Politics without principles. Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice.— Mahatma Gandhi, about ‘seven social sins’
These thoughts, spelt out by Gandhiji in the weekly Young India , were echoed by chief guest, Dr Rajiv Kumar, vice-chairman, NITI Aayog, during his address at the 31st convocation to the PGDM batch of 2017-19 at BIMTECH, Greater Noida. The event was held on April 6. A total of 429 students graduated from PGDM (Core), International Business, Insurance and Retail Programmes along with five Ph.Ds, one Executive Fellow and one Fellow from the Management Programme.
Meaningful roles
Jayashree Mohta, chairperson, Board of Governors, BIMTECH, inaugurated the event. In her address, she motivated the students to engage in meaningful roles in the society and the corporate world and help others.
Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, director, BIMTECH, along with the registrar gave away the certificates.
Dr Kumar, an economist who also serves as Chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, urged the students to demonstrate high national, social and ethical values and contribute to the nation. He said, “Students are entering the work force but they must not forget the ethics and values of their institution. One must always respect elders, teachers and parents.”
Impressed with BIMTECH’s role in furthering community development, Dr Kumar said: “Niti Aayog is like a funnel, open to channelling ideas from civil society and academia to effect positive policy change”.
Women excel
Dr Kumar gave away the gold medals for excellence in academics to Gaurvi Agarwal (PGDM-Core), Akshita Agarwal (PGDM-IB), Deepanshi Arora (PGDM-IBM) and Adyasha Das (PGDM-RM). The specialisation-wise special medals were awarded to Gaurvi Agarwal for Marketing, Kiran B Krishnan for Operations, Akshita Agarwal for Finance and Parul Yadav for Human Resource. Saptarshi Bagchi and Akshita Agarwal were awarded the Dr CB Gupta and Yashoda Jaju Memorial Gold Medals for Best All-Round Performance.
Akshita Agarwal and Gaurvi Agarwal, were also awarded with Madhuri J Sheth Award for Best Academic Performance among women. Dr Nidhi Sharma Sahore was awarded the best thesis award. Kajal from Neemka (village, Haryana,) was conferred with Dr Sarla Birla Best Chiraiyya Award of ₹11,000 for active leadership in the Neemka village.
The guest who were in attendance member of the Board of Directors of BIMTECH, A. K. Agarwal, Non-Executive Director of Hindalco Industries Limited, Ghyanendra Nath Bajpai; former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI); Dr Ajit Ranade, President and Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Sakate Khaitan, senior partner at Khaitan Legal Associates; Alok Gupta, expert in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).