Gymnast Karmakar to receive degree from NIT

Agartala, Oct 21: Ace gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the women's vault event at the Rio Olympics last year, will be conferred a D. Litt degree by the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here next month, and official said here on Saturday.

"The NIT, Agartala senate, has recently decided to confer D. Litt degree to star gymnast Dipa Karmakar in the tenth convocation of the institute on November 11," Dean (Academy) Ajay Das told IANS.

He said that NIT Agartala has also informed Dipa Karmakar, who is now in Delhi.

The 24-year-old Tripura girl, who became the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, finished fourth in the final round of the women's vault event at the Rio Olympics Games in Brazil last year.

A cheerful Dipa's father Dulal Karmakar, told IANS that his daughter is now preparing for the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia's Jakarta and 21st Commonwealth Games to be held in Australia's Gold Coast.

Besides Dipa, NIT will honour IIT Guwahati Director Goutam Biswas and professor of Jadavpur University Biswajit Ghosh with a D.Sc. at the convocation.

The NIT honoured Bollywood actor Nana Patekar with a D.Lit degree and Governor Tathagata Roy with D.Eng at last year's convocation.