8 gold medallists, 598 graduates at IIMB's 42nd convocation

Eight students graduated with gold on Monday at the 42nd convocation of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B). A total of 598 students graduated from Postgraduate and Fellow programmes.

Of these, 20 were from the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM), the highest so far.
Udit Jalan secured the highest ever CGPA in IIMB’s Post Graduate programme — a score of 3.9 out of 4.0 for which the 25-year-old earned a gold medal. Jalan is interested in the intersection of finance, strategy and technology and has landed a job in an investment company. “The best part of studying here was that people were always up for discussions and we could walk into anyone’s room any time,” he said. In the PGP batch, Dharmendra Hiranandani received a gold medal for his second rank in academic performance and Vaibhav Gupta for ‘Best All-round Performance’.

After almost 20 years of dreaming about it, Shishank Gupta completed his Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) from IIMB with a gold medal. “Though I did my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, I wanted to get into IT so that I could do an MBA later on. I appeared for CAT but I had loved the job I had just got so I postponed it.

Now, I have finally fulfilled that dream,” he said. A job, classes and coursework were difficult to juggle and holidays were spent with Gupta and his two sons doing their homework together. In the PG PEM batch, Suresh Ganesan received the gold medal for Best All-round Performance.

In spite of working for four years as Director, Budget, for Ministry of Railways, Pranav Kumar Mallick was overwhelmed when he attended his first class in IIMB. “In my first two days, I could not understand the subjects, the terms, graphs and statistics.” Mallick was nominated by the Department of Personnel and Training of the Union government for the one-year Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM). Mallick, who once asked his professor if he would fail the course, on Monday received a gold medal for ‘Best Academic Performance’.

Though his course was hectic, Kushal Nitin Dalal was actively involved in cultural activities throughout the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) and bagged the gold medal for ‘Best All-round Performance’. Aside from having a keen interest in tech consulting, Dalal has a passion for percussion instruments. “I grew up in Girgaum in Mumbai where Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated grandly,” Dalal said, adding that he play on the instruments at the functions . Nikhil Goyal, also from the EPGP batch, received a gold medal for securing the first rank.

The institute’s new director Prof G Raghuram presented a report on the successes and achievements of the students. Uday Kotak, vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd was the chief guest at the event. He urged the graduating students to think creatively and dare to be different.

DH News Service