Coimbatore : Former Chief Secretary of Kerala Jiji Thomson Saturday exhorted students to be aware of the socio-economic conditions prevailing in India and the challenges lying before us.

” In a month’s time we will be celebrating our 72nd anniversary of Independence and the fact that we could remain as a sovereign, democratic republic despite enormous problems affecting the unity of the country, is itself a great achievement,” Jiji Thomson said

“Unlike our neighbouring China, we have the freedom to travel anywhere in the country, follow any religion of our choice and speak out whatever we feel is right. We should thank our founding fathers for enshrining these great liberties in our Constitution,” he said in his convocation address to the Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences here.

Though we ave also made tremendous progress in many spheres that is the envy of others we should not to be oblivious to some startling realities that our country faces today, he pointed out.

Stating that India will soon become the World’s most populous country as the population is predicted to surpass that of China within the next decade, he said.that India has more than 50 per cent of the population below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent below the age of 35.

By 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan, Jiji Thomson said..

The Institute Chancellor, Dr.Paul Dhinakaran presided over the convocation and distributed the certificates to the graduates.

A total of 2,091 students who have successfully completed B.Tech, B.Com, BCA, B.Sc, MBA, M.A., M.Sc., M.Tech. M.Phil & Ph.D and received the degrees.