180 students graduated from IIT Goa last month. 92.3% of them already have jobs. That’s the number that stayed with me from our seventh convocation on June 19th. In a year when placement headlines elsewhere have been shaky, that’s a strong statement about what a five-year-old campus is already building. Anand Deshpande, our Guest of Honor and founder of Persistent Systems, gave the students a number of his own: they have 65 years of working life ahead of them. Most will work until 85. Prof. Ajay Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, spoke about where Indian high-tech is headed and the role this graduating class will play in getting there. I told the students something I believe deeply: there has never been a better time to graduate in India. The opportunities in front of them are real, and so is the chance to shape where the country goes next. Director Dhirendra Kutti closed with news the whole IIT Goa community has been waiting for — the Goa government has allocated 115 acres for our new campus. Five years in, we’re finally building a permanent home. Proud of this batch, and of what’s ahead for this institution Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa Anand Deshpande Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India Nitin Kunkolienker Anoop Kumar Mittal Nomesh Bolia Vivek Khanzode