25% of startups in US' Silicon Valley managed by people of Indian origin: Sitharaman

Kancheepuram: A total of 380 students graduated during the tenth convocation of the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram (IIITDM Kancheepuram) that was held on Saturday.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was the chief guest at the event. Speaking on the occasion, Sitharaman underlined that India's higher education has contributed to the best of company executives globally and around 25 per cent of all start-ups in Silicon Valley are managed by "people of Indian origin".

"I want to underline the fact it is this India's higher education which has contributed to the best of company executives. Globally, 58 top-notch company CEOs are Indian in origin and India-education and they are in 11 such companies that are multinational, whose collective revenue is over 1 trillion and 4 trillion in turnover," a statement quoted Sitharaman as saying.

Further, speaking about India's startup success, she encouraged the students to become entrepreneurs.

India now has 100 unicorns and their market value are USD 250 billion and they have collectively raised USD 63 billion from the market, the minister said.

"Even as some of you would want to seek jobs, I am those for those of you who want to become entrepreneurs and create jobs for others, it is not a worrisome world. There may be health risks but it is possible for you all to become entrepreneurs," read the statement quoting the minister.

The Minister also laid the foundation stone of the institute's auditorium and inaugurated the centre of AI, IoT and Robotics.

Established in 2007, the institute has been at the forefront of offering programs in tune with the needs of the industry. Some of the unique programs the Institute offers include B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering with specialization in Artificial Intelligence and M. Tech in CSE with specialization in Data Science and AI.

Of the total graduates, six were PhDs, 53 M.Techs, 110 Dual Degrees and 211 B.Tech degree, recipients.

Presenting the annual report of the Institute, Professor DVLN Somayajulu, Director, IIITDM Kancheepuram, said the students have attained 97 per cent of placements with a highest CTC of Rs 32 lakh per annum and average CTC of Rs 10.06 lakh.

"Our chief recruiters have been Amazon, AMD, Ericsson, Google, L&T, MathWorks, Microchip, Samsung, Zoom India, etc," Somayajalu said.