The audience then got to witness reKall@20, a short film depicting major milestones of the institute since its inception as the sixth IIM in 1996. What began in 1996 with 42 students and a handful of visiting faculty had grown into a full-fledged institute with over 800 participants guided by some of the best professors in the nation. Eminent dignitaries including Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Mr. Kapil Sibal and Mr. E. Sreedharan have honored the institute by their presence. Apart from the first of its kind hill top campus, IIM K is home to India’s first Business Museum which was inaugurated by Mr. Pallam Raju in 2013. Throughout these twenty years, it has received numerous accolades including an AMBA accreditation and Wiley Library Award. Memorandums of Understanding with top global institutes like Yale and Leeds bear testimony to its academic excellence.
But the event of the night was the inspiring lecture by the honorable Chief Guest, ex IIM B director and the currently the Chairman, Board of Management, Ahmedabad University. He began his speech by quoting examples closely related to current business scenarios to elucidate the disruptions occurring in today’s world and the constant need of innovation not just to excel but also to survive. It was obvious then that business graduates must be not just taught marketing and operations but must also be taught how to constantly learn in an ever changing and dynamic environment. He stressed that the role of institutes was their ability to inspire and the high value that must be placed on research in order to satisfy changing work environments and develop one’s mental faculties. He emphasized why B-school learning could never be just about management but that had to be an amalgamation of engineering, humanities and management in order to foster imagination and innovation. Finally, he quoted Tagore -
“Just as a lamp cannot light unless itself lit, a teacher can never teach unless he himself learns”
and stressed that teaching was neither a profession or a job but an art that inspired learning.
Such an event can never be complete without acknowledging the efforts of its long standing members and so Professor S.S.S Kumar on behalf of the entire administration felicitated Professor Praship Kumar KK, Professor Unnikrishnan Nair and Mr. Madhusudanan V who have been associated with the institute for over 15 years.
The evening ended with a vote of thanks delivered by Mr. K Sadanandan after which Professor Chandra was felicitated by Professor Balooni. And thus rejuvenated and re-invigorated IIM K restarted its pursuit towards something better, something bigger.
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