Girl students shine at 7th Convocation of Navrachana University

The 7th Convocation of the Navrachana University was held on December 21 where 18 students were awarded Gold Medals of which 10 were girls. 575 students from different streams of learning, including undergraduate and post graduate programs, were conferred their degrees at the event held on the campus.

Ashank Desai, acclaimed Information Technology veteran and founder of Mastek Ltd., a US$300 million publicly held company, former Chairman, NASSCOM, and currently on the Governing Board of IIM, Ahmedabad, was the Chief Guest at the Convocation. He applauded the efforts put in by the Navrachana University fraternity in shaping the academic lives of the students.

In his Commencement Address, Desai highlighted the seven mantras of Envisioning success, Work hard-Work smart, Win-win, Adaptability, Honesty and Integrity, Giving Back, and Living Life moment to moment
he believes are important for a contented life

Amongst the successful students, 178 specialized in Engineering and Information Technology, 124 in Management Studies, 25 in Computer Applications, 84 in Sciences, 23 in Journalism, 11 in Social Work, 45 in Education, and 54 in Architecture and Interior Design. While some of them have secured admission for further studies in prestigious institutions abroad as well as in other parts of India, a number of them have been placed in several corporates in Vadodara and other parts of India.

The Gold medals were bagged by the following girl students named Linet Johny (Education), Dipal Gohil (Social Work), Nidhi Gandhi (Interior Design), Grishma Gevariya (Management), Urvi Sharma (Law), Shikha Agrawal (Management – PG), Jasmin Nihalani (Mass Communication), Maitri Patel (HR), Laxmi Iyer (IT) and Manzal Parikh (BTech-Civil), and the boys who also won were Dweet Chhaya (Life Sciences), Rishi Desai (Chemistry), Nihar Purohit (Sciences), Anuj Desai (Architecture), Ruchit Patel (Computer Application), Ahfaz Vohra (Student of the Year), Ankit Mishra (BTech-Elec) and M M Shaikh (BTech- Mech).

ABOUT MR ASHANK DESAI

Founder and Ex-Chairman, Mastek Ltd. Ashank Desai is the Founder and former Chairman of Mastek Ltd, a $300 million publicly held global IT Company providing solutions to Government, Retail and the Banking and Financial sectors. He is the Managing Trustee of Mastek Foundation, which works with around 25 NGOs.

Desai is widely recognized as an industry veteran and is one of the founder members and Past Chairman of NASSCOM. He is a permanent invitee to its EC meetings as a member of the Chairman’s Council. He was a former President of Asian- Oceania Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO), an Association of 21 countries like Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore etc. Mr. Desai is involved in National Industry Associations like CII and FICCI as Committee Member at the Regional as well as National Level for the last 10 years. Mr. Desai is the Chairman of the “Digital Committee” of the IMC Chambers of Commerce and Industry since the last 2 years.

Desai is actively involved in the field of education, and is a Member of the Governing Board of IIM Ahmedabad, a Member of the Governing Board of Goa Institute of Management (GIM) for the last 9 / 10 year and now President of GIM Society. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of SJM School of Management, and as Vice-Chairman, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at his alma mater IIT Bombay. He is also the Governing Board Member of the Goa Engineering College (GEC), Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s College of Engineering and Technology (MGMCET) and IIIT Bhubaneswar. He is also Vice Chairman of RashtriyaUchchatarShikshaAbhiyan(RUSA) for the Goa Government.

He is the Vice Chairman and Governing Board Member of Bombay First, an NGO working on the mission to make Mumbai a world class city. He founded and funded an NGO – Avanti Foundation which has trained for the last 8 years, 20,000 school girls (8th & 9th class), from low income groups, to become leaders. He is the Founder Member and Co-Chairman of the Pan IIT Alumni Reach for India (PARFI), an 8-year-old NGO providing Vocational Training for enhancing the income levels of poor high-school dropouts. So far, PARFI has trained 15,000 high-school dropouts, all of whom got jobs.

Recently he has been felicitated by Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi for his contribution to NASSCOM and IT Industry for the past 25 years. He has been conferred with the “Distinguished Alumnus”Award from IIT Bombay and “Fellow of the Society” by Computer Society of India (CSI) in recognition of his services to the Indian IT Industry as an entrepreneur and for his contribution to the growth of education. He was conferred with the much coveted Outstanding Entrepreneur Award at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) 2010 India.