As many as 615 students will be awarded degrees at the 18th convocation of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A), to be held in the main auditorium on Saturday at 4 pm. Harish S Mehta, founder Chairman, NASSCOM will deliver the convocation address as the chief guest while Prof Sunil S Bhagwat, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, will be the guest of honour. Dr Anand Deshpande, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIIT-A, will preside over the convocation ceremony. Talking to mediapersons Prof Mukul Sharad Suataone, Director, IIIT-A said on Friday besides 615 degrees, the institute will award 18 different medals to merit scholars. The director said Harish Mehta, a doyen of Indian IT, is known to be the driving force behind galvanising the IT industry in India by co-founding NASSCOM in 1988. He was elected as the first Chairman of NASSCOM and continues to be the Convener of NASSCOM’s Chairman’s Council. Mehta is also the award-winning author of the 2022 national bestseller ‘The Maverick Effect’ which has cemented his reputation as a master storyteller. Soon the message of ‘The Maverick Effect’ is slated to reach the masses through several translated versions in Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and even a low-cost English special edition. Through NASSCOM, Mehta played an instrumental role in building an independent, neutral, trustworthy and consensus-driven platform, where diverse stakeholders and fierce competitors could come together and harness the true potential of the Indian IT industry, he added. Dr Sunil S Bhagwat is the Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology. His area of specialisation is Interfacial Science, Artificial Neural Networks, Energy and Exergy Engineering. Elaborating the details, Prof Sutaone said as many as 387 undergraduate students, 206 post graduate, one dual degree B Tech and M Tech, seven dual degree M Tech and PhD and 14 research scholars will be awarded at the 18th convocation on Saturday. A total of 130 girls will receive their degrees this time. As many as 236 B.Tech (IT), 112 B. Tech (Electronic Communication Engineering) and 39 students of B Tech (Business Informatics) will get their respective undergraduate degrees for the session 2023. Vishesh Mittal (IEC2019057) will be awarded the Chairman’s Gold Medal for the Year –2023 for his overall academic performance. The Institute Gold Medal for BTech IT will be given to Prince Kumar, silver to Aditya Agarwal and bronze to Divy Agrwal while for BTech. ECE Gold medal to Vishesh Mittal, silver to Mohit Garg and Bronze to Chaitnya Joshi. Bonny Thomas K will be awarded gold, Meghal Sethi - silver and Ayesha Shamim bronze for getting the highest marks in MBA. Akanksha Lal will be given gold, Riya Kalara- silver and Neha Vishwanath Sarnaik bronze for securing top positions in MTech Information Technology. In MTech (ECE) gold medal will be given to Pawan Sahu, silver to Manoj Kumar Singh and bronze to Aayushi Bansal. Besides, six endowment medals will be awarded to Jyotsna Srivastava, Sanjana Sharma, Gajjlaa Deepak, Muskun Deep Kaur Maini, Aditya Agarwal and Garvit Suri. Six students will be given merit certificates. The institute since its inception in 1999, has been catering to excellence in the field of academics specially IT and related science. It is expected that the pass-out with their various degrees on the 18th Convocation will join their predecessors and will earn wide recognition and acclaim to their alma mater”, said the director.
MESSAGING GROUPS CREATED: The men-in-khaki in Sangam city have created messaging groups to reach out to citizens directly ahead of the festive season. The groups are to be used to spread advisories and information on crime trends as well as to collect information on local criminal activity. “Area-specific crimes and common modus operandi are also being discussed on the groups,” said a cop, adding that photos of habitual offenders could be shared. The groups can also be used to dispel rumours in real time. Advisories on avoiding cyber fraud (by keeping credit/debit card details safe) and chain or purse-snatching (taking safe route and not deserted streets while walking) will be shared with instances of such offences. The messaging groups have been formed at the beat level. Personnel from beat are normally well acquainted with activists, traders’ associations, prime market locations, and citizens in their area.
A list of prominent and effective locals has been compiled thana wise and added to the respective Whatsapp group. Group members have been instructed to not post offensive messages. They are, however, allowed to forward the police’s messages to other groups.
Through the messaging groups, the police also intend to encourage citizens to come forward and lodge complaints since they realize that many crimes are going unreported. The aim behind creating groups was to create awareness and gather feedback. Popular messaging app was chosen because it is available across mobile phone platforms. On the other hand, cops have also geared to ensure safety and security in forthcoming festive season and decided to use drones to keep a strict surveillance on religious processions and shobha yatra. Cops also made it clear that there should be no new traditions to be emerged and thana cops must act on public grievances promptly. They have also been asked to hold regular meet with local traders and ex-policemen and also ensure safety to prominent personalities and witnesses of important cases. Meanwhile, city cops have also taken up an extensive exercise to keep a strict eye on the movements of nomads, known as ‘Ghumantu’ tribe, and taking up their verification promptly.