delhi

Updated: Nov 05, 2017 23:48 IST

The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi held its 48th annual convocation on Saturday where a total of 1,941 students were awarded degrees, including 632 B.Tech degrees.

V Ramgopal Rao, director of IIT Delhi, said that 306 students were also awarded their Ph.D degrees — the highest number of doctoral degrees awarded at the institute so far. He cited the addition of new departments, increase in research and development funding and improved infrastructure as reasons for the increase.

In his convocation address, President Ram Nath Kovind, who was also the chief guest, asked the IIT Delhi community to adopt and partner with a school for underprivileged children to help build their capacity.

“I would urge the IIT Delhi authorities and community to adopt and partner a school for underprivileged children and see how they can contribute to its development and to the capacity building of its pupils,” the President said.

He also remarked on how there were now more postgraduate students than undergraduates at IIT Delhi, which means that the country is moving “towards research-based learning and churning out products and technologies for nation-building.”

The event was divided into three phases. Each phase spanned approximately 7.5 hours as per the schedule and began and ended with either the national anthem or the national song.

The registrar of the institution, Sandeep Chatterjee, said that the singing of the national anthem and national song, or the playing of sanskrit shlokas as guests, office bearers and faculty entered the grounds was an IIT tradition.