April 9, 2017: The Indian School of Business (ISB) today welcomed Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, Honourable Minister of State (independent charge) for Industry and Commerce, Government of India, as Chief Guest at Graduation Day 2017 held today at our Mohali campus. Smt Sitharaman gave away certificates to the graduating students and addressed the gathering.

Sharing her views, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, said, “I would like the young minds of this country to build business houses and create more jobs. India needs several entrepreneurs who can become fountainheads of commercially relevant ideas that will make a difference to the economy and the country and this is my expectation from the ISB graduates. I congratulate the graduating students and wish them a bright future ahead”.

Adi Godrej, Chairman of the ISB Executive Board, Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Mohali Campus Advisory Board, Professor Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, ISB, members of the ISB Board, participated in the celebrations along with students, families, faculty, alumni, staff and other visiting dignitaries.

 

Earlier, Professor Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, ISB, welcomed the gathering and advising the students, said “As future leaders, you need to learn how to grow and compete each day. If you have to succeed in this competitive environment, dream big, have the tenacity to convert your dreams into reality and face challenges with conviction.  Each one of you is unique and hence do not try to live someone else’s life and do not let others’ opinions drown down your inner voice. Challenge status quo and while being a good manager is the basic requirement, being a good leader is what ultimately matters. Be conscious of the need for utmost integrity and diligence in your personal and professional life”.

 

Sharing his experiences with the graduating students, Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group and ISB Board, said, “As a management student, one of the key things that I had learnt is the power of team work and the importance of building teams and retaining people, an idea that I imbibed early in my career and it is now with me all through. Please remember that Knowledge is Power and Leadership is about doing the tough things which need to be done and no one else wants to do, not just the popular ones. It is about telling the truth about how things are, not what people want to hear”. 

 

Referring to the role of family businesses in the economy, he said, “Family managed businesses are the ‘unsung heroes’ of the Indian economy. They make up more than two-thirds of the world’s companies, employing half the world's workforce and contribute to well over half the world's GDP.”

 

Graduation 2017 also marked the passing out of the largest ever group of students from the ISB, 898 of PGP Class of 2017, 61 of PGPMAX Class of 2016 and 55 of MFAB Class of 2016. With this, the ISB alumni network now expands to 8500 plus with presence in 41 countries across the world.

 

The graduation day commenced with the ceremonial procession led by the ISB Dean followed by the Chairman, Chief Guest, members of the board, faculty, and students wearing their graduation regalia in blue and black. The impressive line-up of leaders of today and tomorrow generated a huge applause from the audience as they entered the venue of the ceremony. 

The School also celebrated the accomplishments of its students and gave away awards to students who excelled in academics, extra-curricular activities and those who had demonstrated exemplary leadership skills throughout the year. An atmosphere of pride, happiness and excitement prevailed punctuated with rounds of applause, as students went on stage to collect their certificates.

The list of awards for this year is as follows.

 

ISB Scholar of Excellence: The ISB Scholar of Excellence is awarded in recognition of outstanding academic performance throughout the year.

The ISB Scholar of Excellence for the PGP Class of 2017 was awarded to Bharathi Rajan Muthu Krishnan, Rupinder Arora and Sourabh Gupta. Swati Gupta was awarded with the PGPMFAB 2016 Scholar of Excellence while Pankaj Poddar was awarded the ISB Scholar of Excellence for PGPMAX Class of 2016

The Dean’s List comprises students who make it to the top ten percentile of the Class for their academic accomplishments. This year a total of 106 students made it to the prestigious list across the PGP, PGPMAX and PGP MFAB programmes.

Chairman’s All Rounder Award PGP class of 2017

The Chairman’s All Rounder award was given to Sarthak Ahuja, Shyam Nambiar and Deepansha Trivedi, who had demonstrated exceptional all round leadership skills through the year

Yesterday, the ‘ISB Young Leaders’ and ‘ISB Torchbearer’ awards were given to  over 67 students of the PGP Class of 2017, who had contributed to the School in different ways, through the year. The Best Professional Club award was given to Business Technology Club (BTC) and Consulting Club while the   Best Social Club award was given to the Music Club and Dance Club.

 

As a part of an ISB tradition, students honoured their favourite faculty through the” Professor of the Year” awards.

 

Professor Sarang Deo of ISB and Professor Anjani Jain were voted the “Professor of the Year for Core Courses” for Hyderabad and Mohali campus respectively. Professor Piyush Kumar received the “Professor of the Year for Elective Course’ award across both the campuses”.

 

Professor Dishan Kamdar who is also the Deputy Dean (Academic programmes) was voted the “Professor of the Year’ by PGPMAX Class of 2016 and PGP MFAB Class of 2016.

 

These awards were given away by students to those who supported them in their learning throughout the year. Gaurav Tyagi was awarded by the PGPMAX Class of 2016 the PGP Class of 2017.

 

The Srini Raju Centre for Information Technology and the Networked Economy (SRITNE) at ISB, awarded three merit scholarship to students opting to major in the subject of the IT. The awardees from the PGP Class of 2017 are Mohit Satish Patni, Pramod Gubbi Suresh and Mayank Thakur.

 

SREI Infrastructure awarded three top student teams from the PGP Class of 2017, who contributed to its Annual sector-wise Report of 2017.

 

The celebrations came to a close with the ceremonial hat toss marking the finale’ of the Graduation day 2017. One could witness several touching and emotional moments as friends, class mates, families hugged each other, promising to keep in touch and meet again. 

ISB held the Graduation Day at its Hyderabad campus yesterday with Rahul Bajaj, Head, Bajaj Group, and Member, Executive Board, ISB, presiding as the Chief Guest at the ceremony.