FIFTY THIRD CONVOCATION

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1 FIFTY THIRD CONVOCATION JULY 22, 2016 ADDRESS BY Dr PAWAN GOENKA CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF GOVERNORS INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS CHENNAI

3 Distinguished Graduating Class of 2016 and family members, respected Chief Guest Prof Jayant Baliga, esteemed members of the Board of Governors, Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, members of the Senate, Faculty and Staff of IIT Madras, Special Invitees and Guests, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 53 rd Convocation Ceremony of IIT Madras On behalf of the Board of Governors, I extend a warm welcome to Prof Jayant Baliga, an accomplished innovator whose invention of IGBT resulted in an estimated cost saving in excess of USD 15 trillion globally, with significant savings in CO2 emissions Post COP21, this accomplishment becomes even more relevant In 2016, Prof Baliga was inducted into the National Inventors' Hall of Fame as the sole inventor of IGBT, putting him in the league of Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell IIT Madras takes great pride in the fact that Prof Baliga is our alumni Maybe some of you can aspire to be where Prof Baliga is, sometime, in not too distant a future Thank you Prof Baliga for being part of this Convocation Ceremony 1

4 Class of 2016, you have a very special distinction of being the graduating class from the engineering institute that is ranked at the TOP in the very first Indian national ranking IITM also moved into the Top 50 among Asian universities I would like to congratulate the management, faculty and students of IITM for this accomplishment The completion of the Research Park Phase II that triples our incubation capacity to 150 companies, the birth of the Centre for Computational Brain Research with creation of three Distinguished Chairs endowed by fellow BoG member Kris Gopalakrishnan, and the signing of the agreement with DRDO for establishing a Center of Excellence in Propulsion Technology, are indicative of the advancement of research capabilities at IITM All this gives me and the Board of Governors, great confidence in the progress of IIT Madras towards achieving the Strategic Plan Every year, on this occasion, we take great pride in seeing the enthusiasm and accomplishment in the eyes of the graduating class Yes, it is a testament to your hard work and

5 dedication But it also is the fruit of the ecosystem at IITM and the guidance provided by your Professors and Staff They have not only provided you with a degree, but also a passion for the sciences, a thirst for innovation and a personality of resilience For me personally, it is an enriching experience to be amongst all you aspiring technocrats and visionaries of future India There could not have been a better time for you to graduate The world order is changing Studies predict India to be the third largest economy by 2030, just when you will be at the peak of your career growth With initiatives like Make in India, there is a renewed orientation towards technology-led innovation and manufacturing Digital India, Skill India and Smart Cities, will only fuel the growth momentum Our nation is certainly on the path towards becoming a preferred destination for innovation and technology development The recent induction of the indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft 'Tejas' into the Indian air force and the strides by ISRO has left many in awe Without a doubt, India has opportunities like never before I do hope that the time 3

6 is not too far, when Prof Baliga s of the future, will not have to leave the shores of our country, in order to change the world For you, making that transition from college to corporate or student to teacher or undergraduate to graduate can get overwhelming In a way, your life moves from predictability to unpredictability You knew four years ago where you will be today in this hall receiving your degree As you enter the corporate world, things may appear to be predictable initially A fixed income at the end of the month, fixed office timings, fixed transport schedules, fixed bosses and teams Soon you will realize that this is not the case Your teams multiply, projects become complex, colleagues transfer and before you realize, unpredictability has crept in If you are in a start-up, the level of unpredictability and uncertainty is even more Sometimes you won t even know where your next paycheck is going to come from But you will soon realize that embracing this unpredictability is your ticket to rise 4 Unpredictability has many manifestations - lack of access, affordability, socio-economic

7 divides, geo-political divides, emerging technologies and economic swings But companies today are no longer looking at these conditions as a barrier They see these as opportunities Who would have thought that a simple app from Ola, that makes transportation accessible on the go, would make us question the need for vehicle ownership? Or that Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp would change the way we communicate and bridge distances Or Coursera and edx would make global quality education more accessible to ALL education seekers Or that, Amazons and Flipkarts would bring shopping malls to our living rooms Or that PayTMs would enable cashless transactions cutting across socioeconomic barriers All these companies have moved the world despite the unpredictability they operate in The ability to embrace unpredictability is their core Contrary are cases of once undisputed market leaders like Kodak and Nokia 5 The point of telling you all of this is only one I believe that more unpredictable the future is, more opportunities it brings to those who dare to dream, who dare to take risk,

8 who dare to leave their comfort zone The world keeps moving on You have to decide do you want to live in the past, or do you want to move with the world or better yet, do you want to move the world I normally do not give personal examples in my speeches, but let me deviate today and take the liberty to talk to the IIT graduating class, as an IIT alum On stage here today, we have Prof Baliga, a 1969 graduate of IIT Madras, Prof Ramamurthi, a 1980 graduate of IIT Madras and me, a 1975 graduate of IIT Kanpur All three of us have moved the world in some ways All three started the same way, going to USA for PhD but took different paths thereafter Prof Baliga stayed back in US and has done path breaking research that has moved the world Prof Ramamurthi opted to come back to Indian Academia and has shaped the future of Indian engineering education & research and thus has moved India I decided to enter the Corporate World 14 years in USA and now 23 years in India and some might say, I too have moved India by being able to influence the maturing of the Indian Auto Industry 6

9 Different paths, but a common thread that you will find All of us have dared to dream, dared to take risks and dared to come out of our comfort zones You can imagine how comfortable I must have been with my life, after living in US for 18 years and working for the world's largest Automotive Company I opted to leave that comfort zone and come into a totally unknown work environment to do industrial R&D, at a time when industrial R&D was a rarity in India I had no idea whether I will succeed or not But I knew that if I did not take this step, and I stayed back in USA, at best I 7 will move with the world, but not move the world I am sure; Professors Baliga and Ramamurthi would have had similar crossroads, where they chose to take the road with higher risks and out of their comfort zones You have to do something that the world around you will know you for, will remember you for There are many successful CEOs who are forgotten post their retirement and many who are remembered for a generation The differentiating point is Did the CEO in his tenure move the world You probably have a role model Think about

10 him/her I bet you, that your role model has moved the world in some way You are now a graduate of IIT Madras, the highest ranked engineering institute in India The nation, the world, expects a lot from you You are expected to move the world But how? Frankly not as difficult as it may sound Very simply, it does not matter whether you go into teaching, into research, into management, into consulting, even into investment banking; you have to have a goal larger than your career and income what I often call a super-ordinate goal What should bring a spark in your eyes, should not be your promotion letter, yes that is important But what should bring a spark in your eyes should be that Eureka moment, when you have solved an unsolvable problem So my young friends, as you leave the comfort of this institute and get into the world of corporate, politics, consulting, start up or technology, remember, 1) as a graduate of IIT a lot is expected of you, 2) in the unpredictability of the world lies opportunity, and that 3) you must dare to dream, dare to take risks and thus you must move the world 8

11 Congratulations to each of you on this momentous occasion and wish you all the success in life God Bless 9

Address by the President of the General Conference Dr Davidson L. HEPBURN

Address by the President of the General Conference Dr Davidson L. HEPBURN on the occasion of the Prize Distribution Ceremony -Science Olympiad winners of 2010 Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU),