Flexibility and humility will enhance the ability of students, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at the 51st annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi on Saturday. Addressing the event through video conferencing, the PM advised students to never shed their identity but also be open to working together in a team.
"You are all students with exceptional abilities. After all, you passed one of the toughest exams, the JEE! And then you came to IIT. But, there are two things that will enhance your ability even more. One is flexibility and the other is humility," PM Modi said. "By flexibility, I refer to the possibility to stand out and fit in. At no point of your life must you shed your identity. Never be a 'Lite Version'. Be the original version. At the same time, never hesitate from fitting into a team. Individual efforts have their limits," he said.
Elaborating on the topic of humility he said, "You must be rightfully proud of your success, your achievements. Very few people have done what you have. This should make you even more down to earth." The PM also said that it has been proven that technology is the most powerful medium to reach out to the most underprivileged classes and it will play the biggest role in the post-COVID world.
The Prime Minister told the students of the outgoing batch that they were lucky and had an advantage over the others in adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic-affected world. "You have an advantage, have more time to learn and adapt to the new normal emerging in the workplace and beyond. So, make the most use of it and think of the brighter side too. You are also a lucky batch," he said.
He also told said that those starting their careers should keep a mantra for their workplace."Focus on quality, never compromise, ensure scalability, make your innovation work at mass scale, ensure reliability, build long-term trust in market, bring in adaptability, be open to change and accept uncertainty as a way of life," he said. At today's event, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched the 'eVidya' portal. It stands for Enabling Virtual and Interactive-learning for Driving Youth Advancement which will deliver certificate programmes offered by IIT-D in e-learning mode.
Earlier, PM Modi in his speech had highlighted the various reforms taken in recent days to boost the startup ecosystem in the country and achieve the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat. "COVID-19 has taught the world one more thing. Globalisation is important but along with it, self-reliance is also important. The Atmanirbhar Bharat mission is important for providing youth, technocrats, tech enterprise leaders with new opportunities. They should be able to freely implement, scale, and market their ideas, innovations. A conducive atmosphere has been made for this," the PM said.
He further said the country is committed to giving Ease of Doing Business to its youth so that they can facilitate Ease of Living to the people of the country. "The reforms done in several sectors in recent days are also done with the same intent. For the first time, unlimited opportunities are open for innovation and startups in the agriculture sector. For the first time, the roads are open for private investment in the space sector. Just two days ago, a big reform was made for ease of doing business in the BPO sector," he said.
He also highlighted that such provisions which disallowed work from home and work from anywhere, in the tech industry have been removed to make the information technology (IT) sector competitive globally and provide young talent with more opportunities.
He said that the government is taking decisions based on the needs of the industry and future needs into account.
