Captain G. R. Gopinath, Managing Director of Air Deccan was the Chief Guest on the occasion. Prof Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM-B, Prof. Mahadevan, Dean Administration, Prof. Shyamal Roy, Dean Academic and Prof. Subhashish Gupta, Dean Admissions were also present at the IIM-B academic inaugural session.
According to the information shared by IIM-B with MBAUniverse.com, "Prof Gupta welcomed the new batch and said that IIM-B welcomed a batch of record strength this year, with 273 students of the post graduate programme, the flagship programme of the institute and 30 students of the Fellowship Programme in Management, which is again an all time high." He remarked that the class among others consists of 242 engineers and 23 students from a non-science background.
While sharing the profile of the new students, IIM-B informed that the remarkable about the batch is the percentage of students with work experience which has been increasing, with just under 70 students having no work experience. There are over 116 students with 1 to 3 years of work experience.
Prof Chandra asked students to focus on the 3 main issues facing the country – the technological divide, trade barriers in the age of globalization and poverty and wealth disparity. Said Prof Chandra, "Education must be about business and industry, but at the same time focus on enabling a growth and progress of society as well. The fresh batch should not think just in terms of what they would achieve, but what footprint they would leave on their country and society."
Captain Gopinath then addressed the audience and spoke about his inspiring experiences in life, including his rise to the head of one of the most prominent airlines in the country today. "Dare to dream and begin it," he said, quoting the famous German poet Goethe.
The inaugural session was further followed by the felicitation of the top 5% of the senior batch of year 2007-09 who were awarded the Director's Merit List awards, one of the most prestigious academic awards in IIM Bangalore.
Building on the base of its highly accomplished faculty and motivated student body, IIM-B has evolved into a premier centre for management education and research. The flagship Postgraduate Programme in Management (PGP) and Fellow (Doctoral) Programme in Management (FPM) are very highly rated and IIM-B alumni occupy senior managerial and academic positions across the globe. The two-year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) is the flagship programme of the Institute. It is designed to enable students to acquire the skills and capabilities that will enable them to reach responsible Global positions in management.
