Distinguished guests, and faculty members who make this Institution what it is today in the eyes of the world at large.  Members of the staff,  proud parents,  and most important,  for whom I'm here,  dear students. 

कोटा में ॐ का उच्चारण तो बनता है, ॐ ! 

I say so because Kota has a unique position in the parliamentary history of this country. Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, Shri Om Birla has the distinction to be in second term as Speaker consecutively. Now someone will ask immediately — Dr. Balram Jakhar was also Speaker consecutively for two terms from 1980 to 1989. What is special about Kota? 

Taking a cue from the Hon’ble Governor about APJ Kalam, name being elaborated, Dr. Balram Jakhar was first elected from Punjab (Firozpur) and then elected from Rajasthan (Sikar) separately for his two terms. Our Om Birla ji has been elected from this constituency. So Kota has a unique position. I'm sure everyone will agree.  Good ! 

Friends  for me it's a moment  of immense pride to be amidst youthful energy,  inquisitive minds,  and pioneering spirit  of the Indian Institute of Information Technology. I extend  my heartiest congratulations to all the graduating students, their dedicated faculty members. Their proud family members, and I salute the dynamic leadership  of IIIT Kota. 

A convocation in the life of a student  walking out of the Institute with the tag of being an alumnus  is a milestone development.  Time to be a realist.  Convocation marks  the harvest of perseverance,  the fusion of your discipline and  signals your unwavering pursuit  of excellence.  From within the sands and soils of Rajasthan,  IIIT Kota is helping forge the foundation  of Digital India,  now  a global need.

Friends,  it is not merely imparting technical knowledge,  it is much beyond.  It is shaping the contours  of a new confident  and technologically sovereign India. Convocation  is far more  than beginning. It is a consequential expedition called life. Friends,  this is more than  a ceremonial  passage.  Remember,  learning never ends.  दीक्षांत शिक्षान्त नहीं है। शिक्षा का अंत कभी नहीं होता है।

I am reminded of a philosopher before Socrates,  Heraclitus.  He reflected,  the only constant in life is change. And if buttressed it  by an illustration,  the same person cannot enter the same river twice.  You have to change,  but to change for the better, you have to engage in constant learning,  and it graduates at one time  into self-learning

Friends,  you are taking a leap in the larger public domain,  but look at the timing of it.  Bharat,  home to one sixth of humanity,  is rightly perceived as a favourite global investment  and opportunity destination.  By whom?  By Institutions like the International Monetary Fund,  as also other entities. 

You would have noticed all around  in Bharat an aura of hope and possibility  with exponential economic upsurge,  phenomenal infrastructural growth,  deep  technological penetration  to name only just a few but in this overall scenario, friends, my young friends, my dear friends, India's greatest wealth today is not its resources in oil, mineral or otherwise. It is you, the youth of this country, with nearly 65 % of our population being under the age of 35. And let me tell you the median age in India is 29 years. Compare it with China 37, US 38 and Japan 48.  

We possess a demographic advantage that is the envy of the entire world. But what does it mean to us? We have to steer our minds. We have to deeply reflect. We need to take our resolve. We need to make a commitment.  The commitment is  let us avail and fructify this great opportunity  that is once in history,  not in centuries.  India is blessed with this opportunity. Let us go into it.  Now an opportunity must realize the challenges. 

The challenge is beyond the size of the economy.  Our economy’s size is commendable.  In the last 10 years,  the jump has been  of seven points.  Very difficult  to traverse  a fragile economy  to such a developed economy at number four, on the way to becoming third very shortly. That will continue.  Maybe  some can rationalize it also  without a large population of 1.4 billion.   

But as discerning minds, thinking minds,  the future of India,  you must have to work  to ensure  fast forward multiple times the hike  in our per capita income.  You are capable of it.  You have to think about it but to understand, I'm sure you'll achieve.

And you must emerge as leaders  in ethical Artificial Intelligence.  Let me reflect briefly which matters to you.  Disruptive technologies,  Artificial Intelligence,  Internet of Things,  Blockchain,  Machine Learning and are far more significant and epochal  than industrial revolutions.  These technologies can be regulated, harnessed and positively unleashed only with your contribution. 

