Take help of alumni to become world-class institute: Gadkari to VNIT
20 Jan 2020 10:04:00
(Left) Union Minister Nitin Gadkari unveiling the statue of Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshgundam Visvesvaraya. Vishram Jamdar, Dr Pramod Padole, Satish Mokshgundam and Laxmi Mokshgundam, M M Basole look on. (Centre) Union Minister Nitin Gadkari felicitating 1982 batch alumni that gave highest contribution of Rs 1 crore to the alma mater. Shashikant Chaudhary, Uday Kamat, Dr Dilip Peshwe and others look on. (Right) Chandrama Plaza, a night canteen in hostel established by the alumni also opened on Sunday. (Pics by Anil Futane)
Principal Correspondent :
Nagpur has institutes of eminence that can perform research to bring quality, said the Union Minister
“We have top institutes like Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) and Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT). Alumni of both the institutes have made name of Nagpur and their alma mater even abroad. These people are ready to help their parent institutes. VNIT must take their help to make itself a world class institute,” suggested Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari ‘kick’ starts the football ground.
He was speaking at the inauguration of Diamond Jubilee celebrations of VNIT on Sunday. Chairman of Governing Board of VNIT Vishram Jamdar, Director Dr Pramod Padole, ex-Principal of erstwhile Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering (VRCE) Dr M M Basole were seated on the dais. The programme was held at VNIT Cricket ground, adjacent to newly-opened football ground. Earlier, Gadkari unveiled the statue of Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshgundam Visvesvaraya installed in front of the administrative building of the institute.
Audience of VNIT alumni keenly listening to the speech of a dignitary.
The statue was installed by using donations made by students of 1982 batch. While students of 1983-84 batch had taken the responsibility of beautification of the premises. Similarly, the students of 1985 batch developed a hostel canteen ‘Chandrama Plaza’ while 1992 batch created full-fledged football ground near the cricket ground in the premises of the institute.
These three projects were inaugurated at the hands of Nitin Gadkari. The ceremony was graced by great grand nephew of Sir Visvesvaraya, Satish Mokshgundam and his wife Laxmi. Expressing happiness over the contributions made by various batches who had competed among themselves as to which batch would contribute more for betterment of the alma mater, Gadkari said, “We always complain about lack of funds. But there is no dearth of money. You need to have a will. This year I am planning to spend Rs 5 lakh crore on infrastructure. In last five years, I have awarded the contracts worth Rs 17 lakh crore. Low aim takes you nowhere. You must dream big.
Our alumni are working abroad, some of them have their businesses. They have come here from far away because they have attachment towards their alma mater.” Expressing regret over imports in many sectors, Gadkari pointed out, “Unfortunately, we do lot of imports which is not good. We have lot of institutes but we lack in conducting research. These institutes must develop appropriate technologies through cooperation, coordination, and communication with relevant organisations that provide such raw materials. I wish this stimulates industry generation in the backward areas.”
Gadkari also inaugurated the ‘Siemens Center of Excellence’ center at VNIT to mark the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The center will have state-of-the-art laboratories of Robotics, Machine Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence. The celebrations at VNIT will include year-long educational activities, workshops, international conferences, guest lectures, and research and extension activities. Gadkari lauded Vishram Jamdar, Dr Padole, Chairman of VNIT Alumni Association Shashikant Chaudhary, Treasurer Uday Kamat. The Union Minister felicitated every alumni member. A film on VNIT was shown on the occasion. Dr Padole gave introductory speech. Dr Rashmi Uddenwadikar, Meera Dhabu compered the programme while Dr S R Sathe, Acting Registrar, proposed a vote of thanks.
Provide Fire Engg college land to VNIT, Gadkari to Home Ministry There is 80 acre land near VNIT that was given to Fire Engineering College long back. It originally belonged to VNIT. With Fire Service College did its expansion elsewhere, they would not use the land near VNIT. So, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has written to Union Home Ministry to give back the land to VNIT. Informing this to the audience, Gadkari said, “Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises will provide assistance worth Rs 200 crore for setting up of ‘Technology Research and Excellence Center’ at that land.”