IMC 2021 Day 2: NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, AICTE Vice Chairman Dr M P Poonia put spotlight on MBA Education Policy in NEP regime; Dr Janat Shah, Director, IIM Udaipur and top Directors discuss learner centric MBA

Much like the Day 1, Day 2 of the 11th Indian Management Conclave (IMC) 2021 at MDI Gurgaon on December 21 was a big success. IMC 2021 Day 2 hosted addresses by top Policy Makers Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and AICTE Vice Chairman Dr MP Poonia who spoke on the future roadmap of management education in India. Dr Janat Shah, Director IIM Udaipur chaired plenary session on framework for learner participation in B-school decision making. Another highlight of Day 2 was the Directors Roundtable which brought together Heads of leading B-schools in India to discuss about NEP 2020 and road ahead for standalone B-schools.

Organized by MBAUniverse.com in partnership with India’s top B-schools and knowledge Organizations, IMC is India's definitive annual Management Education Conference & Awards Platform. MDI Gurgaon, a pioneer in Executive Education and one of the Top B-schools, is the Partner and Host for 11th IMC 2021.

Valedictory Address by Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog
Delivering the Valedictory Address, Chief Guest Dr Rajiv Kumar said, “Extensive use of technologies like Artificial Intelligence is changing the nature of business and work. Technology is beating humans at almost everything including Chess and even medicine discoveries! Future is now upon us… We need new ways of thinking about society and business. We can’t be working in silos.”

Connecting this with education, he said, “We need holistic thinking which multi-disciplinary education nurtures. Time has come to rethink management education in India.”

Raising concern about the quality of low tier MBA programs in India, Dr Kumar said, “While Indian management education is big in numbers with more than 3000 MBA programs, we need to review it on quality dimensions. Accept for the top few percent, the average quality needs improvement. A recent MBA employability report says that only 46% of MBAs are employable. Policy makers and B-schools must come together to change his.”

Welcoming whitepaper and inputs from Indian Management Conclave, Dr Kumar, “IMC is a forum that has brought all stakeholders together for more than a decade. We welcome your suggestions on education policies.”  

Special Address by Dr M P Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE
Delivering a Special Address, Dr M P Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE complimented management schools and assured them of regulatory support in the new NEP 2020 policy framework. “Implementation of NEP 2020 will offer opportunities for B-schools offering quality education,” he said.

Speaking specifically on PGDM institutions, Dr Poonia said, “PGDM institutions like XLRI, MDI, BIMTECH and many others attending this conference are doing a great service by training students for industry requirements. We assure you of AICTE support as new NEP Policy gets implemented in coming years.”

Complimenting IMC Conference, and inviting Policy suggestions from IMC conference, he said, “Led by Shri Amit Agnihotri, Indian Management Conclave is a good effort to bring all stakeholders together every year. AICTE welcomes policy suggestions from IMC Conference on how management institutions can be supported better.”

Earlier on Day 1 (Dec 20) of IMC 2021, Dr Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE had addressed the Inaugural Session of IMC 2021 and said, “NEP 2020 promotes multifaceted and multi-disciplinary learning in many ways. B-schools should make the best use of the NEP framework and emerge stronger as degree granting institutions.” 

The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on July 29. The new policy, which replaces the 34 year old policy of 1986, aims to pave way for transformational reforms in education systems in the country.

Directors Roundtable on NEP 2020 discusses challenges and opportunities
Highlight of Day 2 of IMC 2021 Directors Roundtable which brought together Heads of leading B-schools to discuss about NEP 2020 and road ahead for standalone B-schools. Session was moderated by Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH; Alternate President, EPSI. The session was addressed by Dr Ajit Parulekar, Director, Goa Institute of Management; Dr NR Parasuraman, Director, SDMIMD Mysore; Mr Narayanan Ramaswamy, National Leader - Education and Skill Development,  KPMG in India; Mr Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera; Mr Shreevats Jaipuria, Vice Chairman, Jaipuria Group; Dr Vishal Talwar, Director,  IMT Ghaziabad.

Outlining the issues, Dr Chaturvedi, said, “NEP envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic under graduate education with flexible curricula. While the policy framework is excellent, it may offer some challenges to standalone B-schools, particularly PGDM B-schools.”

Mr Jaipuria added, “NEP 2020 says that Affiliation of Colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges. Over a period of time, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university. This can be a double edged sword for PGDM B-schools.”

Key highlights from this important sessions will be published on MBAUniverse.com in coming days.

Plenary Session on Student-led B-school
A student-led B-school is buzzing place where students are all charged up and have created their own high performance Culture, which passes on from batch to batch. These students see themselves as co-owners of key processes like Placements, Admissions and Learning Experience. Indeed, at times, the Student approach can be at odds with Leadership and Faculty. So how does B-school leadership tread the path cautiously? Plenary session on Day 2 focused on this topic. Session was Chairedby Dr Janat Shah, Director, IIM Udaipur.

Chairing the session Dr Shah said, “Learner or Student Participation is vital for achieving the MBA education outcomes. IIM Udaipur is building a culture where students practically run all aspects of campus except academics. While we have student participation in the academic processes also, this area is led by faculty.”

Session was addressed by Dr Srinivasan Iyengar, Director, JBIMS Mumbai; Dr Atish Chattopadhyay, Director, JAGSoM Bangalore and Dr Rama Velamuri, Dean, SOB, Mahindra University Hyderabad.

Day 2 of IMC 2021 also saw a Masterclass by Harvard Business School’s Prof Das Narayandas on theme of Future of Leadership Development in a Hybrid World.

IMC Awards for Excellence in Management education were also presented.

Key highlights from the Masterclass and Awards will be published on MBAUniverse.com in coming days.

It is noteworthy that IMC 2021 was an exclusive in-person leadership conference. More than 200 Policy Makers, CXOs, Directors, Deans and other stakeholders participated in the conference and awards. Sessions were not telecast online or virtually.

Also Read:

• IMC 2021 Day 1 hosts Global Thought-leaders & 150 Directors from IIMs, ISB, MDI and top B-schools: C P Gurnani, MD, Tech Mahindra; AICTE Chairman Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe; edX Founder Dr Anant Agarwal; Infosys President Ravi Kumar call for Learner Centric MBA
• PGDM Institutions are doing a good job; NEP 2020 to offer opportunities: AICTE Vice Chairman Dr M P Poonia at 11th IMC 2021
• IMC 2021 Awards for Excellence in Management Education: GIM Goa wins Gold; Jaipuria Institute wins Silver

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for IMC 2021 Highlights.