Neetu I Chhabra and Sandeep V Kulkarni of the Mumbai University won the prestigious award standing first in the Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering divisions respectively, while Rajesh T Keshwani of the Pune University grabbed the award in the Instrumentation Technology Division. The 16 others to pass out are from the various State universities.

Of the 18 who passed out in the postgraduate engineering section, five belonged to the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman, Space Commission at a simple but austere ceremony at the BARC on Friday gave away the awards. Addressing the students, Kasturirangan dwelt on the role of the BARC's HRD Centre innurturing scientific excellence to meet the challenges of advanced technology in nuclear and space research.

Dr R Chidambaram, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, while delivering his presidential address pointed out that against the existing 1840 MW nuclear power being generated, the need was to meet a target of 20,000 MW in the next two decades, which the newly recruited cadres from the BARC Training Centre were expected to help deliver.

Dr Anil Kakodkar, BARC Director, emphasised the need to augment the production of Trinity - energy, materials and processes - to ensure the success of the three-stage Indian nuclear programme, especially relating to the full exploitation of thorium reserves in the country.