NIT Rourkela Convocation: Dharmendra Pradhan awards digital degrees to 1,555 students

NEW DELHI: Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan awarded degrees to a total of 1,555 students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela during its 19 th convocation held today, August 13, 2022 under the purview of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, government of India. Out of this, 859 were undergraduate students , 608 postgraduate students and 88 PhD scholars.It is the first time in the history of NIT Rourkela, the institute is awarding blockchain-based digital degrees.

The graduating students of NIT Rourkela were also awarded medals during the convocation event. Six institute gold medals, five endowment gold medals, five endowment awards, 70 branch topper medals and one endowment cash award were awarded during the event. Distinguished alumnus award–2021 were given to 11 alumni.

The graduating students can access their degrees through the OTP they receive on their mobile number and email id. Students can also download the degrees would in PDF format from anywhere. The blockchain-based digital degrees were developed in assistance with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur’s C3i Innovation Hub, under the aegis of National Blockchain Project. NIT Rourkela has become the first NIT and the second institute of national importance to award blockchain-based digital degrees to its graduating students.

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"I want to see NIT Rourkela to become hub of technology. The Institute must plan proactively on how the entire Sundergarh district can be linked to blockchain, how the households can be mapped, how the people can get benefits provided by government and how can it help in increasing the skill and employment possibility among the youth. NIT Rourkela should work on mapping this through the blockchain,” said Pradhan while addressing the convocation. Jual Oram, member of parliament, Sundargarh and Sarada Prasad Nayak, member of legislative assembly, Rourkela were the guests of honour for the NIT Rourkela convocation 2021.