Chennai: Urging the graduating engineers to innovate for the uplift of society, former department of science and technology secretary T Ramasami said affordable innovation is more crucial than innovation for market leadership.“Tamil Nadu has emerged a leader in research and development as measured by the number of publications in peer reviewed journals. Of them, 61% of the publications came from universities. That’s a global benchmark,” Ramasami said at VIT Chennai’s 14th annual convocation on Sunday.India contributed 28% of the world’s GDP in 1750, and it came down to 0.1% in 1947, Ramasami said. “We need to return to the position of global leadership. With 29% of the world’s youth power in the country, we have sufficient energy and ability to shape a new world.”Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) chief operating officer (publishing) Mohit Jain, who participated as the guest of honour, urged the students to have a ‘10x mindset’. “A 10% improvement makes you optimise your potential and 10x ambition forces you to reimagine. Your career will be closely correlated with the size and significance of the problem you are willing to solve,” he said.He asked students to focus on areas such as clean energy, climate change, affordable healthcare, water mobility which are yet to be reimagined. Jain asked students to pursue happiness, not merely success. “One day much sooner than you imagine, your career will be behind you. I don’t think you would remember every target you achieve or every promotion you would have received.”VIT chancellor G Viswanathan said India’s expansion of higher education had not kept pace with that of developed nations.As many as 4,518 students received their UG, PG and PhD certificates. Sri Lankan deputy high commissioner Ganesanathan Geathiswaran, VIT vice-presidents G V Selvam, Sekar Viswanathan, Sankar Viswanathan and vice-chancellor V S Kanchana Bhaaskaran took part.
