With ambitious gleams in their eyes, the sixth batch of management students of the Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM-I) on March 21, 2005 received their MBA degrees from Bharat Forge Limited Chairman BN Kalyani.
All 105 students of the 2005 batch descended on the campus for the ceremony a day earlier with their parents and kin. The otherwise idyllic campus was teeming with proud students and prouder mothers and fathers.
The Convocation Ceremony began at 3 pm at the main block lawns.
Delivering the convocation address at a grand ceremony inside the IIM-I campus, chief guest and State Bank of India Chairman AK Purwar called upon the management graduates to respect values and culture on their way to success.
He described rural India as the ‘new growth engine’ and asked the students to bring their expertise to the task of modernising rural India and unleashing the country’s potential.
“I foresee multinational companies and corporates outsourcing jobs to the hinterland in sectors like pharma, biotech and agro-electronics in the near future,” he said introducing his vision of ‘rural outsourcing’ in India.
He predicted the role of Microfinance as immense in the resulting scenario.
(L-R) Class Topper MV Krishnan, Bharat Forge Chairman BN Kalyani, SBI Chairman AK Purwar and IIM-I Director Dr SP Parashar
In his address, IIM-I Director Dr SP Parashar spoke about the activities and achievements of the institute in the past year.
He disclosed the institute’s plans of a international exchange tie-up with top French B-school Ecole de Management – Lyon. Selected students from each of the institutes will visit each other every year under this programme.
Later in an informal talk, Dr Parashar revealed that the IIM-I would increase the intake for PGPM from 120 to 180 from the session 2006-07.
The Class of 2005 comprising 105 students passed out of the institute with plum jobs at an average salary of Rs 8.16 lakh per year. The highest salary offered was Rs 12.5 lakh per year. As much as 80 percent were lateral placements (figures as quoted by the institute).
Top recruiters such as ICICI Bank, Glaxo Smithkline, Hindustan Lever Limited, Glenmark, Standard Chartered Bank, Infosys and Wockhardt picked up the management talent from IIM-I during the placement process that ended in February earlier this year.
The atmosphere among the fresh MBAs and their families was starkly jubilant.
Parents congratulated their manager sons and daughters with tears in their eyes and pride on their faces.
On being asked about his best moment on the IIM-I campus in the past two years, the batch topper MV Krishnan beamingly answered, “every goddamn moment!”
The author is a Correspondent with The Pioneer, Bhopal and operates an NGO ‘Soochna Mitr’ for IT content development in rural areas. He abortively contemplates appearing for CAT again approximately 37 times per annum.