| Business Standard Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar Sep 10, 2012, 00:04 IST |
“It has been a joyous visit for me and I am confident that this visit will deepen further the special bond of friendship and cooperation that exist between Bhutan and India. The Indo-Bhutan relationship will only grow, deepen and flourish”, Thinley said at the convocation ceremony of KIIT University.The Bhutanese Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley on Sunday said, the bilateral relationship with India, which is the largest trading partner of Bhutan, will continue to flourish in the future.
The country, which has large rivers and hilly terrains, generates about 1,500 Mw hydro power through its 27 power plants, built primarily by financial assistance from India and exports about two-thirds of it as per a treaty signed with Indian government. The country was immensely helpful during the massive grid failure in July this year.
To harness the rich hydro power potential of the country Indian companies such as National Hydro Power Corporation of India (NHPC) and Tata Power have evinced interest to generate power in the neighbouring nation, that would provide additional 1,000 Mw power in next five years.
“Hydro-power cooperation is growing. It is a mutual benefit for both the countries as (it brings) revenue for Bhutan and electricity for India,” said the visiting prime minister, who was awarded honorary doctorate degree by the university.
He was awarded D.Litt. & D.Sc. (Honoris Causa). Other personalities who were honoured by the private university were Farooq Wardak, minister of education from Afghanistan, Ham Kee-Sun, president of South Korea’s Hanseo University and Baidyanath Mishra, eminent economist & former vice-Chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology(OUAT). Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation of Government of Cambodia, who could not attend the event, was awarded the degree in absentia.
At the ceremony, vice chancellor of KIIT, P. P. Mathur said, the university has taken initiative to give impetus to research on the campus. Last year, about 14 research projects from various national and international funding agencies were sanctioned with a total budget outlay of over Rs. 4 crores. Also, the university has achieved cent per cent placement for the 2012 passed-out students, he added.
Total 2,216 graduates were awarded graduate and postgraduate degrees in various disciplines. Saurav Prakash, B.Tech (CSE), Abhaya Kumar Sahoo, M.Tech (CSE) and Girish Kumar Ajmera, B.Tech (E&TC) won Founder’s Gold Medals for securing the highest CGPA across all programmes, in postgraduate courses and in undergraduate courses respectively. Similarly, 12 students were awarded Chancellor’s Gold Medal, while 15 students got Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal. Eighteen research scholars were awarded Ph.D. degrees at the convocation.
No comments:
Post a Comment