The Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, (IIM-U) hosted the inaugural ceremony for the 2024-26 batch of its flagship two-year MBA programme with 384 students. The batch consists of 32% female and 68% male students, according to the IIM-U’s press release. Additionally, the institute claims that 58% of the students have an engineering background, while 42% come from non-engineering fields. Moreover, 60% of the students have prior work experience, whereas 40% are freshers.
IIM-U Director Prof Ashok Banerjee presided over the event, while Sonny Iqbal of Egon Zehnder was the chief guest.
Drawing from his experience in the corporate world, Iqbal shared valuable life lessons, stressing the importance of combining hard work and dedication with strategic growth in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. He also urged the students to focus on forging good relationships and managing those relationships wisely at all stages of their careers.
Prof Rajesh Nanarpuzha, Dean of Programmes, emphasised the importance of the student's role at IIM-U, stating, "Students should think about their first day in IIM-U as the start of a new journey which will continue over the next decades in their life."
In his welcome address, Prof Debanjan Mitra, the chairperson of the two-year MBA programme, encouraged the new batch to embrace the opportunities and challenges ahead, emphasising the importance of critical and intellectual thinking.
In his address, Prof Banerjee congratulated all the students and welcomed them to the premier management institute. He spoke about the newly revised curriculum tailored for this batch, claiming that it aims to provide a unique and transformative educational experience. Prof Banerjee also emphasised the diverse backgrounds of the incoming students and encouraged them to develop resilience and problem-solving skills during their time at IIM-U.
The inauguration ceremony also celebrated academic excellence with the distribution of scholastic awards for outstanding performance across the three terms of the first year.
