By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 30 Nov: The 17th Convocation of the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) was held at the Bidholi campus of the University today. The grand ceremony held in the jam-packed convocation center saw 3741 students from 80 diverse programs being conferred with their degrees. M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India presided over the convocation ceremony as the ‘Chief Guest’ with the gracious presence of Baby Rani Maurya, Governor of Uttarakhand; Trivendra Singh Rawat – Chief Minister of Uttarakhand & Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat – Higher Education Minister of Uttarakhand as the ‘Guests of Honor’. Briefing the media, Arun Dhand – Sr. Director, UPES shared that 29 PhD, 1215 Postgraduates & 2497 Undergraduates degrees were conferred while 85 Student Achievers were felicitated with medals & shields in the Convocation. The Chancellor UPES – Dr. S.J. Chopra declared the Convocation ‘OPEN’ amidst rousing applause by the guests and students, faculty & staff of the University. Addressing the students in his ‘Convocation Speech’ the ‘Chief Guest‘, M. Venkaiah Naidu congratulated the degree getters on their achievements. “You have earned a valuable degree and you deserve all the respect & regard for all the years of hard- work you have undergone to be here today. I am elated to be here and share your moment of pride & glory that you are enjoying from the portals of your university today. I congratulate your parents and also express my gratitude towards your teachers for their contribution in nurturing the future of our nation in such an excellent manner” he said. He applauded UPES for its contributions to several projects of the NITI AYOG, its pioneering initiatives in the sphere of Societal Responsibility & running industry specific programs etc. “Success of an institution depends on its expertise in creating future-ready professionals. Imparting education, skills & expertise in youth is the need of the hour and I am proud that UPES is committed towards this objective. I commend UPES for producing 14000+ professionals that are contributing in over 700 national & international companies, for its pioneering contribution in the field of Oil & Gas & Energy, for ensuring over 90% placement of its students, for their 360+ MOU’s with institutions of repute, for the Faculty Internship Program ‘Project Abhigyat’ to equip their faculty with the current industry knowledge and for providing industry-ready professionals, year-after-year, to contribute to the growth of our country. Growth is possible only when we are ready to ‘Reform, Perform & Transform’ in everything that we do” he stated further. Delivering her speech, the Governor, Baby Rani Maurya blessed the passing out students & congratulated their parents on their achievements. “I am happy for all the graduating students and wish you all a bright successful future. I am sure that the education you have gained at UPES will help you as you step out into the outside world that is full of challenges. UPES has been instrumental for you in realizing your dreams and I am sure you will too be instrumental in helping others realize their dreams with your skills, expertise, empathy & youthful energy. Education is not for your sole empowerment but it is a means to empower you so that you can help others as well. Your positive contributions to the society will be the actual assessment of your growth in life. We can only claim our rights when we perform our duties as well” the Governor Uttarakhand said. In his address to the graduating students, Trivendra Singh Rawat began by thanking UPES for respecting his desire to see the graduating students donned in Indian attires over those provided by the western world. “I am thankful to UPES for ensuring that our students wear attires that relate to our Indian culture on occasions of such magnitude. I remember suggesting the same to the students & the UPES management during my participation in the 15th UPES Convocation in 2017. I am happy to see implementation of my request in all earnestness by the university. I am happy to share that the first step in this direction taken by UPES has now reached the entire higher education sector not only in Uttarakhand but beyond it too. IIT-Kanpur & BHU- Varanasi are some of its examples. UPES has brought fame to Uttarakhand & the country alike. It is because of institutions like this that Uttarakhand is now known as a ‘Educational Hub’ across the nation. I am sure that UPES will keep progressing like this and even more in future and continue its contributions to the growth of our state & nation” he stated. Presenting