New Delhi, Aug 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said he wished girls were also there among the medallists and awardees at IIT Delhi's convocation, emphasising the need for greater female participation in academic excellence.
"Because you are not merely receiving a degree; you are leaving here with dreams of doing a lot for the country," Modi said while addressing the graduating students at the 57th Convocation Ceremony of IIT Delhi.
Congratulating the students to whom he gave medals and awards for their achievements, he said, "It would have been even better if there had been one or two daughters. Sorry. Why just one or two? There should have been a lot more of them."
Recognising outstanding academic excellence, the Prime Minister presented the institute's most prestigious honours, including the President's Gold Medal, Director's Gold Medal, Shankar Dayal Sharma Gold Medal, and Perfect Ten Gold Medals to meritorious students.
The university conferred degrees on over 3,000 graduating students, including 587 PhD scholars, during the ceremony.
Warning the graduates against the toxic distractions of the social media era, the Prime Minister urged them to avoid comparing their salaries, placements, or startup milestones with their peers. He counselled them to prioritise their mental and physical well-being while focusing strictly on self-improvement.
"Remember, life is absolutely not a leader-board; your real race is not with anyone else, it is with yourself," Modi said.
Encouraging the students to deeply cherish their current moments, he humorously referenced campus memories, including inter-hostel rivalries across Kumaon, Ara, Kara, Vindhy, Nilgiri, Kailash, and Himadri, alongside local culinary favourites like Jia Sarai's Poha and Satpura mess Parathas.
"In the coming times when you will have massive responsibilities, the memories of this place will definitely energise you," Modi said. Expressing deep gratitude towards the institutional support system, he urged the graduating class to recognise their peers, professors, mentors, and support staff as lifelong assets who effectively became their surrogate families.
"You will profoundly remember and be thankful for all these individuals in every future success of yours," Modi said.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated Param Pragya, an AI-powered high-performance supercomputing facility established at the IIT Delhi's Sonipat Campus. The state-of-the-art facility is expected to significantly enhance the institute's capabilities in AI, data science, advanced computing and interdisciplinary research.
