India becoming global investment destination: MoS V K Singh

Chennai: With the Centre’s focus on development and infrastructure, the country has gained the trust of many countries, which have come forward to invest in India, Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Civil Aviation Gen V K Singh, said on Friday.

The kind of environment being created in India has made the country an ideal global investment destination, he said and appealed to youngsters to utilise the opportunity and come up in life.

“About 162 countries have invested in 62 different sectors in 31 states and union territories in India. This reflects the growing trust these countries place on India,” he said speaking at the 38th annual convocation of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), near here.

“So, you should work harder to garner (sic) the opportunity coming in,” he said and recalled the Centre’s efforts in providing a conducive atmosphere for StartUps.

“There’s no shortcut to success, though it is written in books. It all depends on how committed, hardworking and knowledgeable you are,” the minister, who represents the Ghaziabad constituency in Parliament, said.

He advised the graduates not to stick to one solution for all problems but seek solutions in a pragmatic way.

“Education is what you gather as part of the environment in the institution. This adds to your personality. Education is what you have learnt and how you will apply it, how you develop an open mind and analyse things,” Singh said.

He urged the students not to give up and quoted a few lines from Edgar Guest’s poem: “When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.”

Earlier, VIT Founder-Chancellor G Viswanathan urged Singh to use his good offices to influence the Centre and States to spend more on higher education and compete with advanced countries.

“The gross enrollment ration (GER), which is 27 per cent in India needs to enhanced further and government spending on research activities should be increased,” he said, adding that the GER in the US was 88 per cent, Germany 70, China 64 and South Korea and Australia 100 per cent each.

“Lack of funding by the central and state governments and too many controls on educational institutions are posing hurdles,” Viswanathan said.

Wipro's Global Head of Business Operations Sanjeev Jain, VIT vice presidents Sankar Viswanathan and G V Selvam, Vice Chancellor Rambabu Kodali and Pro VC Partha Sharathi Mallick, spoke on the occasion as well.

Totally, 8,619 undergraduates and postgraduates, besides 278 research scholars, from the class of 2023 were awarded degrees during the convocation.