Agartala, Feb 6 (IANS) India accounts for nearly a third of the world's engineering graduates each year, and offers a million students the opportunity to pursue technology courses annually, Science and Technology Secretary T. Ramasami said here Saturday.

'Indians represent nearly 30 percent of the global annual supply of graduate engineers,' Ramasami, a scientist, said while delivering the keynote address at the second convocation of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala.

'The world respects Indians for their originality and analytical strength. The other day, a leader of the world warned his people, 'Watch, the Indians are coming',' said Ramasami, a Padma Shri awardee.

'Engineers should mentally and professionally prepare themselves for innovations with twin priorities of quality and affordability. Nano, Chandrayaan-1 are examples of affordable innovations where cost optimization has been accomplished with relatively low levels of investments,' he added.

At Saturday's convocation, 256 students including 60 girls were awarded degrees in engineering, with eight students bagging gold medals.

NITs are premier engineering and technology colleges, earlier called Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs).

In 2002, the human resource development ministry decided to upgrade all the 17 RECs as NITs in phases. There are currently 20 NITs, the one in Agartala being the latest.