IIM Shillong today welcomed 251 participants for its flagship MBA program and 24 Scholars for its Doctoral program.
The participants who made it to this prestigious institution, out of 2 lakh applications are the students enrolled from 24 states, including five from the North Eastern States. The 2021 PGP batch consists of 44 per cent of female students and 60 per cent plus students with more than 12 months of work experience.
Sixty per cent of the batch comes from Engineering and tech backgrounds, while eight students hold professional degrees. The rest of the batch has a healthy mix of General Science, Dentistry, Agriculture, Commerce, Law, etc.
The Chief Guest on the occasion, Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Service Pvt. Ltd, complimented the institute for being able to build the prestigious reputation of a leading IIM in such a short time.
He praised the quality management education and the deployment of exceptional professors and a variety of programs and highlighted the advantage that IIM Shillong had over older IIMs of creating change as per the evolving business dynamics.
Addressing the students, Munjal iterated on the importance of MBA, as a program and how the combination of theory with real-life application opportunities can make a difference. He advised the students to keep an open eye for learning around them and have high and meaningful aspirations as they are the privileged few in a country of abject poverty.
“I urge you to not just look for jobs. Become someone who will create and offer more jobs. India and the world need many more job creators. Entrepreneurship should be a part of your natural education. IIM Shillong will encourage you to be innovative, to look at things differently,” he said and reiterated the need to plan for contingencies by learning from the pandemic crises, find efficient solutions that are accessible and available to a larger section of the society.
Stating that success does not lie at the beginning, it lies at the end, but that depends on how you approach the problem and the solution, he said, “If it does not work, try again, because you only fail when you stop trying. We overestimate what we did in 1 year, and underestimate what we can do in 10 years.”
Munjal also took up questions from the inquisitive batch on work culture, changing expectations, and the evolving significance of MBA.
Chairman- Board of Governors, IIM Shillong Shishir Bajoria graced the occasion through an Audio message where he welcomed the new batches.
Prof. D.P. Goyal, Director-IIM Shillong, while welcoming the participants, congratulated them for making it to the Institute of national importance, despite the challenging times. He mentioned Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam while quoting the significance of the 7th IIM and shed light on the relevant and rigorous pedagogy of the institute.
