November 11, 2017: The first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics – Dipa Karmakar – was conferred D.Litt Degree (Honoris Causa) at the 10th Convocation ceremony of NIT Agartala held at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan on Saturday.
The Padma Shri Dipa is now preparing for the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia’s Jakarta and 21st Commonwealth Games to be held in Australia’s Gold Coast. After receiving the Degree, the golden girl said, the honour will encourage her go thousand more miles. The 24-year-old Tripura girl and country’s ace gymnast Dipa Karmakar narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the women’s vault event at the Rio Olympics last year.
The NIT Agartala also conferred D.Sc. degree upon IIT Guwahati Director Goutam Biswas and Jadavpur University professor Biswajit Ghosh.
The ace gymnast received Padma Shri – fourth highest Indian national honour – this year, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2016 and Arjuna Award in 2015 for her outstanding performance in the field of sports, particularly in gymnastics.