Bhubaneswar, Oct. 4 -- There is one moment at every convocation that I wait for all year. A young graduate walks across the stage, and somewhere in the crowd a mother quietly wipes her eyes. In that moment I see everything we have worked for. Those tears are love, the love of a family that gave everything so that one child could stand there.
From 3 to 5 October 2026, KIIT will hold its 22nd Annual Convocation, and that moment will come again, thousands of times over. Behind every name stands a mother who waited, a father who saved, a teacher who believed.
We began humbly. By the grace and blessings of God, what began so small has grown so vast, and so quickly, that I find it hard to put into words. All of it has come through love. I have held all of this together with one rope, the rope of love, and with nothing else.
Ours is a bond of love. Rules guide us and buildings shelter us, but love alone keeps us together. A bond made of love lives in the mind and the heart of every person it touches, and nobody can break it. I have felt this since my childhood, and I try to live it every single day. Whatever I do, I do out of love. Whatever KIIT has achieved, it has achieved through love.
A university builds two things. It builds campuses, and it builds people. Buildings stand for a century. People shape the centuries that follow. Care sits at the root of all real learning, and students grow best inside relationships where they feel seen.
Education is an act of love, and therefore an act of courage. When young people feel loved, they dare to try. When they dare to try, they learn. Held by that rope of love, our children have grown into remarkable men and women.
Academics remain our first promise, and our infrastructure serves that promise. Classrooms and laboratories, libraries and hostels, the KIMS hospital, sports grounds and green open spaces all exist for one reason. Every young person here should have everything needed to grow into their best self. Research and innovation grow from the same soil. Our faculty and scholars publish widely and hold patents across disciplines, and the KIIT Technology Business Incubator has helped hundreds of young founders turn ideas into ventures.
We have embraced artificial intelligence across every discipline, so that our students learn to use it wisely. I want them to master technology without ever letting technology master their hearts.
Love must also carry a young person into a livelihood. This year our students received more than 5,500 job offers from over 700 recruiters. Behind each offer I see a family breathing easier. We have tried to remain student friendly and parent friendly. Through our tutor-mentor system every student has someone to turn to, and I still treasure my simple chats with students on campus. A student at KIIT should never feel alone, and a parent should never feel far away. I consider every child entrusted to us a sacred trust.
KIIT and KISS together serve more than 80,000 students. With our teachers and staff, we are a family of over one lakh people, a township in itself. A university must also serve the land that nurtures it.
Three keystone programmes will add value to everything we do, and all three grow from love. Through Earn While Learn, students work on campus on weekends and earn while they study, gaining confidence along with income. Through the Karmayogi Fellowship, committed young professionals teach, research and live among communities, turning knowledge into service. And from this year, our Kommunity Engagement Programme will take students and faculty to more than 5,000 villages across Odisha with health camps, education, skill-building and awareness. Service, to me, is simply love in action.
Hundreds and hundreds of professional teachers and experts come to us from every corner of the globe through our Global Faculty Programme and India Trek Programme. Many stays ten days at a time, teaching our students and learning alongside them. Only love brings them here. More than 2,000 international students from over 70 countries study with us, and more than 350 agreements with institutions abroad open doors for young people who once never imagined crossing their own district. Our UN partnerships widen that circle further.
The circle of love has grown wide enough to hold the whole world. A tree that grows fast must grow deep roots, or the first storm will bring it down. In so short a time, in a state like Odisha, an institution of this scale has taken root and flourished. I receive it as a wonder, with humility. Our roots are our values, our people and the love that binds them.
The highlight of this year has been KIIT's rise in status and in the rankings. In the Times Higher Education rankings of 2026, KIIT stands in the 501-600 band across the globe and fifth in India, 169th in Asia and sixth in India, and fourth in India for sustainability impact.
The QS Asia University Rankings 2026 place us first in Odisha, the NIRF India Rankings 2024 placed us 15th among Indian universities, and we hold the NAAC A++ grade. I see these not as trophies but as the world returning our love.
Our students excel on the field as much as in the classroom. We have built one of the largest international-standard sports infrastructures in the country, and KIIT has given India 24 Olympians along with Khel Ratna and Arjuna awardees. This year our athletes brought home five medals from the Commonwealth Games.
A record 54 KIIT and KISS student-athletes are representing India at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, and they have already won 21 medals, with the count still rising. Behind each medal lie years of early mornings and coaches who never gave up on them and loved them without condition.
Throughout the year, people from every sector and every walk of life visit our campus. Smt. Nita M. Ambani came to us too, and so do many other distinguished national and international guests. They all come out of love. Each visit gives me real happiness and fresh strength. At this Convocation we also look forward to honouring distinguished men and women whose lives inspire us all.
My dear graduates, you leave with a degree, but I hope you also leave with a way of living. The one secret I can share with you is simple. Love others. Carry competence in one hand and compassion in the other. The world has enough cleverness.
It needs more wisdom joined with love. I thank our faculty and staff, whose untiring efforts have made KIIT so loved by one and all. I thank our students, who return our love and give us our purpose, and our parents, who trust us with their children and with their love.
I thank every well-wisher who has stood by us with love. Whatever KIIT has become, it has become through your love and ours. I remain only a humble servant, holding one end of the rope of love, with folded hands and a grateful heart. Love is the one foundation that never cracks, and KIIT stands on love. Love built KIIT. Love holds it together. Love will carry it forward.
The writer is the Founder of KIIT, KISS and KIMS, Bhubaneswar
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.