Indian Institute of Management Amritsar (IIM Amritsar) held its first annual convocation last week. The inaugural batch of 44 students received their post-graduate diplomas for the flagship Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) during the convocation ceremony at Punjab Institute of Technology, Government Polytechnic compound, from where IIM Amritsar is currently operating.
IIM Amritsar is the country’s 15th IIM and was set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 2015 under the mentorship of IIM Kozhikode.
Chief guest Prof. Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog, delivered the convocation address in the presence of the faculty members, the Board of Governors and members of the IIM Amritsar Society.
Importance of entrepreneurship
Prof. Debroy, congratulated the graduating class of 2017 on being the first batch from IIM Amritsar, which has already made its mark as an outstanding emerging management institute. He emphasised the importance of entrepreneurship for the youth of India, consistent with the Centre’s Start-up India and Make in India initiatives.
Prof. Kulbhushan Balooni, Director-in-Charge, IIM-K and Mentor Director, IIM Amritsar, addressing the graduating class, presented the report on the commendable strides made by the Institute during the last two years, the invaluable faculty inputs received from some of the country’s prestigious institutes, the success of the summer internship programme, the multitude of extra-curricular activites and achievements of the students, and the successful final placements.
Highlighting the salient features of IIM Amrtsar’s PGP Programme he said: “IIM Amritsar is going to be a prominent feature in the landscape of Amritsar City — Guru dee Nagari — in the near future. We foresee great growth of IIM Amritsar and expect that, in due course, it may surpass the achievements of all older IIMs”. He called on the students to judiciously exercise the learnings from the Institute, and to make the right choices in life without ever compromising on human values.
A better India
Kewal Kumar Sharma, IAS, Chairman BoG IIM Amritsar and Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, in his message, emphasised that the vision of the Department, the Ministry and the Government is to realise India’s human resources potential to its fullest and with equity in excellence. To this end, the mission is to expand access to higher education by establishing new quality educational institutions and to provide greater opportunities to all who are eligible. He expressed his pleasure at presenting 44 graduating students who are ready to take their place in the corporate world and render service in the global business ecosystem, towards making a greater and better India.
In its first two years of existence, IIM Amritsar has been able to foster a robust industry-academia relationship and has conducted three Management conclaves — ‘A-square’, ‘Yukti’ and ‘Sankshetra’. Industry leaders from top echelons of the business world such as Godrej, Polaris, Deutsche Bank, Holiday IQ, KPMG, Leo Burnett, Accenture and Philips attended these management conclaves.
Awards to best students
The IIM Amritsar Gold Medal for Scholastic Performance were awarded to Ms Himshikha of the PGP batch. The Gold Medal for All-Round Performance was awarded to Mr Darshan Sharma.
The first batch has laid a strong foundation for the upcoming batches to build on the legacy of the institute and Brand IIM. In the years to come, these students would be looked up to as an epitome of leadership. This also reflects in the stellar summer and final placements bagged by the students.
In last two years, IIM Kozhikode, the mentor IIM, offered unwavering and strong support in terms of faculty and other able mentorship to IIM Amritsar.
It is commendable that IIM Amritsar, one of the junior-most IIM, in its second year of inception, has been able to increase its intake by a 133 per cent to 104 from 45 in the first year. This makes it the only IIM among the new IIMs to increase its batch strength to more than 100.