Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 54th convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur today, December 28. The Prime Minister will deliver the convocation address and present the major awards, an official statement said. Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will attend the event as guests of honour.
PM Modi had earlier invited suggestions from students of the institute and students and alumni of other IITs for his convocation speech.
The institute will confer honorary doctorate degrees to Professor Rohini M Godbole, Senapathy ‘Kris' Gopalakrishnan and Pt Ajoy Chakrabarty today.
A total of 1,723 students will receive their degrees during the convocation. A total of 80 prizes and medals will be given in the second session of the convocation later in the day.
Further, a total of 21 students will be awarded the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award in the second session of the convocation.
The President's Gold Medal this year will be awarded to Abhyuday Pandey for ‘best academic performance', Director's Gold Medal (4-year UG Program) to Vasundhara Rakesh for ‘outstanding all-round achievement and leadership', Director's Gold Medal (5-year UG program) to Nivedita for ‘outstanding all-round achievement and leadership', and Ratan Swarup Memorial Prize to Yash Maheshwari for ‘best all-rounder'.
The institute had earlier said it will create a bio bubble to ensure maximum safety of the attendees. The programme will be in hybrid mode.
The institute will conduct the RT-PCR tests of all the attendees a day prior to the convocation and a subsequent Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) will be conducted on the convocation day before the event starts, an official statement said.