Kalam advocates Indian dress at convocations

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, March 26

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam wants Indian “angavastra” to replace gowns, introduced by the British, during convocations in colleges and universities.

He said this during the 12th convocation of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here today.

Addressing students, Kalam said: “We are wearing this beautiful coat. I told your director that the British introduced this coat. We must have a coat of our own, our own uniform — an NIT, Kurukshetra, uniform. Next time, introduce something unique that should be a beautiful ‘angavastra’.”

Kalam emphasised on the importance of innovative and creative thinking to develop technologies that can give the country a competitive edge. He referred to the latest Global Competitiveness Report where India is ranked 60. “If the country’s status is to improve, there’s need to promote excellence in technology. Excellence is not by accident. It is a process, where an individual or an organisation or a nation continuously strives to better oneself.”

The former President concluded his address by urging students to make social changes such as removing poverty and strive to be remembered for such initiatives. He administered students an eight-point oath and called upon them to be enlightened citizens towards building the future knowledge society with innovation.

Kalam conferred the D Sc (Honoris Causa) degree on Prof Pritam Singh, former director of IIM, Lucknow, and Prof SG Dhande, former director of IIT, Kanpur.

He presented gold medals to branch toppers, overall topper and best all-round students.

At the end the former president presented a set of books to NIT Director Dr Ananad Mohan for the institute’s library.

Earlier, NIT Director Anand Mohan presented an annual report of the institute.

In all, 1,174 degrees were conferred. The degrees were conferred on 656 B Tech students, 327 M Tech students, 67 MBA students, 87 MCA students and 37 PhD scholars.