ISRO chief asks students to work with people's representatives

Noting that life could be better with the use of technology and skills someone has acquired from educational institutes, ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar today called upon students to work in tandem with people's representatives to transfer knowledge to the masses.
Kumar, also the Department of Science Secretary, said this while addressing the 14th Annual Convocation of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela.
"Knowledge gives you responsibility to address the problems of the society, the immediate and beyond, and spread it for the benefit of all," said Kumar.
Students can participate in sensitizing the elected representatives about the benefit of technology and work with them, he said.

Kumar was of the opinion that the NIT Rourkela should adopt some 100 villages, like it is being done elsewhere in the country, for rural development through dissemination of technical skills.
"As the place has a predominance of tribal population, the institute could play a very deciding role in uplifting their standard of living," Kumar said.

The ISRO chairman said, "Human beings, who are causing harms to environment for short-term gains, should think of development and environment side by side."
NIT Rourkela Director Animesh Biswas said, "Our future looks bright as we are moving rapidly on the right direction."
For the session 2015-16, 771 pre-final B Tech and 3rd year dual degree students were placed in 246 organisations. Students were also sponsored by international universities like UBC Vancouver, University of Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa and many more.

Ten students drawn from different departments at NIT-Rourkela were given gold medals at the convocation and 103 were awarded PhD.