In the ninth annual convocation virtually held by IIT Ropar, a total of 318 students were awarded degrees including 32 from the PhD programme, four from the MS Research, 71 from the MTech, and 69 from MSc. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the ceremony was conducted virtually to avoid any kind of physical interaction. The convocation was pre-recorded and streamed on YouTube.

Prof K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser to the Government of India was the chief guest on this occasion. While addressing students during his speech, he said, “as engineers and scientists, we have to mitigate climate change effects, it is a major challenge and we need to undertake it.”

Raghavan in his address drew attention to some of the challenges of the post-COVID world where he hoped the scientist and engineer community would play its part to help the world steer through these challenges. He also stated that we humans have a very important task in paying for the environment and climate mitigation. This is the biggest challenge the youth of today has to take up.

Prof Sarit K Das, director, IIT-Ropar presented his annual report and congratulated the faculty, staff, and students for ensuring that the annual convocation was held on schedule despite the disruptions arising out of the coronavirus pandemic.

Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) is an engineering, science and technology higher education institute located in Rupnagar, Punjab, India. It is one of the eight newer Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India under The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2011 to expand the reach and enhance the quality of technical education in the country.