E-Paper
IIT Kanpur honours 3,104 graduates at 59th convocation
The convocation was presided over by acting chairman of the board of governors Jayant Patil and attended by IIT Kanpur director prof Manindra Agrawal
: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur awarded degrees to 3,104 students at its 59th convocation on Wednesday. IN-SPACe chairman and Padma Shri awardee Dr Pawan Goenka urged the graduating students to accept failure, keep learning and contribute to building a developed India by 2047.
The graduating batch included 1,247 undergraduate students, 1,325 postgraduate students and 532 students from the institute’s e-Masters programme. The convocation was presided over by acting chairman of the board of governors Jayant Patil and attended by IIT Kanpur director prof Manindra Agrawal.
Addressing the students, Goenka said life was “not a 100-metre race” but “a long engineering project” that involves repeated failures, course corrections and continuous improvement. “The first version is rarely the final one,” he said, adding that some of life’s greatest lessons come through adversity.
He asked the graduates to remember five principles: never give up, dream big and have the courage to follow those dreams, trust people, never stop learning, and always listen to their conscience. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047, Goenka said the graduating class would be at the peak of their careers when the country reaches that milestone.
He also urged students to think beyond professional success. “Fifty years from now, when you look back at your life, ask yourself what legacy you have left behind,” he said. He expressed hope that their answer would be: “I contributed to building a developed India.”
Congratulating the students and their families, Patil said the graduates would carry IIT Kanpur’s legacy wherever they go. He urged them to uphold the values of integrity, innovation and lifelong learning, and to use their knowledge to serve society.
Prof Agrawal said that while artificial intelligence can retrieve information and generate solutions instantly, human intelligence will continue to stand out because of its ability to ask the right questions, exercise judgement, connect ideas across disciplines and make ethical decisions. He encouraged the graduates to keep adapting and learning throughout their lives.
The convocation was held in two sessions. Medals were presented at the institute’s main auditorium before degrees were formally awarded across lecture halls. Among the award winners, Sagar KV of computer science received the President’s Gold Medal, the institute’s highest academic honour. The Director’s Gold Medal was jointly awarded to Aditya V of statistics and data science and Ritwik Shankar of aerospace engineering.
This year’s graduating class included 390 PhD scholars, 502 MTech students, 852 BTech students, 212 BS graduates, 186 MSc students, 59 MBA graduates, 36 MDes students and students from several dual-degree, research and specialised postgraduate programmes.
