N Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Sons, on Friday said that the positive side of the pandemic was the acceleration of digital technology by at least a decade and the way it showed individual and societal resilience.
“You are graduating at a time which is a pivotal moment in history – we have experienced something very complex in the last few years which is almost a couple of decades of experience packaged in a short period of time,” Chandrasekaran said. He was speaking at the 4th convocation ceremony of Anant National University as the chief guest. A total of 2077 students got degrees at the event.
Chandrasekaran spoke of the experience of the pandemic, the economic slowdown and revival, the geopolitical crisis “which is going to redefine the world”, and the emergence of crypto and tech.
The Covid period, Chandrasekaran said, showed something which people will not see again in a lifetime, such as empty streets and no flights.
But he said the period also opened up enormous opportunities, and pointed to tech acceleration. He said other areas that were redefined during the period included sustainability, user experience, and the economic growth model.
Developing nations will be the growth engines of the world, Chandrasekaran said, adding that India will surely achieve $5-10 Trillion economy in the years to come and create opportunities for students.
He said that several jobs that have come up in the past 10 years were not in existence two decades ago, and the jobs of the future are still to be imagined.
He asked the students to be ready to learn to grab opportunities.