The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) held its 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, at the Louis Kahn Plaza, IIM-A main campus, in Ahmedabad.
Prof Kaushik Basu, Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies, at Cornell University was the chief guest and delivered the convocation address. Among the several pertinent points he made, he highlighted the importance of the moral compass, saying: “India’s long-run prospects are excellent. I feel we can be a global leader. I must add that I want India to be a leader not to enrich itself, but to be a force for good in the world. The aim should be to provide leadership for a better world, a world of prosperity, equality and sharing. As you, the students of IIM, go out into the world, you will have your own ambitions, but harbour, somewhere in your heart, the ambition for goodness for the world.”
Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Board of Governors, IIM-A, welcomed the graduating students, telling them that: “Your association with this institute transcends the two years you have spent here. This is now a lifelong bond. Just like the friendships you have struck on campus... You are the reason; I am so optimistic about the future of this country.”
Prof Errol D’Souza, Director of IIM-A, delivering the concluding address, made the point that: “Life as you well know has a way of creating unexpected events — events Nassim Taleb likens to the appearance of a black swan when, based on your past experience, you assumed that all swans were white. It is good to welcome them as a challenge that helps us to learn, adapt, and flourish.”
The institute had a total of 593 student graduating this year, with 398 students from the PGP batch (2017-19), 45 students of the PGP FABM batch (2017-19) and 137 students of the PGPX batch (2018-19).
Shubham Goyal, Advani Manish Suresh and Kshitij Jain of the PGP 2017-19 batch bagged the coveted gold medals, while Moksha of PGP FABM 2017-19 and Ronit Bhattacharyya of PGPX 2018-19 batch also bagged gold medals for their respective courses.