The long wait of the One Year full-time management program participants at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for the MBA degree is finally over.
The 44th Annual Convocation at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) saw the One-Year full-time Executive Post Graduate Program (EPGP) and the two-year weekend management program Post-Graduate Program in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) along with the Doctoral program participants, receive MBA degrees instead of diplomas.
IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) had distributed MBA degrees to graduates of its one-year PGPX and the 2-year PGP at its 54th convocation on March 16, 2019.
IIMB, as well as IIMA and IIM Calcutta, had already started giving MBA degree certificates to graduates of the 2-year Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Management from 2018 onwards.
It is to be noted that OneYearMBA.co.in has been in the forefront of the struggle to ensure that the 1-year full-time post-graduate management course got its rightful recognition as an MBA program as against the 2-year post-graduate programs targeting fresh graduates that should be in the Masters in Management (MBM/ MiM) category.
In 2015, Students from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore and IIM Lucknow, had signed OneYearMBA.co.in’s petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani seeking to ensure that MBA degree at IIMs is awarded to One Year MBA courses in sync with the global accreditation awarded to these courses by Association of MBAs (AMBA).
“We embarked on a journey of converting our diploma-granting programs into degree-granting programs last year after the IIM Act came into place. In 2018, IIM Bangalore was the first IIM to award an MBA to the Post Graduate Programme,” Professor G. Raghuram, Director, IIM Bangalore announced at the Convocation ceremony on March 22.
“For the 2019 convocation, we have managed to bring in our doctoral program, the Post Graduate Program in Enterprise Management and the Executive Post Graduate Program in Management into the degree-granting fold.
“We are now working through the modalities of converting the Post Graduate Program in Public Policy and Management into a degree-granting program,” he added.
Over the years, IIM Bangalore has grown to become India’s leading management institute that attracts the best and brightest students from across the country. The alumni of this institution are sought after by leading companies from across the world, including my own
Altogether 625 students have graduated. Of these 24 were from the Fellow Programme in Management, 40 from the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management, 85 from the Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management, 73 from the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management and 403 from the Post Graduate Programme in Management.
Chief Guest at the Convocation was Arundhati Bhattacharya, former Chairperson, State Bank of India, Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, Chair, Board of Governors, IIMB.
Prof Raghuram said IIMB’s doctoral programme has set a record by graduating the maximum number of 24 this year. “Out of 279 graduated doctoral scholars over a nearly 40-year period, over 100 have graduated in the last five years,” he added.
Listing some of the achievements of the students, he made special mention of the first batch of seven students who recently completed the Professor N. S. Ramaswamy Pre-doctoral Program, a one-year apprenticeship program with a focus on inclusion, launched last year.
“Our Executive Education portfolio continues to be on the rise and making a significant impact. During 2018-2019, the number of programs has crossed the 200 mark, going up to 218. The total number of participants has crossed the 6000 mark, a 17% increase over the previous year,” he added.
About future plans, he said, “We are launching a two-year MBA programme in Analytics from 2020. There is an expansion of our existing programs. Our Committee for Future Directions will soon bring their ongoing deliberations to the faculty with a focus on a 10-year vision, including how to leverage our second campus. The ongoing focus to improve the ecosystem for research and the Centres continue.”
Among the graduating students this year, there were 12 students with disability who displayed outstanding grit during the gruelling two years of study, IIMB said in a release.
A total of eight students across different program have been awarded gold medals this year. Out of the eight gold medallists, two are women.
In PGP (Batch 2017-19), Ayush Gupta, Arjun Singh and Vaibhav Singh received the gold medals for the first rank, second rank and best all-round performance, respectively.
In PGPPM (Batch 2018-19), Kushagra Mittal has won the gold medal for best academic performance.
From PGPEM (Batch 2017-19), the gold medal for the first rank and for best all-round performance went to Sukanya P and Hariram Thirukarugavur Ramesh, respectively.
In EPGP (2018-19), Indranil Paul has won the gold medal for the first rank, while Xelene Aguiar has won it for best all-round performance.
Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, Chair, Board of Governors, IIMB, in his address, highlighted the institute’s milestones during the academic year 2018-19. “Over the years, IIM Bangalore has grown to become India’s leading management institute that attracts the best and brightest students from across the country. The alumni of this institution are sought after by leading companies from across the world, including my own,” he said.
He also pointed out that the companies of the future will invest more and more in digital assets and their managers will have to supervise bots, not humans. “So, the management curriculum must evolve to cope with a rapidly evolving digital landscape. And I am happy to say that IIM Bangalore is moving in the right direction to build such business leaders for tomorrow,” he added.
Dr Shetty’s speech focussed on the global rankings that IIMB has achieved recently, its partnerships with other leading global organizations such as Mphasis, Ford Foundation, Infineon, Commercial Taxes Department and Karnataka Government. Such activities enhanced the value of the school as a leading hub for management studies and research. IIMB also continues to be a preferred destination for recruiters looking for fresh talent, he added.
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Arundhati Bhattacharya, in her address, recollected incidents from her own life and career, while she addressed the students on ‘Setting up for Success’.
She pointed out that to be happy, one needs a modicum of success in whatever they do. She listed the attributes that help in bringing about success. “You must keep challenging yourself; have a proper estimation of your capabilities; keep learning; have not only depth of knowledge but breadth of coverage as well. Most of all, in this quest for success, do not forget to be kind and passionate,” she advised the graduating students.
On the eve of the convocation ceremony, on March 21 (Thursday), the Distinguished Alumni Awards (DAA) 2019 were presented to three candidates, by Professor G Raghuram and Dr Hasmukh Adhia, Former Revenue Secretary, who is a Distinguished Alumnus of IIMB himself.
The Distinguished Alumni Award winners this year are Lakshmi Kaul (PGP ’80-’82), Hitesh Oberoi (PGP ’94-’96) and Rajkumar D (PGP ’82-’84).
The Distinguished Alumni Awards, instituted in 2007 at IIMB, are given to alumni in recognition of their achievements of exceptional merit and excellence in their chosen field of endeavour – be it industry, management, entrepreneurship, research, academia or social service. Each recipient of the prestigious award receives a citation and his/her name is engraved on the wall of fame at IIMB.