Vellore: Education must be given top priority for India to achieve the status of a developed nation by 2047, VIT Chancellor G. Viswanathan said on Monday.

Speaking at the 40th convocation of VIT University at its Vellore campus, Viswanathan underlined the need for enhanced budgetary allocation to the sector. “There has been a long-standing demand to allocate six per cent of GDP to education. Currently, only three per cent is being spent,” he said.

Viswanathan pointed out that out of the Union Budget of Rs 55 lakh crore, only 2.5 per cent is earmarked for education. “Tamil Nadu is a leader in education, allocating 21 per cent of its budget. For India to meet the National Education Policy's target of 50 per cent gross enrollment ratio in higher education, the number of students must increase from the current 4.3 crore to eight crore. This requires significant investment in classrooms and infrastructure,” he said.

Calling black money, tax evasion and corruption “national diseases”, Viswanathan said the country loses Rs 9 lakh crore annually to tax evasion and Rs 6 lakh crore due to corruption. “The student community must fight to eliminate these,” he stressed.

Earlier, Supreme Court Judge R. Mahadevan, the chief guest, urged graduates to embrace discipline and lifelong learning. Times of India CEO Sivakumar Sundaram was the guest of honour.

At the ceremony, 8,310 students received bachelor's degrees, 2,802 received master's degrees, and 451 were conferred PhDs. Tamil Nadu Police Training Directorate chief DGP Sandeep Rai Rathore was awarded a doctorate in Disaster Mitigation and Management.