The southern States of India had taken a big lead in professional education. They accounted for more than 69 per cent of the students in technical education in the country. They could make a big turnaround to the economy if they utilised the opportunity well, said P. Sivakumar, Outstanding Scientist and Director, Combat Vehicle Research Development and Establishment, DRDO, Chennai.
Delivering a graduation day address at the Anna University, Tiruchi campus, he said the technical education had grown leaps and bounds in the past few decades.
When he was young, only a handful of students were able to access the technical education.
Today, the professional education had become a popular choice of lakhs of students and the dreams of millions of parents. The country had largest young force in the world. It accounted for 33 per cent of its population.
It meant that it had 400 million youngsters.
He said the budget for scientific departments such as DRDO, Atomic Commission and Space Commission had been increasing every year and this year alone Rs. 20,000 crore had been allocated. Apart from these R and D institutes, the government had started a number of initiatives in the niche technology areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and robotics.
M. Rajaram, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University, Chennai; S. Ganesan, Registrar T. Senthilkumar, Dean, Bharathidasan Institute of Technology Campus, Tiruchi and others took part. As many as 3,080 graduates were given degree certificates in the function.
Similarly, five State rank-holders were felicitated with mementos and 148 rank holders with gold medal and certificates.
