Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon held its 14th Annual Convocation today. Chairman, MDI Board of Governors and Member of Parliament, Mr. N K Singh, conferred a doctoral degree on 8 participants and declared them as Fellows of MDI. Mr. Singh then awarded Post Graduate Diploma in Management to 530 students of the various programs at MDI. With this ceremony183, 55, and 38 students were declared to have completed their PGPM, PGP-HR, and PGP-IM program respectively; 102, 65, 50 and 29 participants were declared to have completed the Executive Management Program (EMP), National Management Program (NMP), the Energy Management Program and the Public Policy & Governance Program respectively.

Congratulating the passing out graduates, Mr. N K Singh said they had no doubt difficult times ahead of them but the skills learnt by them during their education in MDI will hold them in good stead.

Mr. Singh held, the changed global economic scenario called for a complete overhaul and reassessment of our growth dynamics and strategies. There is need for major changes in our economic and social planning and services especially in the field of education. Reforms in higher and technical education are urgently needed and we have to devise how to improve our rural income in order to make the masses real customers and consumers of our services. This is essential to eliminate our dependence on exports and foreign markets, he said. “We have to have our own variety of regulatory and structural reforms in agriculture and in labour policies. This also calls for re-writing old classical theories and practices to help mitigate the impact of the present global slowdown. He revealed that the MDI Board of Governors has initiated an intensive review of the institute’s course curriculum. The committee set up for this purpose will reframe and redraw our education content in a way that it is relevant to the changing market needs and demands. He also assured that MDI authorities will see to it that all the pass outs are placed suitably at the earliest.

Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman Aditya Birla Group was the Chief Guest for the occasion. Due to sudden illness, he was unable to arrive on the day. Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director HR & Business Head for Carbon Black Business of Aditya Birla Group delivered the Convocation Address on his behalf. In the Convocation address, Mr. Birla called the year 2008 as the year of the unthinkable and shared with the gathering of more than 1000 people, what it means – at a global, macro level for business and for entrants to the world of business.

Stressing that development means providing more opportunities of work, Mr Birla impressed upon the passing out Business School graduates that present times though hard, provided a great opportunity for learning and they had to look to varied avenues beyond traditional MNCs, and large corporate. “You need to also seek opportunities in mid-size companies, government and government enterprises, and regulatory bodies like SEBI, state financial institutions”, he said.

Mr. Birla held the present global economic slowdown has blurred traditional ideological bases as most capitalist countries are extending massive financial bailouts for their distressed institutions.  There has also been reversal in globalization and economic deregulation with countries like US discouraging off-shoring. At the same time, growing interdependence among nations is the need of the hour as the world today is practically boundary-less. “Environmental degradation and global warming do not respect artificial national boundaries”, he warned.

He urged organizations to challenge the known and embrace the unknown. He said, “No matter how difficult the times, every organization has to work hard to stand by its principles and beliefs”. Success at any cost, and narrow short term performance indicators will not do, he warned. Mr. Birla urged the new entrants to be positive and upbeat and to fill their cup of life with passion and imagination. He asked them to broaden their canvas; to dream the big dream and take the big leap.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor C V Baxi, Director MDI said that MDI in its 35th year of existence has strengthened its core activities like research and consulting, long-term education and in-house management development programs for the corporate and public enterprises. The institute has made significant progress in its international linkages and collaborations, and PhD level and executive education programs. There are around 1000 students in its various long term programs with 530 graduating this year.

Professor Baxi complimented the Dean (School of Energy Management and School of Public Policy & Governance) for initiatives in stabilizing the two programs by introducing an innovative curriculum appreciated by numerous stakeholders. The institute has entered into academic and research collaboration at the national level with DOPT, Department of Atomic Energy, and Haryana Government. At the international level, the institute has entered collaboration with prestigious institutions like George Mason University (USA), Kent University (UK), Total University (France) and many more.

Despite the global economic slowdown, MDI has successfully placed majority of its students and efforts are under way to place the remaining ones. He said that in order to remain socially relevant, MDI is encouraging projects in fields of social entrepreneurship and CSR consulting, apart from encouraging students to set up their own ventures and innovative endeavours. In research and consulting MDI is engaged in diversified streams for the manufacturing and service organizations. Several large corporations have engaged the institute’s services in providing consulting inputs of a broad variety. Committed to quality management including the quality of research, publications and teaching, MDI has invested significantly in developing infrastructure for academic and residential complexes and plans expansion of its national and international activities. The institute has a world class library with over 60,000 books and more than 12000 journals both online and print, and a rich variety of electronic databases.

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