The Induction Programme of the 19th Batch of Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) commenced on July 1, 2016. The two day event aims to motivate and inspire the PGP participants to excel in their career choices and become familiarized to the Institute. The Inaugural Ceremony was marked by the presence of renowned economist and politician, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, along with Professor Ganesh K. Nidugala, Dean (Academic) & Officiating Director and all the 450 students registered for the programme.
The programme initiated with the welcome address by Professor Ganesh K. Nidugala. Mentioning about the first batch of PGP which started with just 37 students, he said that the Institute has grown significantly in all these years. ‘The first batch of Integrated Prorgamme in Management graduated this year with 100% placements and has been accepted gracefully by the industries as well’, he said. He discussed about the infrastructure and the course curriculum as well. Discussing about the changes in the course curriculum this year, he noted that the course focuses on crafting the students as not employment seekers, but employment givers.
This was followed by the Commencement Speech by Mr. Jairam Ramesh who enthralled the audience with his interactive talk about Indian economy and the changes that have taken place in the last 25 years, which he mentioned in recently published book, ‘To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story’.
He began his talk discussing about Indore and how the city is well known for the origin of Hindustani Music, famous cricketers and authors. ‘And now, Indore is emerging as an education hub, with both IIT and IIM in the same city, drawing investors as well’, he said. He talked about the kind of life people lived during the 70’s and 80’s and how much innovation has taken place. ‘India has arisen as a country with robust economy since the last two decades. There were days when owning a telephone took four years, when India manufactured just two kinds of cars and when the economy was considered inward-looking economy. It is now hard to imagine how the life was then. But now, the inward economy has taken a paradigm shift and revolved to outward economy, there has been intellectual expansion in the country with so many educational and economic policies and reforms and the country has a growth rate of more than 6 per cent’ , Mr. Ramesh said.
Discussing about the economic reforms in 1991, he discussed how these changes brought about fiscal changes in the industrial as well as trading, and made India one of the fastest growing democratic country in the world. ‘Although the changes advanced with the changing government, we now need to focus on the challenges we might be facing, like the demography. Every year, we now need more than 10 million jobs for the youth in diverse industries. Any reform’s effectiveness would be judged by how many challenges it can meet’, he said.
He concluded his talk mentioning that undergraduate study is the only time you spend learning, while the post-graduation is just spent yearning, to start earning. He congratulated the students for making it to IIM Indore and wished them luck for future.
This was followed by a Q&A session with Mr. Ramesh where the students asked him various questions related to Brexit, environment & economy related issues and various economic shifts which took place in the last year.
This was followed by a briefing by Professor Shubhamoy Dey, Chair, PGP. He briefed the students about the course curriculum and the subjects.
The first day of the orientation concluded with a session on Gender Sensitivity by Ms. Roshani Das, Student Representative of Internal Complaints Committee at IIM Indore.