1. GRADUATIONDAY ADDRESS
by
Dr. M. PALANINATHARAJA
Registrar,
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.
Date : 07.05.2016 Time : 10.00 a.m.
AN ISO 9001 : 2008 CERTIFIED INSTITUTION
SUDHANANDHEN KALVI NAGAR,
CHENNIMALAI,
ERODE - 638 112, TAMIL NADU.
18
Respected Madam “Bharat Vidya Shiromani”
Dr. Vasantha Sudhanandhen, Correspondent of the College,
Dr. R. Balasubramanian, Respected Advisor of the College,
Dr. S. Shanmugasundaram, the Respected Principal of the
College, Thiru M.V. Deivasigamani, well wisher of the College,
Heads of Departments, learned Faculty members, Staff,
Students, Parents of Graduating students, Guests and
Media, dear graduating students, my whole hearted thanks
to you all for inviting me on this special occasion of
addressing at this 11th
Graduation Day.
completed sponsored research projects and consultancy
works as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator from
Government agencies and industries such as AICTE, UGC,
DRDL, SAMEER, EBA consultants etc. He won the
“President of India Scout Awardee” in the year 1985. He
has awarded with “Career Award for Young Teachers”
instituted by AICTE in the year 2003 and “Eminent Engineer
Award” by the Institution of Engineers (I), Madurai in the year
2013. He is a life member in Indian Value Engineering
Society (INVEST) and Operational Research Society of
India (ORSI), India. He sits on various Governing Boards,
Examination Boards and Expert Committees in Government
as well as self-financing engineering Institutions and travels
extensively in India and abroad. He has been an academic
administrator since 2001 and has made contribution in
Institutional Planning, Accreditation, System development
and Quality. His area of research includes Performance
Measurement, Quality management in Education and
Healthcare services etc.
Born in Tirunelveli, Dr. Raja completed his Bachelor’s
degree in Mechanical Engineering with Distinction and
secured eighth rank from Madurai Kamaraj University in
1992. He was the Gold Medal winner at Bachelor’s level
and pursued his Masters degree in Mechanical engineering
from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani
in 1994. He earned his doctoral degree in the domain of
Service Quality in Engineering Education and Healthcare
from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi during
2002-2007.

2. 2 7
It is an occasion; you are all supporting the fulfilment of
founder’s dream, hard work, dedication, commitment and vision
of this institution. We must be bowed to him for his contribution
in education.
I feel honoured and privileged to be here today because
he makes everybody a responsible professional graduates and
smile happier. Congratulations to the graduating students.
Education has three fundamentals.
1. Dissemination of knowledge; 2. Application of knowledge and
3. Creation of knowledge.
Knowledge is the reservoir of information. I do hope,
predominantly, you have acquired knowledge through the
teaching and learning process of this institution. Application and
creation of knowledge requires fullest support of your mind.
Knowledge and competencies are complimentary in nature.
You have learnt the Technical, Managerial and Behavioural
competencies are in different dimensions and situations
individually. Competencies are your knowledge multiple with
commitment and demonstrated capability.
Now, you have passed out with various competencies
which are bold enough to face your professional life
competitively. Your technical competencies are the passport to
enter a job and do it sustainably. But, success in your
professional career depends on how well you are behaved and
managed with others. Loyalty and values, willing to learn,
Teamwork and adaptability are the traits, employers are longing
for from the present graduates.
India has a technological supremacy since the stone-age.
Our ancient temple architecture and its construction are the
master piece of our technological capability. Nature has taught
us lot of interesting technologies too. One should carefully
Name : Dr. M. PALANINATHA RAJA
Registrar,
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.
Dr.M.Palaninatha Raja is a Professor in Mechanical
Engineering and holds the post of Registrar since the year 2005 at
Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE), Madurai. Also, he is
coordinating the Technical Education Quality Improvement
Programme (TEQIPII) of National Project Implementation Unit
(NPIU), Government of India.
Prior to that, Dr. Raja served as the Assistant Director of
National Board of Accreditation, All India Council for Technical
Education (AICTE), in Delhi. He joined this position on lien from
Thiagarajar College of Engineering where he continued asAssistant
Director from 2001 to 2004.
Dr. Raja started his career as Design Engineer in Trans
freight Containers Limited, Tarapur, Bombay in 1994 and continued
till the year 1996. Later he joined as Scientist in Institute ofArmament
Technology, Defence Research and Development Organization
(DRDO), Pune during 1996-1997.
Ever since joining TCE, Dr. Raja has initiated for quality
improvement system at Institutional level. Dr. Raja has published
more than thirty research papers in National and International
Journals and Conferences. He has published two books with
German publishers in the area of Measurement of Service Quality
in Engineering Education and Healthcare respectively. He has

