Shri. M. Venkaiah Naidu, Hon’ble Upa Rashtrapatiji,

Shri Roji M. John, MLA,

Shri Venkata Raman, Deputy Chairman, Cochin Port Trust,

Shri. V. R. Gowrisankar, Administrator & CEO, Sringeri Mutt,

Shri Frank P. Thomas, Business Head, Asianet News,

Shri K. Anand, Managing Trustee, Adi Sankara Trust,

Friends in the Media,

Sahodaree Sahodaranmaare,

Ellaavarkkum Ente Namaskaaram,

       I am very happy to preside over this meeting held in connection with the presentation of the Adi Sankara - Asianet News Young Scientist Award, held at the Adi Sankara Institute of Engineering & Technology, Kalady.

We are really fortunate to have the august presence of the Hon’ble Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu-ji to present this prestigious award which seeks to honour the spirit of innovation among our young students.  On behalf of the people of the State, I extend to our Hon’ble Upa Rashtrapatiji a warm and cordial welcome to Kerala.

       Let me begin by complimenting the Management and Staff of Adi Sankara Institute of Engineering & Technology and Asianet News for instituting this Award for students at the school level. I understand that the Asianet News Channel, which has been taking up worthy causes like Women empowerment and Nature protection, is arranging the visit of the award winners to Silicon Valley and National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] in the United States.  This gesture of the channel is a fine example of a news medium going beyond its basic 'dharma' of information dissemination and empowering our future citizens with the strength of scientific inquiry.

       As we all know, India produces a very large number of graduates in Engineering and Science every year. But, many of our surveys on the quality of our graduates point to a severe lack of employability. There is also the issue of a lack of interest in scientific inquiry, which is evident in the reluctance of many of our Engineering and Science graduates to take up research as a profession.

       The answer to the lack of employability lies in Skill training, which has gathered momentum all over India ever since the Skill India Mission was launched. It is gratifying to know that Kerala has been performing well in this area.

       When it comes to nurturing the spirit of innovation, we have a very supportive Start-up ecosystem in Kerala.  With encouraging gestures like the Adi Sankara - Asianet News Young Scientists Award, we can hope that many young students would be attracted to the pursuit of scientific research right from their initial years in college. In their hands, we can see the future success of 'Make in India'. 

       While excellence in technical education is certainly important, it is equally vital for our upcoming technocrats to adhere to the values that have molded our lives. It is essential that every institution takes care to impart ethical and value based instruction to its students so that their future actions would be ethically perfect and truly beneficial to society. Like the philosophy of the venerable sage
Shri Adi Sankara which unified many currents of thoughts, our system of technical education should be a union of technological excellence and ethical perfection. I sincerely hope that this Young Scientist Award would inspire our young students to follow such a path in future.

       I congratulate all the students who are receiving the awards today. I also appreciate all those who took part in this contest, but could not bag the award. I am certain that the experience they have gained from this contest would have made them intellectually richer.

I also compliment the organizers for conducting this function in a befitting manner.

With these words, I invite our Hon’ble Upa Rashtrapatiji to present the awards and to address the august gathering.

Ellavarkkum Ente Aashamsakal

Nanni

Jai Hind

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