8th North East Graduate Congress 2025 to begin at USTM on Feb 21,0ver 10,000 students from 300 colleges to participate

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 23, 2025

The 8th North East Graduate Congress (NEGC), the flagship event of the University of Science & Technology Meghalaya (USTM), is set to take place from February 21 to 23, bringing together over 10,000 students from 300 colleges across the Northeast.

The three-day event will feature competitions, panel discussions, cultural performances, and a job fair, making it one of the largest youth engagements in the region.

The event kicks off on February 21, culminating with a valedictory session and prize distribution on February 25.

Participants will compete in cultural events, sports, quiz, debates, fine arts, innovation, and a business ideathon.

On February 22, 25+ nationally and regionally renowned cultural icons will perform in a grand show titled “One Day Just for You.”

Winners will receive prizes worth Rs 50 lakh, including two-wheelers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and cash rewards.

Aspiring students will have the opportunity to interact with top recruiters and industry experts.

Group dance, group song, cultural showcases, extempore speech, photography, reel making, and on-spot painting.

Addressing a press conference at Guwahati Press Club on Thursday, USTM PRO Dr Rani Pathak Das said, “The three-day-long event is organized to benefit the region’s youths by helping them set their vision so that they can shoulder responsibilities and contribute to nation-building”.

The event aims at inculcating the spirit of competitiveness, regional integrity, social harmony and brotherhood among the youths and it will be graced by a galaxy of prominent personalities ranging from youth icons, intellectuals, academia, cultural and sports icons, politicians, motivational speakers and many more. Prizes worth Rs 50 lakh will be awarded to the winners of various competitions in the event, she added.

USTM Pro VC Dr Balendra Kumar Das stated that in the 8th edition of NEGC, various co-curricular activities have been organised. The competitions include cultural, quiz, debate, sports, fine arts & innovation and business ideathon. While the cultural competitions include cultural showcasing by different colleges, group dance, group song etc., there are also competitions like on-spot painting, extempore speech, photography and reel making. The sports competitions include: power-lifting, arm wrestling, chess, horse riding, volleyball, basketball, kabaddi and badminton. Topic for the debate competition is “NEP is a Game Changer”. The special attraction of the event is the Job Fair.

Special sessions will be held such as, a Panel Discussion on “Role of Youth: India 2047”, apart from sessions on “Youth and Entrepreneurship”, “Personality development and soft skills” and “Competitive Examinations” where experts in the respective fields will address the youths.

USTM principal secretary Dr Mehjabeen Rahman said, “All students studying at the undergraduate level from institutions in Northeast are eligible to participate in the competitions.  Attractive awards, including two-wheelers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and cash prizes will be given to the winners of different competitions”.

“Special attractions in the award category are: ‘Best Graduate’, ‘Best Performing College’ and ‘Best Magazine Award’ and ‘Best Disciplined College’. All the students will be awarded Certificates of Participation”, said Rishiparna Choudhury, Assistant Director of Students Welfare.

NEGC is a unique confluence of the students’ community at the undergraduate level initiated by Shri Mahbubul Hoque, Chancellor, USTM, which is held annually under the aegis of USTM. The main thrust of NEGC is to facilitate the aspiring and budding youth to have direct interactive sessions with renowned academicians, educationists, industrialists and entrepreneurs of national and international repute in a single platform enabling them to shape and mould their career to befit the emerging needs of modern technologies and move towards new horizons for a self-reliant and developed India.

Teachers or Coordinators from different colleges or institutions select the students and forward the names to the organizers through registration. All participants attending the Congress are required to fill in a registration form and submit to the organizing secretary, NEGC. For details, interested participants can contact 70022-38835 / 84728-29078/ 98647-77799 / 86386-86373 / 94352-84039 / 81348-84439 or log on to www.ustm.ac.in. The last date of online registration is February 12 and the registration form for NEGC-2025 is available in USTM website.