Minister of State for Culture (I/c) and Chancellor, National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology (NMIHACM) Dr. Mahesh Sharma conferred degrees at the 11th convocation ceremony in New Delhi today. Prof. V.S. Shinde, Vice Chancellor, Deccan College, Pune was the Guest of Honour and the event was attended by Dr. B.R. Mani, Vice Chancellor, NMIHACM among other dignitaries.Delivering the Convocation Address, Dr. Mahesh Sharma said that it is a challenge to the new generation to harness the power of technology to the benefit of mankind. He stressed on the need to empathise with the situation and the needy in order to be succesful. He also announced that the new campus of National Museum Institute coming up at Noida would be completed by this year End.As many as 176 students were awarded degrees including 23 PhD. NMI commenced its M.A. and Ph.D. courses in the stream of History of Art, Conservation and Museology from the year 1990 within the National Museum, Janpath, New Delhi. In addition to these regular courses, NMI also conducts short term courses of five months duration i.e . Art Appreciation and Bhartiya Kalanidhi. This Institute is a unique institution which imparts higher research education in the streams which are related to the heritage of the country and have signed MOUs with various educational institutions and museums outside and within the country to provide them expertise in the setting of museums, conservation work of the artefacts.Four new departments; (i) Archaeology, (ii) Palaeography/Numismatics, (iii) Structural Conservation and (iv) Heritage and Tourism Management have also been approved and efforts are being made to set up these four departments to start the courses as soon as possible. The new campus of the NMI is coming up in Sector 62, Noida and is expected to be inaugurated in the end of November, 2018.