the ‘Vice Chancellor’s Report 2018-19’, the Vice Chancellor UPES, Dr. Dependra Kumar Jha touched upon various achievements achieved by UPES during the academic year 2018-19. The achievements included awards & recognition received by the university, student achievements, Faculty Achievements, Academic Cooperation, Campus Placement, Human Resource Initiatives, Infrastructure growth, Research & Development, Internationalism and Publicity etc. The national & international achievements of the UPES students in the past year were a highlighted part of Dr. Jha’s report. “Our charter expansion approval by the Uttarakhand Govt. in 2018 paved way for our new school ‘School of Health Sciences’ offering various undergraduate & postgraduate programs in its field from 2019- 20 academic session. We are adding two new programs in our academic curriculum from the upcoming academic session 2020-21 in form of the new schools viz. ‘SCHOOL OF SMART AGRICULTURE’ and ‘SCHOOL OF SMART MEDIA’ . Furthering UPES’s commitment to the education of the girl-child, we will be offering 25% scholarships on all our programs to the female students enrolling with us from the upcoming academic year. We have completed 16 years in the ‘Dev Bhoomi’ Uttarakhand and as a token of our gratitude we have decided to raise the discount on tuition fee for the Uttarakhand Domicile Students from the current 25% to 33% while also enhancing their family income criteria from the present 5 Lakhs to 8 Lakhs” the Vice Chancellor revealed. The dignitaries, staff, faculty, students & guests greeted his announcements with a big round of applause. A total of 3741 students were awarded their respective Degrees at the convocation which included 29 PhD’s; 1215 Post Graduate Degrees which comprised of MBA, M.Tech, MA, LLM, M. Plan & M.Design and 2497 Undergraduate degrees in the domains of B.Tech, BBA, BA, B.Design & various UG programs of Law. Amongst the Postgraduate Degrees, 69 MBA Degrees were conferred on Uttarakhand State Employees under the ‘Open/Distance’ Learning Mode which included 35 In Infrastructure Management & 34 in Power Management while 72 employees of HPCL – a Govt. of India Enterprises were also conferred with their degrees in MBA – Oil & Gas. 10 ‘Gold Medals’, 72 ‘Silver Medals’, 03 ‘Instituted Medals Gold’ and 7 ‘Shields’ were awarded to the students during the ceremony. The ‘Winners’ of the University Gold Medals included Shikha Pisal, Priyesha Pravin Kadam, Rishabh Saxena, Arun R, Shubham Singhal, Anjali Gautam, Vertika Saxena, Zeeshan Ali Aqudus, Neelanksha Johar, Vishwateja Bodla and the Silver Medals recipients were Asima Ghosh, Anuraag Mitra, Yogita Agrawal, Gurleen Kaur, Ewan Christopher Simon, Zoya Imaniya, Gaurav Kumar Pandey, Dipankita Behera, Shubham Billus, Arpita Sharma, Shivam Ohri, Kanika Garg, Ritika Rekhi, Gaurav Gandhi, Mugdha Srivastava, Pranjal Agarwal, Jasjyot Singh, Varchasva Tiwari, Devdeep Sarkar, Surya Sathi Roy, Mitali Singh, Shriya Fathwani, Sumiyah Rabbani, Prabhu Agrawal, Shivam Jain, Jagriti Kumar, Diksha Vishen, Pooja Kashyap, Munnaluru Saivenkata Yeswanth, Kanika Kaushik, Astha Sharma, Ekanshi Rathi, Sourav Basak, Purbesh Pande, Nidhi Agarwal, Upkar Mishra, Shubham Saraswat, Purva Rathore while the ‘Instituted Medals ‘Gold’ went to Vidhushi Bhardwaj, Sakthivel S R and Astha Sharma. The ‘achievers’ received their respective medals individually through the hands of the Hon’ble ‘Chief Guest’ and the ‘Guest of Honors’. The Registrar – UPES, Dr. Veena Dutta was the Master of Ceremonies at the Convocation Ceremony. The Convocation ceremony registered a large number of attendance by the graduating students & their parents, Industry Leaders, UPES Faculty & staff of and the media fraternity. Delivering the ‘Vote of Thanks’ Deepa Verma, Sr. Director – Institutional Affairs expressed her gratitude to all the dignitaries on the dais for their respective valuable time despite their tight schedules while also acknowledging the tireless efforts put in by each UPES family member towards the grand success of the Convocation. “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe” she said. She also highlighted that Alumni is the most precious asset that any University creates for itself, the society and the nation. She urged the graduating students to maintain their relationship with their Alma Mater while moving forward in their individual pursuits. The ‘17th Convocation’ concluded with the declaration of ‘Convocation Closed’ by Dr. S.J. Chopra – the Chancellor UPES. The students, faculty & Staff and the invited guests & dignitaries bade adieu to the Convocation Venue after the playing of the ‘National Anthem’ melodiously by the Military Band.
