The Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called upon the engineering students to use the latest technology and skills to help India face cyber war in future.

Delivering the convocation address at the 33rd Annual Convocation of the Vellore Institute of Technology at the VIT campus in Vellore, Sitharaman, said: “In future, wars will be  fought less on the borders but  more in cyber space. Today,  the country is facing the threat of cyber war with its far-reaching ramifications on national  security. Besides, one’s personal  security and interests were also threatened by cyber crime. The students, who are qualifying today in science and  technology, will have to start working to see how technology can be adopted to tackle these twin threats.”

The Defence Minister highlighted that the Indians have imbibed the entrepreneurial spirit genetically from their  forefathers dating back to the period when the Nalanda  University was flourishing. “The British colonial era saw the emergence of English education which was intended to  educate the Indian people to  work as clerks and serve their  British masters. This trend which started during the colonial rule continued for the 50  years after Independence. The  Narendra Modi Government wants to break the chain which  fettered the students by forcing  them to take up salaried jobs instead of starting their own  business. The  Government  has initiated the Make In India  programme to encourage the  engineers to go in for start-ups,” she said.

The Minister was  making these remarks in  response to the request of Dr G Viswanathan, chancellor of VIT, to help remove the chains which fettered the growth of  education. She agreed with the view that the regulations in the  education sector too need to be  relaxed.

Dr Viswanathan said that after the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation regime in 1991-96, all sectors were de-regulated. But de-regulation has not happened so far in the education sector. He requested the Defence Minister to help in the de-regulation of the education sector.

“Though India had the  potential to become a hub of  international education, it contributed just one per  cent of the  international students  throughout the world. On the other hand, lakhs of students from India were going abroad for higher education, and the Government of India was spending Rs 75,000 crore worth of foreign exchange annually  on these students,” the chancellor pointed out.

Dr Viswanathan said that VIT was ranked 13th among  the various engineering institutions in India under the  National Institutional Ranking  Framework (NIRF) of the  Ministry of Human Resources Development, and first among  the private engineering institutions.

“A total of 39,000 students were studying in the four campuses of VIT in India. A total of 3,300 students were recruited through campus placements in 2017-18. Till date, 2600 students were placed through  campus recruitment in 2018-19,” he said.

The guest of honour, Viji Santhanam, MD, Brakes India Private Limited and chairman, Sundaram Finance Limited, Chennai, said: “While at present, a majority of India’s  population was below the age of 27 years, this demographic dividend  will start declining by 2040. In order to propel  economic growth, India has to make good use  of this competitive advantage which it can enjoy  only for another 20 years,” he said who later distributed the gold medals and degree certificates to 54 candidates.

A total of 6,277 candidates received their  degree certificates at the convocation. Dr Anand A Samuel, Vice Chancellor, VIT welcomed the  gathering. Sankar Viswanathan, Dr Sekar Viswanathan and GV Selvam, VP, and  Kadambari S Viswanathan, assistant VP, Pro VC, Dr S Narayanan, Dr N Sambantham, registrar Dr K Sathiyanarayanan of  VIT participated.