20th Convocation Ceremony of N

Education

20th Convocation Ceremony of NIT Durgapur on 20 December 2025

The 20th Convocation Ceremony of NIT Durgapur, scheduled to be held on 20 December 2025 at the Institute Auditorium. During the convocation, a total of 1,237 degrees will be awarded for the academic year ending June 2025, comprising 813 B.Tech., 7 Dual Degree, 9 Integrated M.Sc., 145 M.Tech., 30 MBA, 96 M.Sc., 12 MSW, and 125 Ph.D. degrees. In addition, 31 Gold Medals and 2 Best Project Awards will be conferred.

The ceremony will be graced by Dr. Ajay Kumar, Chairman, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), as the Chief Guest. A distinguished 1985-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Dr. Kumar is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and the University of Minnesota. He served as India’s Defence Secretary (2019–2022), playing a key role in major defence reforms including the creation of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the Agniveer scheme. He assumed office as UPSC Chairman on 15 May 2025.

Shri S. Suresh Kumar, IAS (West Bengal cadre, 1988 batch), Chairman, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), will attend as the Guest of Honour. An IIT Madras alumnus in Chemical Engineering, he assumed charge as Chairman, DVC on 1st January 2024 and currently also holds the additional charge of Member Secretary, DVC.

The convocation will be presided over by Shri S. N. Subrahmanyan, Chairperson, Board of Governors, NIT Durgapur, and Chairman & Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

NIT Durgapur continues to strengthen its academic and research standing, having secured 49th rank in NIRF 2025, placing it 8th among all NITs. In the current academic year, 1,461 students were admitted across UG, PG, and PhD programmes. From 2025–26, the Institute has launched new programmes including (i) M.Tech. in AI & Data Analytics in Process Engineering, (ii) M.Tech. in Sustainable Materials & Technology, (iii) M.Tech. in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, and (iv) a Minor Programme in Quantum Computing.

The Institute has made significant strides in sustainability with the installation of a 1.07 MW solar power plant, fully funded by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. at a cost of ?5.94 crore, resulting in annual savings of approximately ?1.18 crore for the next 25 years.

Currently, 141 sponsored research projects worth ?20.3 crore are being executed with funding from agencies such as DST, CSIR, DBT, DAE, and ISRO, along with 55 consultancy projects generating about ?2.2 crore. Major funding initiatives include

•A mega project grant of ?8.47 crores from the Ministry of Textiles under the National Technical Textiles Mission aimed at promoting the use of West Bengal’s geo-jute in infrastructure.

•A grant of ?2.7 crores from ANRF, with IIT Kanpur as the lead institution and IIT Kharagpur as a consortium partner towards a multi-institutional Electric Vehicle (EV) research initiative.

•Selected as a Spoke Institute in the PAIR Project funded by the ANRF under the hub at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad to strengthen research in critical minerals and smart mining.

•Selected as a partner institute for establishing Centres of Excellence on critical minerals at IMMT Bhubaneswar and at IISc Bangalore focusing on extraction and recycling of critical metals under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) of the Ministry of Mines, GoI.

•Received funding from CSIRO Australia for research on sustainable mineral technologies and green steelmaking under the India–Australia Mineral Scholar Network Programme. This collaboration also includes joint research, faculty and student exchange, and fully funded visits of the Director, a faculty member, and doctoral/post-doctoral scholars to CSIRO laboratories in Australia.

•Additional projects include ?1.5 crores funding for drone technology development under MeitY, ?1.63 crores for the development of eco-friendly construction materials with NBCC, and ?3.5 crore funding for advanced power-sector R&D with NHPC Limited.

NIT Durgapur’s innovation ecosystem has received national recognition, including acknowledgment by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India for a micro-chip developed under the C2S Scheme of MeitY. In 2024–25, the Institute recorded 82.7% UG placements, with the highest package of ?80 LPA, and participation from 119 recruiting companies. Faculty members published 549 journal articles and 281 conference papers, with several ranked among the top 2% scientists globally as per Stanford–Elsevier listings.

Strategic MoUs with premier organizations in India such as IIM Visakhapatnam, IMMT Bhubaneswar, iHUB Divya Sampark, IIT Roorkee and abroad such as University Politecnico di Torino, Italy further reinforce NIT Durgapur’s academic and research excellence. MoU with IIM Visakhapatnam will enable students and alumni of NIT Durgapur to enroll for regular MBA program at IIM Visakhapatnam without CAT score and at subsidized fee.

The students too have participated in active research and a number of them have won various awards in technical competitions. Notable one includes winning of Gold and Silver medals in All India Inter NIT Body-Building and Swimming Competition held at NIT Surathkal.