Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon, in its 50th Foundation Year, celebrated Convocation 2022 on June 15 with Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and MD of HUL as the Chief Guest. Presenting the Director’s Report, MDI Director Dr Rajesh Chakrabarti, shared the key achievements and initiatives taken by the institute in last 12 months. “2021-22 has been a milestone year for MDI Gurgaon,” said Dr. Chakrabarti. MBAUniverse.com accessed the report, and is publishing key highlights from the report.
Dr Chakrabarti had joined MDI Gurgaon on June 1, 2021 as Director. Before joining MDI, he had taught Finance and Public Policy for over two decades – at the University of Alberta, Canada, Georgia Tech, USA, the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Jindal Global University.
Dr Chakrabarti started his report by saying, “Let me start by congratulating everyone here as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee year of MDI. 2021-22 has been a milestone year for us at MDI Gurgaon.”
The key highlights of report are:
1. Three new Centers of Excellence launched
In the year 2021-22, MDI Gurgaon has launched three new Centres of Excellence to focus on specific themes. Sharing this, Dr Chakrabarti said, “Centers of Excellence play a key role in focusing collective faculty effort along important contemporary themes. We launched three Centers of Excellence in 2021-22.”
Sharing details of the Centres, Dr Chakrabarti said, “The Centre for Ethics, Responsible Organisations and ESG initiatives (CERO@MDI Gurgaon) was inaugurated October 7, 2021, with a vision of “Building a Better World.” The Centre has hosted expert discussions, competitions for students and young children and a roundtable for women entrepreneurs since its inception”
MDI has established the Centre for Indian Thought and Management (CITM) October 16, 2021. The Centre has already held two speaker series on “Thought Management: Lessons from Buddhism” and “Leadership and Change Management: Lessons from Mahabharata”. It has also organised an online symposium on "Indian Management Thought in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management".
The Centre of Excellence on Digital Economy, Cryptocurrencies and Cyber Security (DECCS) at MDI was launched October 18, 2021, with the National Cyber Security Coordinator, Government of India, as the chief guest. The Centre aims to examine the complex issues of the digital economy. It will facilitate government and regulatory bodies to bring in an India specific context and discussion specially covering emerging technology areas. DECCS has organised a series of speaker events and panel discussions in the last six months. It has also participated in newsroom debates on crypto regulations.
Together the three Centres of Excellence have organised over 20 events successfully since October last year.
2. Three New Schools & Teaching Learning Centre Launched
Given the impact of Covid 19 on management education, a shift in Teaching and Learning is being discussed across the world. MDI Gurgaon has taken a lead by establishing Teaching Learning Centre.
Sharing the details, Dr Chakrabarti said, “We launched a Teaching Learning Centre (TLC@MDI) to encourage innovative approaches to design and delivery of courses and programmes. The TLC has helped organized sessions in Design Thinking for MDI students, as well as workshops in teaching for FPM students and conducted Faculty Development Programs for other B-School faculty.”
MDI has also launched three new Schools in the areas of Design Thinking; Public Policy; Management of Financial Institutions in the year 2021. Presenting the Director’s Report, Dr Chakrabarti said, “Apart from the CoEs, we have also launched three new schools – School of Design Thinking, Innovation and the Digital Economy; School of Public Policy and Governance; and School of Management of Financial Institutions – to provide thought leadership in these key emerging areas.”
3. Rs 200 Crore Campus Rejuvenation Program Launched
MDI Gurgaon is focused on redevelopment of its campus with best-in-class infrastructure and is set to implement an over Rs 200-crore campus rejuvenation and expansion plan. This is announced by Rajnish Kumar, Member of the MDI Board of Governors and Former CMD of State Bank Of India.
Dr Rajesh Chakrabarti, added more details as he said, “MDI Gurgaon campus is dear to all of us. I am delighted to announce that we have reached an agreement with the selected architects to add to and upgrade the campus significantly.”
4. 200+ Research and Publication in 2021-22
Research is at the core of MDI Gurgaon. Highlighting the achievements in the year, Dr Chakrabarti said, “Research and academic publishing are critical in shaping how leaders think and businesses operate both now and in the future. In all, 239 articles across different categories like journal articles, case studies, book chapters, and newspaper and magazine articles were published in 2021-22. Twenty-seven of our faculty members presented their research work in national and international conferences. Twenty-three contributed to academic citizenship through various research-related activities.”
A case study by MDI faculty, “One employee went freelance. Now, everyone wants the same deal”, was published in the March edition of Harvard Business Review.
Adding further, Dr Chakrabarti said, “Research events are critical in promoting research, connecting it to practice and increasing visibility in the academic community. In 2021-22, we started three series of research events – the Ideas-Choupal, Practitioner Conversation Series and Wisdom Café. During the course of the year, over 50 events across the three series were held.”