And therefore the challenges that emanate you in this institute and working out of it have to create that into opportunities. Just imagine where we are heading.  We never thought India will be amongst single digit countries  focusing on Quantum Computing,  Green Hydrogen mission,  global digital infrastructure.  These are areas where you can contribute.  Our cybersecurity protocols must ensure privacy with dignity. It is something which has to be resolved  with every changing time.

Our digital platforms must serve as public goods  for the entire world.  Look at the headway we made in UPI.  It's a global buzzword. The world is looking at India, How to effect  digitization.  You all must be aware,  the World Bank President said,  what India has achieved in digitization,  technological penetration is not normally achievable in four decades plus India has done it in six years. 

But we are getting into a new era,  an era of new nationalism.  Technological leadership is the new frontier of patriotism. We have to be world leaders in this. The battleground of the 21st century is no longer land or sea. Gone are those days  of conventional warfare also. Our prowess, our  power has to be determined  by code, cloud and cyber, and for that,  you have a great role to play.  Nations will no longer be compromised or colonised by armies but armies now have been replaced by  algorithms.  

Sovereignty will not be lost through invasions but through dependence on foreign digital infrastructure.  You must have seen,  if we get technology-driven equipment from outside,  that country has the power  to bring us to a standstill.  Our equipments in Defence,  the general will bear me out.  

And therefore,  the work on your table will ever keep on increasing, you will always have work  to serve the society.  India, once a global leader  cannot afford to be at rest, just being a passive user nation of borrowed technologies.  Earlier we used to wait for technology.  The gap was  decades.  In my generation it was narrowed down to years.  It came to months.  It has now come to weeks. But why?  We should be exporting it.

We must rise as architects of our own digital destiny  and also influence  the destiny of other nations.  And for that, dear friends,  our coders,  Data Scientists,  blockchain innovators,  and AI engineers  are the modern-day nation builders.  And where are they?  They are amongst you.

Just imagine what kind of a role you have.  And you don't have to depend on anyone  to perform a role like this.  You can have your own startups.  You can get into several other areas and groups. 

But friends, even as we innovate, as we lead, we must not forget one thing. And that is our civilizational essence, our civilizational ethos. And that is, technology without values is a double-edged sword. Let me put it the other way around. Technology is like nuclear power. If regulated, it can give you electricity. 

If used otherwise, you must have seen the terror,  the horror,  the demonizing impact it has.  We have seen global conflagrations  which are open-ended now. You can see the results.  When we look at Artificial Intelligence, the same AI  that can revolutionize classrooms can also deepen divides.  

India  is a lesson to the entire world on what inclusivity is.  India is a lesson to the entire world about unity and diversity. Look at us.  All are different.  But we are united to be here, and therefore as the next generation of digital leaders  and you are those digital leaders, you.  Our generation is not well equipped to score that goal which you alone can score.  And therefore,  you must  also be conscience keepers  of the tech world.  Don't permit this great prowess and power to be demonized. 

We need to build a Bharatiya system  for Bhartiya  users  and globalise it  like we have done yoga.  It was there in our Atharva Veda long back.  Prime Minister Modi took the lead.  The largest number of nations came together,  supported it, and yoga is not made only for International Yoga day, it is an everyday matter for our good health and wellness. 

But friends,  to give  really cutting edge to transformative technology, we must appreciate the technology which we divide,  the technology which comes into being because of our efforts,  our sweating,  like  a smart App but if a smart app doesn't work  in rural India,  it is not smart enough. Keep always that in mind. 

You must always be people-centric,  which means keep the last person in mind when it comes to  growth.  An AI model that doesn't understand regional languages is incomplete.  We are proud of our languages.  Many of them have been given the status of classical languages.  Our languages are  respected beyond the frontiers of Bharat. 

So AI models must be language friendly.  A digital tool that excludes the disabled is unjust.  We as a nation are always meant to handhold  those who suffer some kind of challenge,  physical, mental, or otherwise. 

