The ninth convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Management Kashipur was held recently at its campus, where 374 students were awarded their degrees. The students were from the two-year postgraduate programme in management, two-year postgraduate programme in business analytics, postgraduate programme in management for executives, and doctoral programme in management courses.   

Delivering the convocation address, Sanjeev Sanyal, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, highlighted the benefits of India adopting the barbell strategy in the face of the uncertain pandemic in 2020. He also spoke about the importance of IIMs’ contributions to India’s economic development, especially with the new curriculum such as the exclusive business analytics being taught at IIM Kashipur.  

Focus areas

In his inaugural address, Sandeep Singh, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIM Kashipur, discussed the importance of entrepreneurship. He said, “74 start-ups are currently under incubation under FIED (Foundation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development). This incubation centre is a section 8 company incorporated on March 9, 2018, and we could say FIED is the only incubator among all IIMs in the country focussing exclusively on agritech and agribusiness start-ups and running the incubation schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.” 

Speaking of gender diversity at the B-school, Singh said, “We have been putting special efforts over the years to enhance gender diversity in long-term basis. As an outcome, 61 women are graduating this year achieving the highest strength of women in the MBA programme of IIM Kashipur across batches so far. As we enter the second decade we are going to double down our successes and embark on a journey of exponential holistic growth both for the institute and its stakeholders.”

Award winners

The batch toppers were awarded medals in recognition of their academic accomplishment. Ankur Tulsyan won a gold medal for the best academic performance among the MBA cohort 2020-2022. Neha Saxena bagged a silver medal for her academic performance in the MBA cohort 2020-2022. Varun Bhargava won a bronze medal for his academic performance in the MBA cohort 2020-2022. Roshan Kumar Biswal bagged the gold medal for the best academic performance among MBA analytics cohort 2020-2022. Sakshi Podar MBA and MBA analytics cohort 2020-2022 was awarded to Sakshi Podar.