The evening included an insightful message from the IIMB Director on equality in India in its many facets, the Director’s Merit List featuring the top 10 merit candidates from the PGPEM 2020 batch being announced, dance and musical performances, fun awards and the PGPEM Newscast
18 August, 2021, Bengaluru: Pehel 2021 was hosted virtually on August 15 (Sunday), 2021 by IIM Bangalore’s two-year weekend Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) 2021 batch, officially celebrating the beginning of their association with IIMB. Apart from Prof. Gopal Mahapatra, Chairperson, PGPEM, faculty members from IIMB, and the cohorts from both the batches, the event was also attended by some of the cohorts’ family members as well. A few PGPEM alumni were also part of the audience.
The address of Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIMB, set the stage for a perfect evening. Conveying his Independence Day greetings to all, he welcomed the new entrants to PGPEM. Recalling the history of PGPEM since 1998, then known as PGSEM, he spoke about his long-standing association with it, including being one of the committee members who designed the programme.
On the occasion of Independence Day, the Director shared his thoughts on equality in India in its many facets. “Since Independence, India has achieved great progress on multiple counts. While it is fair to say we have political equality and there is plenty of evidence to substantiate the same, in social and economic equality, we still have a long way to go. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has highlighted the possibility of this happening in the early days of drafting the Constitution itself and unfortunately this seems to have come largely true”, he observed.
Talking about the book, ‘The Broken Ladder’ by Prof. Anirudh Krishna from Duke University, Prof. Krishnan said there was a lot to take from this book in this context. According to the author, what is really missing in India is the support system that can help people from different backgrounds get aware of the wide range of opportunities that exist in India. “There are too many broken rungs on the ladder that prevent many citizens from accessing all those opportunities that exist”, he added.
Talking about the impressive performance of Indian sports stars in the recent Tokyo Olympics, he reminded that the players come from diverse backgrounds, many of whom have overcome serious obstacles to reach the place where they are today. While their skills and talent, their self-motivation, confidence and sheer hard work definitely brought them there, their talent being rightly identified and nurtured by somebody else was also important, Prof. Krishnan pointed out.
Calling out the audience to do their part to fix the rungs in the broken ladders, he said, “We all belong to that category of people who had the privilege of good access to those opportunities and serving in good positions, hence we are now in a position to make a difference. We are taking advantage of the economic growth and new opportunities coming up. The first and the most important thing to do to fix those rungs, of course, is to do our jobs well. But beyond that, let us also resolve to do what we can to widen the access of opportunities for the talented and deserving”, he concluded.
Later, the Director’s Merit List featuring the top 10 merit candidates from the PGPEM 2020 batch was announced by Prof Gopal Mahapatra. Rohan Bajla, Anoop Chhabra, Nikhil Bodhankar, Gauthaam Sarathy, Abhishek Das, Murali Raghavan, Kartika Sharma, Nithin Shekhar, Devraj Bharati and Umesh D made it to the list.
This was followed by dance and musical performances as well as fun awards that kept the audience engrossed. The PGPEM Newscast episode was the finale depicting the typical way of life of a PGPEM student, in a humorous manner. Overall, it was an evening to remember for the audience.
The evening included an insightful message from the IIMB Director on equality in India in its many facets, the Director’s Merit List featuring the top 10 merit candidates from the PGPEM 2020 batch being announced, dance and musical performances, fun awards and the PGPEM Newscast
18 August, 2021, Bengaluru: Pehel 2021 was hosted virtually on August 15 (Sunday), 2021 by IIM Bangalore’s two-year weekend Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) 2021 batch, officially celebrating the beginning of their association with IIMB. Apart from Prof. Gopal Mahapatra, Chairperson, PGPEM, faculty members from IIMB, and the cohorts from both the batches, the event was also attended by some of the cohorts’ family members as well. A few PGPEM alumni were also part of the audience.
The address of Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIMB, set the stage for a perfect evening. Conveying his Independence Day greetings to all, he welcomed the new entrants to PGPEM. Recalling the history of PGPEM since 1998, then known as PGSEM, he spoke about his long-standing association with it, including being one of the committee members who designed the programme.
On the occasion of Independence Day, the Director shared his thoughts on equality in India in its many facets. “Since Independence, India has achieved great progress on multiple counts. While it is fair to say we have political equality and there is plenty of evidence to substantiate the same, in social and economic equality, we still have a long way to go. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has highlighted the possibility of this happening in the early days of drafting the Constitution itself and unfortunately this seems to have come largely true”, he observed.
Talking about the book, ‘The Broken Ladder’ by Prof. Anirudh Krishna from Duke University, Prof. Krishnan said there was a lot to take from this book in this context. According to the author, what is really missing in India is the support system that can help people from different backgrounds get aware of the wide range of opportunities that exist in India. “There are too many broken rungs on the ladder that prevent many citizens from accessing all those opportunities that exist”, he added.
Talking about the impressive performance of Indian sports stars in the recent Tokyo Olympics, he reminded that the players come from diverse backgrounds, many of whom have overcome serious obstacles to reach the place where they are today. While their skills and talent, their self-motivation, confidence and sheer hard work definitely brought them there, their talent being rightly identified and nurtured by somebody else was also important, Prof. Krishnan pointed out.
Calling out the audience to do their part to fix the rungs in the broken ladders, he said, “We all belong to that category of people who had the privilege of good access to those opportunities and serving in good positions, hence we are now in a position to make a difference. We are taking advantage of the economic growth and new opportunities coming up. The first and the most important thing to do to fix those rungs, of course, is to do our jobs well. But beyond that, let us also resolve to do what we can to widen the access of opportunities for the talented and deserving”, he concluded.
Later, the Director’s Merit List featuring the top 10 merit candidates from the PGPEM 2020 batch was announced by Prof Gopal Mahapatra. Rohan Bajla, Anoop Chhabra, Nikhil Bodhankar, Gauthaam Sarathy, Abhishek Das, Murali Raghavan, Kartika Sharma, Nithin Shekhar, Devraj Bharati and Umesh D made it to the list.
This was followed by dance and musical performances as well as fun awards that kept the audience engrossed. The PGPEM Newscast episode was the finale depicting the typical way of life of a PGPEM student, in a humorous manner. Overall, it was an evening to remember for the audience.