And friends,  the world is driven by research and innovation.  I have said it multiple times  and the Director has appreciated it.  Research must not be for self,  that it gives me good credentials.  It should not be for the shelf in the library.  Research and innovation must have an impact on the ground for the common man.  And therefore I say, 

Innovation must not become the privilege of the privileged, because the big change this country has seen in the last decade is that the privileged pedigree is extinct. Equality before law has been restored. Those who thought they are above law are facing heat of law. And therefore you must ensure that the fruits of technology reach India's last mile, its tribal  communities,  its women,  its small farmers  and  children,  friends after more than three decades. 

And I was more involved as  Governor of the state of West Bengal.  The nation came to have a National Education Policy in 2020.  It evolved  after taking input from all the stakeholders. We must invest in education  and empowerment of our youth through opportunity,  mentorship,  and a vision that connects personal ambition with national progress  to build digital superpower.  National Education Policy  will transform it.  It has been well evolved.  I appeal to everyone across the country,  those who have not started adopting the National Education Policy,  I urge you to do it.  

It is not a political education policy.  It is not a government  education policy.  It is a National Education Policy,  where there was convergence of ideation and ideas  from very valuable sources, I am aware.  And where the  implementation is taking place, including Institutions like yours. The implementation must be authentic.  It must be penetrating.  Because students must come to know what  does it means for them.  How it makes a big difference for  young students. 

Friends, National Education Policy calls upon students  to break from silos  and embrace a world of convergence.  The policy and visions  of the future are set by thinking technologists,  individuals  who bring together the precision of code and the depth of conscience.  You understand code much better than I do,  but conscience  is our heritage. We are imparting to the entire world.  And what does the National Education Policy further visualize?  The logic of engineering  and the imagination of arts. 

National Education Policy, I am very confident, will  salvage us  from the ossified education system  put in place for by colonisers.  It has been dismantled.  It has been removed.  Our students need to know about it but friends,  when I look around,  particularly from the perspective of a place where I am at the moment.

I am worrisomely concerned  at this alarming scenario.  We are facing the crisis of cramming culture, which has transformed  vibrant minds into mechanical repositories  of temporary information.  There is no absorption.  There is no understanding.

Cramming, cram and then read out what you have crammed.  It is creating  intellectual zombies  rather than creative thinkers. Cramming creates memory without meaning. What does memory mean if there's no meaning? Who was your grandfather? What does APJ mean? Unless you understand. 

So cramming creates memory without meaning and adds degrees without depth. What is use of degrees if the degrees are of no depth and if your credentials do not carry the stamp of acceptability  and what a worrisome scenario when students memorize without understanding, very painful, regurgitated,  without questioning and what can we do when people graduate without wisdom, you are distinct , you are  fortunate  to getting this kind of quality education. 

But I'm availing the opportunity  to send a message to everyone.  Coaching centers have turned out to be poaching centers. They have become black holes  for talent  in regimented silos.  You know it.  You live in this city.  Coaching centers, mushrooming,  this is menacing for our youth  who are our future.  Time is  running out.  We must address this malice  that is hugely and very simply concerning.

We cannot allow our education to be so smeared and tarnished.  Sight of billboards,  advertisements in newspapers. Where does the money come from? It comes from those who either take loans or who  painstakingly pay  to make their future brighter.  Surely this is not optimal utilization of money.  And these advertisements are alluring  and tested.  They are eye sore  for our civilizational  ethos.  

कहाँ गुरुकुल की बात करेंगे? भारत के संविधान में जो 22 चलचित्र हैं उनमें गुरुकुल का है। हम शिक्षा दान में विश्वास करते हैं, Where have we come ? Coaching Centers can transform their infrastructure, they can change the makeover into skill centers. I urge civil society, public representatives before me and outside to appreciate the urgency of this disease, they must converge to restore sanity in education. The education minister is before us, and brings Kota's past glory.  Let it be an education hub.  It should not be a coaching center or a poaching center.  We need coaching for skill, and just imagine the pain.  You know the seats are limited  and coaching centers are all over the country.

They prepared the minds  for years together, robotize our students.  Their thinking is absolutely unjustified. What psychological problems can arise out of it, you know,  more than I do. The obsession  with perfect grades  and standardized scores  has compromised curiosity,  which is an inalienable facet of human intelligence.

