Mr. B Muthuraman became Managing Director of Tata Steel on July 22, 2001. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he joined the company as a Graduate Trainee in 1966. Initially, he served for ten years in the Iron Making Operations and Engineering Development Division before joining the Marketing & Sales Division of Tata Steel at Kolkata. He rose to become Director of Marketing in 1991 and Vice President (Marketing & Sales) in 1994. In 1995, he was chosen to lead the prestigious Cold Rolling Mill project of Tata Steel and in the year 2000, he was made Executive Director (Special Projects). Under his leadership, Tata Steel has charted many new paths. Mr Muthuraman took the initiative of de-commoditizing steel through branding and retail initiatives and reducing the dependence of the bottom line of the company on market conditions. He was also instrumental in starting ‘Steeljunction’ in Kolkata. Mr Muthuraman had received numerous awards like the Best CEO award in 2003 from the Indian Institute of Materials Management at the BOC Pavilion, ‘The National HRD Network’s Path Finders Award 2004’ — CEO category in 2004,Business Standard CEO of year for 2004-05 etc.

The Convocation began with a report on the institute’s performance by Dr. Ranjan Ghosh, the director of GIM. The conferences, consulting and exchange programmes, placements, research activities etc. in the last academic year go out to prove the mettle of brand GIM yet again. The chairman of the institute, Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan further encouraged the audience by pointing out, “You will find as you progress that what gives success is not the lessons that can be taught. It is learning the lessons that can not be taught.”

Mr. B. Muthuraman, the chief guest for the evening inspired the students by talking about the importance of “spending time with oneself” as “learning comes from action and introspection”. The Dean of the institute, Prof. C.M. Ramesh appreciated the words of wisdom that left an indelible print on the minds of all attending the gripping graduation ceremony of the now professional managers.

The Campus, located at Ribandar, on a hill slope, is housed in a Heritage Building Santa Casa De Misericordia The Royal Portuguese Hospital, dating back to the Portuguese Rule in Goa had been recongnised as one of the premier institutes of country. Different surveys has also ranked it as Top B schools of India, like Indian Business Magazine BusinessWorld India has ranked GIM as 18th in Best B-Schools in India for the year 2004, 15 Top institutes offering the MBA degree or equivalents in India by rediff in 2005 and also ranked 17th in the BusinessWorld India’s Cosmode BW survey in 2005.

GIM is also Approved by the All India Council of Technical Education of the Government of India (AICTE) for offering postgraduate courses in management at the MBA level and also recognised by the Government of Goa and by many of the major industrial corporations in the country.GIM also has exchange programme with universities of Belgium, Germany and Portuguese.

GIM placement this year was rocking and young managers of GIM were picked as hot cakes. Within 50 hours, 116 students from different academic backgrounds with varying work experiences were placed in 31 companies. This year companies from the IT, Consulting, Financial Services, Banking, Telecom, Automotive and other sectors recruited students. A total of 193 offers were made to 116 students where as
A total of 78 companies showed interest in recruiting students from GIM and 47 were slotted for the final placement process. Of these, only 31 companies could recruit GIM students. The average salary showed an increase of 22.13% to Rs. 6.41 lakh per annum this year as against Rs.5.24 lakh last year. Similarly the highest (annual) salary offered was Rs. 9 lakh, as against Rs.8 lakh last year.

The Goa Institute of Management has received accreditation from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and this was the first convocation of the institute after the honour. The evening also marked the graduation of two batches of the Executive MBA programme. On the occasion of the convocation, students were recognized for awards and medals in various categories like the best summer project, the best dissertation etc. Victor Lobo was awarded the Best student in the sphere of Academics and Sushant Rao walked away with the rolling trophy of Best student. From the E-MBA programe, Yeshwant Desai recieved the same award. Vishal Shringarpure delivered a gripping valedictory address cherishing the memories of the institute, on behalf of the entire GIM batch of 2007 which left the audience mesmerized.

It was matter of great honour for the Batch of 2005-07 to be awarded the diploma after two years of hard work but the environment was filled with mix feelings; of joy of achieving the Diploma and also the grief of parting away with friends and the institute. All of them showed strong interest in contributing to alma mater. They parted away from the institute with the ambition of succeeding not only in corporate life but also on personal front, till they again gather for alumni meet to share the feelings of nostalgia of wonderful two years at GIM.