Key Highlights:
- 317 students awarded degrees on successful completion of graduate and post graduate courses
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon Limited graces the occasion
- Chancellor Naveen Jindal says university aims for some schools to break into the top 200 of the world in the next 5 to 10 years
- FM lauds JGU’s contribution in promoting excellence in higher education in India
New Delhi, August 8, 2016: The state of the art, multi-disciplinary O. P. Jindal Global University held its 5th annual convocation today at the Siri Fort auditorium in Delhi. It was a spectacular event with Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley addressing a gathering of over 2000 students, parents, and faculty members. The presence of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon was a source of inspiration for graduating students who looked upon her as a role model and felt inspired by her achievements.
Delivering the Convocation Address Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley highlighted the importance of trained human resource globally. He said “In most developed countries population is reducing” but pointed out that India had not been able to stabilise its population.
He noted, “While we are increasing in numbers the others are reducing, human resource becomes a very important economic resource and to shape these minds, make them globally competitive, make them true global citizens, you need institutions of excellence. The Jindal Global University, I have no doubt is certainly going to be one of such institutions.”
The Minister further referred to his budget speech and said “Though numerically we have a large number of higher educational institutions, but none of them emerge in the global ratings and therefore I had said that we must now concentrate in the next few years on at least 20 of them, 10 run by the state and 10 by the private sector. Select the 20 best and upgrade them so that they can become world global institutions.”
“JGU is now a part of that competitiveness and you have to strive to come within the category of the top ten, which then acquire the global rankings.” Said the Finance Minister
His advice to the graduating batch was to pursue excellence and think outside the box as “The world has started respecting excellence much more than ever before, the space for excellence at the top is always vacant, mediocrity is part of the crowd at the bottom.” He further highlighted that the market which is willing to absorb fresh graduates is large and global, thus Jindal students are blessed to have been taught by global faculty and to have acquired global perspectives.
Speaking of the opportunity that India has he said, “The whole world is in a slowdown mode but India is defying that trend. For the first time in history we are coming out better than the world.” He further noted, “This is a great opportunity for all of you graduating students as there is a vacant fast track and students have to strive to occupy that position.”
Paying tribute to Shri O. P. Jindal the Finance Minister said Mr. O.P. Jindal was a multi-faceted individual, essentially a businessman, but I think he also realized that businesses alone don’t shape the destiny of a nation, policy and direction do, and therefore he deviated from the conventional course of doing business and making money and built a parallel political identity.”
He further said, “I am delighted at the fact that Naveen found it as an appropriate cause to establish a university in his memory. Establishing such great institutions, I think is writing a fresh script for history and particularly when future histories are going to be written years and years from now.”
Sharing her thoughts on the occasion, Ms. Kiran Mazumdar -Shaw, CMD, Biocon Limited, emphasized that students need to get passionately involved in converting challenges into opportunities and helping in alleviating human suffering while creating wealth and prosperity for all. “Always remember that ‘perseverance’ is the key to success and ‘failure’ is temporary but ‘giving up’ is permanent,” she said.
Addressing the graduating batch Ms. Shaw drew parallels with the ongoing Olympic Games and said “One of the most challenging events at the Olympics is the Decathlon and the graduating students are qualifiers for life’s Decathlon” she further said that the course ahead for all students should be about competition, winning and fair play.
Mr. Naveen Jindal, Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University expressed his thanks to the Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley and Ms. Shaw for gracing the occasion. Congratulating the graduating students, Mr. Jindal said, “We have come a long way since 2009, when it all started. Today, JGU is being accepted as an exceptional private university in India that has produced high quality research.”
He pointed out that when a nation substantially increases the number of students in its universities, it is more likely to see a surge in its economic growth and impacts social development. “At JGU, we are striving to develop world class research and teaching that is socially beneficial and globally relevant,” he said.
Defining the future vision for the university Mr. Jindal said, “Our strategic goal is for some schools of JGU to break into the top 200 of the world universities in the next 5 to 10 years,”
In his address, Professor (Dr.) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O. P. Jindal Global University lamented the lack of incentives to promote research excellence in Indian universities causing the country to lag behind universities in the developed world. He pointed out that a very small number of Indian universities have pursued internationalisation as a core strategy to promote deep institutional partnerships with universities across the world, and reap the benefits of international collaborations for teaching, research and the student experience.
He underscored JGU’s commitment to promoting the role of women faculty. “47 percent of our faculty members across the five schools are women, with 38 percent of JGU’s leadership positions tenured by our women faculty members.”
Speaking on internationalisation Professor Kumar said, “We are proud that more than 80 percent of our faculty members have international qualifications from the leading universities of the world and nearly 20 percent of our full-time faculty members are international. This is significant given that we are a very young university.”
Highlighting the universities accomplishments Professor Kumar said “In March this year, JGU was awarded the highest rating, ‘A’ grade, in the first cycle of accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. JGU is the first and only private university in Haryana to receive the ‘A’ grade. However, we are conscious not to rest on our laurels.
Professor Kumar further lauded the achievement of the students. “It is a proud moment for the University to see our students graduating and preparing themselves to make a mark in the professional world.”
The convocation was a grand and gracious affair with the presence of a host of luminaries. It was well attended by students and faculty from all five schools of the University. The sense of pride and jubilation among the graduating students, their faculty members and parents was palpable.