 Friends, always remember your marksheet will never define you. Your grade will not define you.  It can define you to your friends and relatives.  But when you take a leap in a competitive world,  your knowledge and thinking mind will define you.  We must end this assembly line culture because this culture is very dangerous for our education.  Coaching centers are against the flow of  National Education Policy.

This creates unnecessary hiccups, impediments in growth, progress. Friends,  I leave it at that.  But I am sure this will haunt you forever and help change the mindset of the people at large.  And I say so particularly because those students who are in coaching centers,  they are in silos,  they are not aware that the opportunity basket for them in Bharat is ever growing.

In the Blue  economy, in the Space economy, in cyber security, in Artificial Intelligence,  they can be as rightly indicated by the Honourable governor,  much beyond job seekers. They can be job creators.  They can be wealth creators for the nation.  And friends,  if only degrees were to matter  and grades were to decide where you are,  then I wonder where Bill Gates will be, where Steve Jobs will be,  where  Mark Zuckerberg will be, Michael Dell,  Azim  Premji.

 They are drop-outs, Am I right? You know it. You are better than them, that you have come to get these credentials through the right way. So your rise can be more than any of these. And I'm just not being a dream merchant. I'm being realistic. I am a product of education.  If I had not got a scholarship, I would not have had a good education.  And I am before you, and my professional trajectory will bear it out.

At the toughest of life challenges,  scarcity of everything under the sun.  I therefore know that you are living in Bharat,  which was not our dream because we could never dream that.  But now our Bharat is what it is.  Friends, it is the strength of your character, not your grades that will define you.  Learn to grow within, your success outside is guaranteed. 

And let me come to your power.  You need to realize your power.  Sometimes if you don't realize your inner power,  you can't  contribute to society at large. Youth power,  promise, potential and performance  need  closer attention and detailing  by parents, by teachers,  by lawmakers, by policymakers and by those in governance. 

Youth power is well-channelized,  exploited in the right direction, then it's a power much beyond imagination.  Present scenario offers hope and possibility.  There are government affirmative  policies that hand-hold you at every step.  And many have availed these policies and are scripting development. The footprints are increasing in the shape of startups and unicorns where our record is unrivaled in the world.  And therefore I appeal to the youth, particularly from Kota,  where because of coaching centers,  they are unable to see what is written on the wall.  Time for our youth to come out of old fossilized silos  of only hankering after government jobs. 

Greener pastures are much beyond. A look at the ever-fattening opportunity basket must receive your full attention and I appeal to the director, faculty,  parents and everyone to make our youth aware of the fattening  opportunity basket.  New opportunities, vistas as I reflected earlier, are emerging, artificial intelligence, space economy, cyber security, blue economy and many more. These are not just opportunities,  These are gold mines.  And these gold mines are awaiting your footfall  for exploration and exploitation.  I'm sure our youth will focus,  being the most vital stakeholders.  Who are you?  You are the most vital stakeholders in democracy  for  governance. 

You will skip the journey of Bharat to a developed nation in 2047.  You have the capacity to fire the engine of growth and all cylinders  and I'm sure you will realize, Viksit Bharat.  We may not be round but we can feel.  

I am full of optimism, confidence.  You shall do it.  Dear students, the world is full of well-trodden paths.  Don't take a path which is too well-trodden.  Greatness lies in traveling a road which is less travelled.  If an idea occurs in your mind, don't park it in your mind.  Don't fear failure. Failure is a myth. Any failure is nothing beyond a setback to achieve further growth.  Chandrayaan-2 scripted,  success of Chandrayaan 3.  You always have to keep that in mind. 

Do not merely chase the next unicorn.  Don't say he made success with this unicorn, I'll  have another one in the same line. Why?  Go as per your attitude, aptitude, what you think is right, and find solutions.  And one thing is very clear.  The world will keep on changing. The only constant is change.  So there will always be enough work for human genius and mind to cater to societal needs.  

Friends, as you step beyond these gates with courage in your hearts, I'm sure in your minds that what you're trained for and the Constitution, I say, is your soul. North Star, I have only one thing to say, march ahead, make India proud, make your parents proud, make your Almamater, ever proud of you.  

Thank you so much.

JK/RC/SM

(Release ID: 2144271)