Published: Saturday, 17 June, 2017 3:40 PM
Commencement Day Programme at BIMTECH
30th Commencement Day of BIMTECH addressed by Mr Prakash Iyer & Prof Sunil Mithas
The New Batch has 40% Female students, one of the highest in the country.
“Digitalization will impact lives, but not in the way you think”
These were the words with which Prof. Sunil Mithas, Professor at Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, USA started his address at the 30th Commencement Day “Deeksharambh”, of BIMTECH on June 16, 2017 at Greater Noida. In this glittering event, Prof Mithas and Mr. Prakash Iyer, a motivational speaker, leadership coach and a bestselling author, were the honoured guests. Other dignitaries on the dais were Dr. H Chaturvedi, Director, Dr. Anupam Verma, Dy. Director, Dr. I V Trivedi, National Fellow, Dr. K C Arora, Registrar, Dr. K R Chari, Dean Student Welfare and Prof. K K Sinha, Dean Development.
The Commencement day at BIMTECH is a time of ceremony, pageantry, and rejoicing, much of it representing traditions that are decades old in this unique academic celebration, which dates back to the Vedic era when the ‘Deeksha aarambh’ ceremony would be conducted for students entering the Gurukul.
It was in this spirit of traditions leading to modernity that the Guest of honour, Prof Mithas who is also Co-Director, Centre for Digital innovation, Technology and Strategy as well as Co-Director, Centre for Excellence at University of Maryland delivered a very contemporary Commencement Day Address on the topic, “Digitalization and its impact on economy and job skills required”. He mentioned about ‘the third great wave’ of invention and economic disruption, set off by advances in computing and information and communication technology (ICT) in the late 20th century, which promises to deliver a mixture of social stress and economic transformation. It is driven by technologies—including machine intelligence, the ubiquitous web and advanced robotics—capable of delivering many remarkable innovations: unmanned vehicles and mobile technology that eliminates the distance between teacher and student. According to him, ‘whether the digital revolution will bring mass job creation to make up for its mass job destruction remains to be seen.’ He said that the digitalization has brought in very interesting times. He talked about the Internet economy and hopes and fear of digitalization and shared some of the factors that are driving digitalization today. In his address, he also discussed what will be the impact of digitalization on white collared jobs and which could be the jobs that are highly susceptible to digitalization. At the same time, he reassured the new batch of 2017-19, that management education actually helps the graduates get better paying jobs than graduates with technical knowledge.
The second speaker for the day was Mr Prakash Iyer, who after spending nearly three decades working with multinational companies, chose to step out of the corporate world in 2014 to pursue his passion for writing, speaking, and helping other people unleash the leader within. In his last role, he was the Managing Director of Kimberly Clark Lever in India. Mr Iyer also included incidents from his personal and professional lives. According to him, ‘Perception is an important factor which influences our attitude’ and he illustrated this point in different ways. He also emphasized the fact that strong determination and guts, along with a positive attitude can help everyone accomplish their goals in life. Using Sachin Tendulkar as an example, he showed how a person can overcome mental barriers that inhibit our success.
He urged the students to push themselves out of their comfort zones and do things that they otherwise would not want to do. He asked them to make mistakes which bring most learning. According to him “Curiosity is important” as that is what pushes people to do more. According to him, the focus should not be on self-one- upmanship but to try and help others to also do better. He reiterated that one must emerge as the “go to “person for everyone. His inspirational talk centered on the beliefs that the young students must follow to achieve success. He pointed out that there can never be any shortcuts to success and “one must want it badly”. His PHD formula of Passion, Hunger for success and Discipline was also very well received by the audience. He concluded by telling the students to follow the creed of “if it is to be then it is up to me”, which has remained the guiding force in his life.
The Director of BIMTECH, Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi also addressed the students, parents, alumni and others in the audience. He was of the opinion that, ‘despite automation rendering human workforce irrelevant, with the right attitude of reskilling and upskilling, we can all become relevant to the times. He emphazised the differentiators of BIMTECH from other Buisness schools by stressing on the diversity in the BIMTECH fraternity. He also highlighted the fact that BIMTECH has a high female density ratio of 40% in the current batch, which very few institutes can boast of.
The “Deeksharambh” ceremony also witnessed the release of Annual Report 2016-17 of Centre for Innovation and Development, BIMTECH. Dr. Abha Rishi, Chairperson (CIED) invited the students to share their dreams of entrepreneurial ventures. Dr. Anupam Varma, Dean- Academics and Deputy Director of the Institute, concluded the Commencement Day celebrations by proposingng the vote of thanks.
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