5. 50+ Management Development Programmes for Working Executives
As the name suggests, MDI conducts large number of management development programs for executives. Sharing the details of MDPs in the year, Dr Chakrabarti said, “MDI is known for its Management Development Programmes for working executives. The Institute has trained and developed over 100,000 managers in the course of the 50 years of its existence. In the year 2021-22, we conducted 47 in-company and nine open training programmes. In all, 1,465 executives attended these programmes. An Online Post Graduate Certificate in Human Resource Management is also currently underway with 37 participants.”
6. AACSB Accreditation
In the year 2021, MDI Gurgaon joined the elite club of AACSB Accredited B-schools in India. At present, India has 19 AACSB Accredited management institutes. Sharing the achievement, Dr Chakrabarti said, “We earned the coveted accreditation from AACSB International, the world’s largest business education alliance, the culmination of a long journey and hard work of everyone at MDI Gurgaon led by the accreditation team” and added “We heartily embrace the AACSB motto of ‘continuous improvement’. And we look forward to playing an active role in the AACSB community and reaching greater heights going forward.”
7. Record Placements Achieved
MDI Gurgaon concluded its placement 2022 for the batch 2020-2022 with 15% rise in average salary.
Highlighting the record placements, Dr Chakrabarti said, “MDI continues to be the institute of choice for newly minted talent. You will be glad to know that MDI Gurgaon again achieved a 100 percent placement record. A total of 87 organisations, including 35 new ones, recruited students from MDI. The batch comprised 231 students from PGDM, 58 from PGDM-HRM and 102 from PGDM-IB programmes. This time, the highest salary offered was Rs. 1.14 crore while the average salary recorded was Rs. 23.50 lakh.”
8. International Partnerships – 80+ International MOUs
MDI Gurgaon has partnered with top management institutes and universities across the world including USA, UK, Canada, Germany, China amongst others for student and faculty exchange.
Reading out the Director’s Report, Dr Chakrabarti said, “MDI’s international partnerships are an important feature of our programmes. Today, we have MoUs with over 80 international institutes and organisations. These collaborations facilitate student and faculty exchange for doing joint research, organising conferences and conducting programmes. A total of 34 students went on student exchange programmes while five students from partner institutes visited us. Due to the pandemic, the incoming and outgoing faculty exchange activity was online. The international faculty actively participated in the online Research Seminar Series.”
9. Despite Covid-19, Conferences and Events Organized
Learning and hosting of conferences, seminars, workshops never stopped at MDI Gurgaon despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
On December 20 &21, 2021, MDI Gurgaon hosted the 11th edition of Indian Management Conclave organized by MBAUniverse.com. Sharing the achievement, Dr Chakrabarti said, “In December, MDI Gurgaon hosted in physical mode the premier national B-school networking event, Indian Management Conclave (IMC) 2021. More than 150 Directors, Deans and faculty from India’s leading institutions attended the 11th IMC. The event is organized by MBAUniverse.com in partnership with India’s top B-schools and knowledge organizations.”
Sharing the details of other events, held by MDI Gurgaon, Dr Chakrabarti said, “Despite Covid-19, MDI held regular events like:
- Illumina, our market research club, organised its 25th edition of the disguised market research festival in November.
- Delphique, the National Management Convention of MDI Gurgaon, was held virtually in December 2021.
- In February this year, Imperium, the annual management, sports and cultural festival of MDI Gurgaon, was held on campus.
- Also, in February this year, the second edition of TEDxMDIGurgaon was held at our Library greens. The theme this year was “Dare to Dream in a Post-pandemic World”.
- In April, the PGDM-BM participants held their annual business leadership conclave, Samvaad. It is a business colloquium focused on gaining insights into strategy, leadership, and innovation. This year, the theme of Samvaad was “The Great Reset”.
- In May, our Institute organised a conference on “Public Policy for Distressed Corporations”. The aim of the conference was to integrate academic and practitioner perspectives on corporate revival, debt recovery, and bankruptcy resolution.”
10. Other Initiatives
MDI Gurgaon took various other initiatives during the year 2021. For example, during the year 2021-22, MDI launched its new website with many improved features. Sharing this, Dr Chakrabarty said, “Our website is the face of MDI to the world. I am happy to announce that we have recently launched the new and significantly improved MDI website. We have also significantly increased the social media footprint of our Institute in the course of the year.”
Apart from this, the year 2021 saw the increase in strength of MDI faculty. Reading out the report, Dr Chakrabarti said, “Over the last one year, our faculty strength has grown across academic areas. We added seven new members to the MDI faculty team.”
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on MDI Gurgaon
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