Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) celebrated its 18th Annual Convocation with Vinod Rai, Chairman of the Banks Board Bureau and former CAG of India, as the Chief Guest. The PGP class of 2014 saw 358 participants being awarded the Post-Graduate Diploma in Management.
In addition, 97 students from the first batch of the Executive Post-Graduate Programme (EPGP) from IIMK’s Satellite Campus in Kochi, 167 students from the EPGP on the Kozhikode campus and three students of the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) were also awarded diplomas and Fellow titles respectively.
The convocation was chaired by Dr AC Muthiah, Chairman, Board of Governors (BoG), and Prof Kulbhushan Balooni, director in-charge of IIM Kozhikode.
Change agents
Vinod Rai, in his convocation address, lauded the graduating students and called for building a resurgent India, which can propel itself to becoming an economic superpower. Speaking about the country’s economic growth scenario, Vinod Rai raised certain concerns and said: “The Indian economy was displaying excellent signs of growth, buoyancy and remarkable resilience but, instead of attempting to reach double-digit growth in GDP, we are sliding back to six per cent.”
He added that: “It is not enough to be a country having the fourth largest number of billionaires in the world and yet hardly have any globally accepted patents to showcase our industrial or manufacturing muscle.”
“Ethical management and leadership form the cornerstone of any successful business enterprise. It should be the mantra as you begin your careers,” he said.
In his concluding remarks, Vinod Rai stressed the need for students to be change agents who build a robust economy with a good framework for corporate governance and excellence.
20th anniversary
AC Muthiah, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIMK in his welcome address said: “This is a special year for IIM Kozhikode. We are in the 20th year of running the Institute. Though we feel stress and strain as an adolescent, our commitment towards quality education helps us remain focused and achieve excellence as enshrined in our fundamental duties. We have to maintain this excellence by becoming globally competitive and relevant. The high quality education we provide here needs to be combined with the aim of creating good human beings.”
Technical business incubator
Prof Kulbhushan Balooni, director-in-charge, highlighted the mentoring of IIM Amritsar since 2014 with the start of its first batch of PGP with 45 students in August 2015. He further announced the approval by the Department of Science and Technology to set up a Technical Business Incubator with a grant of ₹3 crore, soon to be registered as IIMK LIVE — Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship.
In tune with the national agenda of Make in India and Digital India campaigns, Prof Balooni spoke about conducting ‘Start-O-Sphere’, an annual event organised by the IIM-K’s Entrepreneurship cell. This event will bring together those among IIM-K’s alumni who are entrepreneurs to share their experiences and motivate students to contribute to the economy through their ventures.
He emphasised the need for healthy alumni support to boost the institute’s research activities and launched ‘Kasebook’, the formal website designed for the alumni to keep in touch with their alma mater.
Present on the occasion were IIM-K fraternity, invited guests, families and friends of students, along with members of the IIMK Board and trustees.