Page 5 - 5-Year-Book

Messages from Prof. G Raghuram
the BOG Members Distinguished Alumna of IIM Bangalore
Former Director, IIM Bangalore &
Member, Board of Governors, IIMV
I have developed some familiarity with IIMV, ever since I came to
IIM-B as the Director in February 2017. That makes it three out of the
five years of the Institute’s journey. IIM-B was the mentor institution
for IIMV, and in some ways helped give birth to IIMV. As a conse-
quence of being the Director of IIM-B, I was on the Board of IIMV till
December 2018. After this, when the Board was reconstituted under
the IIM Act, I was privileged to continue on the Board in the Alumni
category.
Many of IIM-B faculty were involved in the administration of getting
IIMV started and then in the teaching of the various batches. The first
two batches were almost entirely taught by IIM-B faculty and adjunct
faculty organized by IIM-B. As faculty started getting recruited at
IIMV, the share of IIM-B faculty has been rightly coming down. In
fact, for the years 2015-17, teaching at IIMV was viewed as part of the
workload for IIM-B faculty.
IIMV has done exceedingly well in establishing itself, if I may venture
to say, as the best amongst the recent generation of seven IIMs that
were started in 2015. Professor Chandrasekhar, as the new Director,
Mr. Hari Bhartia, as the Chairman, the Board, the AP government,
faculty, staff and students have given a driving energy for building this
institution. The location being Visakhapatnam, a lovely seaside city
with major industries, governmental institutions and tourist poten-
tial has also helped.
Apart from the two-year full-time degree granting Post Graduate
Programme, two new degree granting programmes, the PGP-DGM
(Post Graduate Program in Digital Governance and Management)
and PGPEx (Post Graduate Program for Experienced Professionals)
have been initiated. To leverage its foothold in research, the PhD
programme has been initiated. IIMV has also entered the entrepre-
neurial incubation and executive education spaces. All this is a great
start. My wishes for their sustenance with quality as the key driver.
The faculty base, the most important attribute for an educational
institution, is steadily increasing. I feel happy that out of 22 full time
faculty, six are alumni of IIM-B, five PhDs and one PGP. All the faculty
are from institutions of repute including IIMs and IITs. Of the many
visiting faculty, at least half have connections of teaching at IIM-B.
I have had a very special opportunity of being associated in many of
the institution building decisions, including faculty recruitment. I
have been able to participate in all the three Convocations held so far!
A touching event for me was when IIMV received a liberal donation
made by Dr B R L Row, an eminent scientist and a native of
Visakhapatnam, in memory of his late daughter Ms Vani Row, who
was a brilliant alumna (and a student of mine) of the 1993 batch of
IIM Ahmedabad.
IIMV @ five years is just a toddler! But a very determined and aspira-
tional one!!
As of now, it is wonderful to see the synergy between
‘तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु’ (Let our Study be Enlightening) and
‘ ’ (Knowledge is the Supreme Deity).
05