kanpur dressed in creamcoloured kurtapyjama and salwarsuits 809 undergraduate students of iitkanpur on thursday received degrees and medals at the 50th convocation ceremony of the institute this is first time that the students donned traditional dress during the convocation dumping the black ceremonial gown and head gear to distinguish between the students of btech and mtech dual degrees bachelor of science and others their stoles were of different colours most of the faculty members of the institute also donned cerisecoloured kurtasthe students were given degrees and medals by acting chairman of board of governors prof p balram and director of iitkanpur prof indranil manna chief guest at the function was tata sons chairman natarajan chandrasekaran who told the students in his address to explore the vast entrepreneurial opportunities existing in the country chandrasekaran congratulated the students and said it was a privilege for him to come to iitkanpur we need entrepreneurship research and innovation innovation will create jobs i hope you all will participate in the entrepreneurial opportunity said chandrasekaran while addressing the students he asked them to keep abreast with the changing technology to remain in competitionwe are in the most exciting times we are becoming the second largest consumer economy our gdp growth is highest in the world there has been a significant increase in the flow of foreign direct investment technological adaptations like digital india and economic reforms including gst will fuel growth but there are some challenges as well which need to be addressed said chandrasekaranmentioning the challenges and opportunities chandrasekaran said there is a requirement of five lakh doctors and four lakh teachers in the country this gap between the number of teachers and students and doctors and patients cannot be filled organically same is true with manufacturing units there is a demand for specialists and skilled men he added exuberance and joy filled the auditorium that was jampacked with students their parents and faculty members students gave standing ovation to their teachers and parents for their success and clicked selfies with them each time a meritorious student was called on the dais to receive medal the auditorium reverberated with thunderous cheers sansit patnaik of btech mechanical engineering was given the highest award the presidents gold medal he was followed by novnit kashyap dual degree of civil engineering department and pallav goyal of bachelor of science of department of mathematics and scientific computing programme both the students were awarded directors gold medal these meritorious students got more than one medal which they displayed while their photos were clicked