This is an exciting time for students to start their career and definitely so in India. “You can work for a large company, a start-up or become an entrepreneur. This is your time,” said N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons.

There are issues, and not everything is positive. There are issues like malnutrition, lack of access to the vast majority of people to education, water, healthcare, market access and women participation in employment is decreasing. “We have come a long way since Independence. There is a tremendous opportunity for India, Indian businesses and for the social sector,” he said while speaking at the 59th convocation of IIT Madras on Wednesday.

“We are going through a lot of turbulence — supply chain crisis, shortage of semiconductors and a war. Suddenly, the global growth tapers down and we are going to be in a low-growth, high-inflation environment this year, and probably for longer. Despite all these, it is the most exciting time and the opportunity is for everybody,” he added.

Digital is the future

The future is going to be a digital world. Businesses in every sector have to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI), data and deep tech. There is no escape for them. This requires tech talent, he said.

In the social sector, India has problems like access to jobs, shortage of doctors, teachers, infrastructure and judges. This can be solved using technology and low-skilled people so that high skilled and specialists can focus on things that only they can do. This is going to be the norm in every industry, he said.

Research and innovation

On sustainability, energy transition is real and is going to accelerate. Innovation in materials is key. “We have to lead the transition with research, innovation and start-ups. We have the ecosystem and more importantly, the mindset to take risks and people are willing to fund,” he said. Talent from anywhere can make a big impact. This will happen over the next several years, and this is an opportunity, he said.

Healthcare is going to be the biggest wave in the next 10-20 years to solve basic problems. Invention of drugs will change, there will be research on the brain, ageing problems will also be solved, he said.

Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras, said India has come of age in its start-up ecosystem and IIT-M is playing a key role in it. IITM-incubated start-ups tend to be in deep-tech areas like advanced communication, agritech, AI, IoT, green energy and space technology.

A total of 2,084 students graduated on the day and as many as 2,620 degrees (including joint and dual degrees) were awarded to the students on the occasion. The 60,000th degree of the institute since its inception was also presented during this convocation.

The institute’s director V Kamakoti awarded degrees to 2,084 graduates, including 306 PhD and 90 Web-enabled M. Tech for executives. The PhD numbers include 11 joint degrees with universities in foreign countries including Australia, Singapore, France and Germany.

Start-up focus

Presenting the institute’s annual report, Kamakoti said in 2021-22, the institute received sanction for 186 ministry-sponsored projects for a total value of ₹611.46 crore, that is almost 70 per cent more than last year. “Our collaboration with the industry has been increasing year after year, and this year 609 consultancy and industry-sponsored research projects have been received, amounting to ₹279.61 crore,” he said.

IIT-M Incubation Cell continues to incubate around 40-50 companies annually, with a cumulative portfolio of 260 deep tech start-ups. IIT-M-incubated companies are together valued at ₹30,000 crore, based on their last investment data; 106 start-ups are in the market, having generated, despite the pandemic, a revenue of ₹650 crore in FY21-22 and created more than 7,000 direct jobs. IIT-M start-ups have filed over 210+ patents, and 10 per cent of the start-ups are founded by women, and 16 per cent by IIT-M faculty, he said.

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