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Manipal : The 27^th Manipal Academy of Higher Education Convocation got underway at KMC Greens here on Friday with 1389 undergraduates, post graduates, Super Specialty and research scholars being awarded degrees. A total of 4177 graduates will receive their degrees in person on all three days.

After Dr H.S. Ballal, Pro Chancellor declared the Convocation open and Dr H. Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor gave an overview of MAHE, chief guest Mr S Gopalakrishnan (Kris) Chairman, Axilor Ventures, Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru addressed the graduating students.

He called upon the students to contribute to build a new India. “”It is our responsibility to steer India to the top of the global economy in the coming decade I have confidence that our current generation of young leaders like you have the capability and skills to make this happen. You can all play an important role in such a transformation of India,” he said.

He impressed upon them to take advantage of the opportunities available now. To drive his point home, he chose ‘Navigating Disruptions’ as the title of his address. “We are living in interesting times with emerging technologies creating multiple disruptions in industry, economy and our lives,” he said and added, “This is the era of the fourth industrial revolution which is powered by several technological advances. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological domains”. 

Having said that, he pointed out some of the technologies defining this era -- Digital computing, high speed internet, mobile phones, social networks, robotics and drones, nanotechnology and several others.

“Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (Parent company of Google) and Facebook, all startups are companies with the largest market capitalization in the world today,” he said. “All these companies have leveraged technology innovations that were emerging when they were founded and disrupted exiting business models. 

The speed at which knowledge is growing and being put into good use is amazing. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming one of the most important technologies of all time. AI is now getting deeper into what were so far specialist human domains and gave the real-time example of image-guided and robot-assisted surgery.

He advised the graduands to look at these technology and industry shifts as opportunities to build their careers. But of course, there are fundamental traits of dedication, discipline, passion, leadership, communication, networking and empathy which don’t change whether you aim to become a corporate professional or an entrepreneur,” he said.    

The three students who received Dr TMA Pai Gold medals were: Gaurav Rawat and Radhika Gupta (BDS), Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore. And, Saraswati Sanjay Chavda (MSc Molecular Biology and Human Genetics) Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal.