The Vice President said that we must prepare ourselves to cope with the emerging dramatic changes and we must be pro-active rather than be reactive. We must be agile and ride the waves of change, he added.The Vice President said that the Government of India is fully aware of the changing environment and is relentlessly orienting itself towards innovation. He further said that it has taken many measures to transform the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy and these include a number of flagship schemes and programs like ‘Make in India’, ‘Start up India’ & ‘Stand up India’ to give a huge fillip to manufacturing and entrepreneurship. The ‘Digital India’ program aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy, he added.