3. 36
observe the process of nature, then we would be able to
appreciate the scientific principles. For instance, if somebody
understands the process of coconut water reaching the top of
the tree, lot many nano technology principles will come to limelight
to him/her.
“Successive minds discuss Ideas
Average minds discuss Events
Weak minds discuss People” – Socrates
Theperformancefromyouhappensbecauseyouarecontrolling
yourmind.Benchmarkyourperformancewithothers.
You have to inculcate yourself, the values and morals, accept
othersideas,honesty,empathywithothers,accountabilityandrespect
others.Thesearethepathwaysonehastofollowtoattaintheoutmost
performance.
Your prosperity and family lies in the well being of the overall
society around you. Kindly contribute in kind and monetarily to make
everybodyhappyinthesocietyseenbyyou.Thisisyourexpectedduty
if you want to be in a better society.
Teamworkisanotherimportantcharacteryouhavetolivewith
it. It is required to accept gender, caste, culture and Nationality, Trust
and confidence through actions. Now on, Decision making is the part
andparcelofyourlifeatanyinstance,whetheritischoosingyourjobor
firming up your life, minimise your ego and avoid bias in your decision
making and consider data and facts for sound decisions.
You can fix up a target for your higher learning today with
great aspiration and positive attitude. Learning and growth is a
continuous process and we should learn for the up-liftment of
jointly developed a ‘BrahMos’ cruise missile in the name
of Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers. So far, the Americans
are still struggling to achieve the precision of attacking
the enemy targets and benchmark our missile
technologies. Even, they had listed out as the prime
agenda in the most threatening missile technologies. It
shows that several unique technological missions have
been successfully celebrated in our country.
Today, the entire globe is watching us to collaborate
and to receive the cost effective Indian Technologies in
every domain.
Remember our family moral values and our
ancestors sacrifice has kept our society made it energetic
at all times. You should deeply aspire for higher and life-
long learning and be guided by higher values which you
believe in. Finally, now on as an alumnus of this institution,
you should prepare to contribute and return back to the
institution in terms of kind and support, which is very much
required in the near future for the cause.
Finally, may the god shower wisdom, success of
your dreams and goals.
A small quote always nurtures me…
“Why we have to crawl like a crab
When we always fly like a butterfly”
Thank you and Jai hind.

4. 4 5
downtrodden and under privileged people and betterment of
society.
Here I would like to quote
“If not us, who?
If not now, when?”
- Hillel the Elder (1st
Century Philosopher)
If you are prepared to take risk and act in time with
passion, you will be rewarded. We are culturally emotional and
often it hurdles the work to think and reach out the targets and
vision of the organisation.
Most of you are stepping up into the real world to face the
challenges, when the Indian economy is in the growing state and
it is getting seamlessly integrated with global economy of
globalisation.
Globalisation poses the challenge with very high magnitude
of competitiveness and efforts to remain in accepted quality.
Looking back our graduates, still, on an average seven lakh
engineers are coming out of the engineering colleges annually
and 25% are employable. It will take some time to overcome the
drawbacks in our educational system and make them employable
on par with globally standard engineers.
Historically, we are sceptical in becoming an entrepreneur
due to the family compulsions and societal constraints. But with
the present opportunities, one has to explore the possibilities of
opening up an enterprise even for your small ideas from your
own final year projects. For instance, Google and Yahoo are the
final year projects at the Masters level in Stanford University. In
the present scenario, our country has come up with lot of start up
policies, consortiums, Entrepreneurship networks, angel
investors and other avenues supporting the incubators. One of
the important things you have to come out with workable idea
and to promote your own idea to convert into the tangible product
useful to the society.
Our ancestors left a liveable planet for us to lead a joyful
life. On the other hand, unforeseen activities and efforts are
leading to environmental damage in a very fast manner. We the
engineers have an obligation to leave enough resources through
a sustainable development model which promotes healthy
environment for future generations. Especially, in our Indian
economy, our growth and urbanisation remain unstable. It is the
time that we translate our acquired knowledge into ideas and
innovations and make them socially valuable.
India has transformed from its infrastructure development,
steel, cements and roads, Information Technology to modern
outsourcing Research and Development talent in India.
Most of the developed countries are strategically
positioned themselves through innovations, involving systematic
and organised efforts.
You should pursue your career not for your compulsion of
family or society. It should come from your own heart to derive
your own satisfaction.
We are not inferior to anyone. There are two areas in
which India Indigenised and developed the technology (1)
Nuclear –Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (2) Space -
Mangalyan. You may be aware that it was built with a cost
of producing one Hollywood movie. India and Russia