The RP Goenka Auditorium of International Management Institute (IMI), Kolkata, was packed to capacity as 125 students, including 49 women, received their management diplomas in the presence of IAS officer Sanjay Mitra, Secretary, Ministry of Defence, who delivered the convocation address.
Recalling his 38 years in the administrative services, Sanjay Mitra said, “Management education has endowed on you many privileges — you have been exposed to the most advanced ideas and processes for modern business managers; technical skills that the best managements in the world are looking to build; you have been taught the tools of professional managers, and have been honing your skills to handle real-life situations.”
“Your learning at IMI has armed you with a formidable array of tools to combat problems. But at the end of the day, you must remember that it is merely a toolkit,” he added.
Using resources carefully
Mitra said, “Our country with its immense reserve of human and physical resources is lacking not in the quantity and quality of these resources, but in the way we have utilised these resources.”
Mitra concluded, “You are embarking on a most exciting journey. The world out there is fiercely competitive, but you should have no fear. You have been tempered by one of the most rigorous programmesin the world and are now ready to show your mettle.”
Earlier, Dr Arindam Banik, Director, IMI Kolkata, referred to IMI’s growing number of international collaborations with B-schools in France, China and Finland.
Gaurav Guha received the Dr RP Goenka gold medal. PK Khaitan, renowned lawyer and Member of IMI’s Board of Governors, presided over the convocation.