"Continue to learn beyond the National Defence Academy and don't look at ranks and designations for inspiration" — This was the key message from IIM Indore director Prof Himanshu Rai during his address at the convocation of the 144th course of National Defence Academy on Monday. A total of 386 cadets were conferred the degree and certificates from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at the convocation ceremony. The cadets passing out included 81 in the Science stream, 90 in the Computer Science stream and 59 in the Humanities stream. There were also 19 cadets from friendly foreign countries. In addition, the BTech stream comprising 137 cadets from the Navy and Air Force also received ‘three years course completion’ certificates as they will be conferred with degrees after completion of one year training at their respective pre-commissioning training academics, that is Indian Naval Academy in Ezhimala and Air Force Academy in Hyderabad, respectively. Prof Rai in his speech shared an acronym OCEAN with the cadets passing out, wherein he said that cadets will have to 'navigate' with the skills they have learnt. He said O stands for openness, C for compassion, E for emotional intelligence, A for adaptive leadership, N for 'never give up.' While speaking about openness, Rai said, "One of the Scoretic axioms I have always lived by is that education and learning is the progressive realisation of your own ignorance. The more you learn, the more you realise how ignorant you are. And therefore make sure that you continue to learn even beyond the NDA. Knowledge is proprietary but wisdom is not. So don't look at anybody's rank whenever you approach people. Don't draw your inspirations from designations because they are temporary." Cadet Jaskarandeep Singh of Echo Squadron stood first in the Science Stream and was awarded the Commandant’s Silver Medal and Rolling Trophy presented by General K Sundarji, PVSM. Cadet Ayush Kumar of Oscar Squadron stood first in the Computer Science Stream and was awarded Commandant’s Silver Medal and the Admiral’s rolling Trophy presented by Admiral Sureesh Mehta. Cadet Saurav of Delta Squadron stood first in the Social Science Stream and was awarded the Commandant’s Silver Medal as well as the Trophy presented by Air Chief Marshal NC Suri. Cadet Rishab Mishra of Foxtrot Squadron stood first in the BTech stream in the six semester training at NDA and was presented the Commandant’s Silver Medal and CISC Trophy presented by HQ Integrated Defence Staff. To mark the Diamond Jubilee celebration of National Defence Academy, the NDA song — Bharat Maa Tujhe Salaam — was released on Monday. The song symbolises the ethos of the tri-services academy, the camaraderie they share and reinforces the spirit of sacrifice and dedication of the armed forces to the nation, officials said.
