Proud parents from all over the country posed with their IITian sons and daughters after the convocation on Saturday to freeze forever the memorable occasion.

“I had an offer from IBM, but decided to go to Stanford, for an MS in Computer Science,” said Akhilesh Gupta, flanked by his beaming parents. His younger brother, poring over his graduate degree, is an IIT-ian too, and will pass out next year.

Saturday was the first day of the 40th convocation of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. A total of 1,419 students are passing out of the prestigious institute this year. Half of them received their degrees on Saturday. The batch included 181 PhDs out of the 1,300 registered with the institute, a record, and an increase from the 147 awarded last year.

Also receiving their degrees in Metro Rail Transport Technology and Management, were 22 students of a diploma programme sponsored by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

Earlier in the day, Kapil Sibal, the Minister for Human Resource Development and chief guest on Saturday had felicitated Sharad Malik and Ananth Krishnan, both alumni awardees.

“The growth in the quantity (of technical education) has not translated in any significant growth in the number of quality candidates. The key missing link in this growth is the availability of quality faculty,” Sibal said in his speech. He said that the IITs have been able to attract and retain quality faculty but accepted that many technical institutions in the government and the private sector have not been able to match them.

... contd.