Mumbai, Jan 27: Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan, attended the 1st convocation of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Mumbai on Saturday.

Pradhan also digitally unveiled the new logo of IIM Mumbai and the hostel of the institute.

While speaking at the event, Pradhan complimented the students on receiving their degrees. He expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for taking the initiative to fulfil Mumbai's long-standing demand for a business school by converting NITIE to IIM. This renaming is more than symbolic as it is a catalyst of transformation that will produce the finest human resources, he added.

Reminding everyone how the Prime Minister has named the ‘GenZ’ as Amrit Peedhi, Shri Pradhan commented that this generation is the catalyst of socio-economic change and has the responsibility to be the solution providers on global and societal issues for the next 25 years. He also said that a record improvement has been witnessed in the participation of poor, underprivileged communities and women in education, which is an indicator of a knowledge-driven society.

Pradhan also emphasized that the youth must not be satisfied by becoming job seekers, but strive to be job providers, as envisioned by the Nation Education Policy 2020. This is an opportune time to focus on entrepreneurship and creating new unicorns, he added.

The Minister urged everyone to work towards creating an ecosystem to facilitate ideas that will transform into unicorns of the future. The institute should work towards emerging as the top-most business school in the country, he commented. Shri Pradhan also hoped that the Institute would become a global centre of excellence and an institution of character-making and nation-building.

Pradhan also urged the students to realise 'Kartavya Bodh' (sense of duty) towards the global community and lead united efforts towards realising this goal. For India to become the epicentre of the global economy, the Institute will have to take charge and execute its role in building Viksit Bharat, the Minister said.

The event witnessed a total of 1013 students receiving the degrees. This included 32 fellow students, 955 postgraduate students across all postgraduate programmes, for example, PGDIE, PGDIM, PGDMM, PGDPM and PGDSM and 26 VLFM students.

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Managing Director and CEO of National Stock Exchange  Ashishkumar Chauhan, Director of IIM Mumbai Prof. Manoj K. Tiwari, Chairman, Board of Governors of IIM Mumbai Shashi Kiran Shetty, hundreds of academicians, Professors, other dignitaries and students were also present at the event.