with inputs from media release

Manipal: The 2012-14 batches of PGDM and PGDM-HC students of the two management programmes joined the T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) family through a formal Induction rogramme that spanned over two days, on June 25 and 26.

The programme began with the lighting of the lamp by chief guest Gautam Pai, managing director, Manipal Technologies Ltd., Dr H S Ballal, pro chancellor, Manipal University, Dr H Shantaram, trustee and member- governing council, Dr R C Natarajan, director, TAPMI and two student representatives of the batch.

Prof Prashant Yatgiri, chairman-PGP in his opening speech, warmly welcomed all the dignitaries on the dais. The deans, associate deans, faculty members, staff, PGP-2 students and most importantly the students of 29th batch of PGDM and 3rd batch of PGDM-Healthcare were present.

Dr Prashant gave a glimpse of the profile of the batch with some interesting statistics. This batch has 309 PGDM and 24 PGDM-HCM students totalling a magical figure of 333. Female students constituted 29%. Students holding Engineering degrees with an average 2.5 years' corporate experience represented by 78% of the batch were dominant.

In the PGDM-HCM section, 38% are represented by Pharmacy graduates besides one student from Medical Science and two from Dental Science background. Interestingly, the batch represents 18 states, covering 92 different places in India.

Dr R C Natarajan, director, TAPMI in his welcome address stressed on the sacrifices that the present-day students had to make to pursue their management career. He welcomed the students to the beautiful town of Manipal, which is located amidst nature with enough peace and serenity and without buzz of cosmopolitan cities. He briefed them on how they would be moulded from boys and girls and metamorphosed into gentlemen and ladies.

Chief guest Gautam Pai urged the students to be first aware of where they are heading and take the right road to achieve it. He stressed that one should work more on building one’s own strengths while also working on the weaknesses. He said that future managers should dream big and work with passion and excellence to go beyond their dreams.

He further said that of late there were many scandals in the society. So, he urged them to have values and integrity to one’s work.  Students should be doing right things even when no one is watching. A person should be a good manager to his leader and a good leader to his subordinates. He advised them to keep their minds open and learn from others.

Dr Shantaram spoke about Dr T M A Pai, a multifaceted personality, who was a good doctor, a banker and an educationist. He wanted to eradicate Illiteracy, Ill health and poverty. He was a visionary leader and was the brain behind the evolution of Manipal.

Dr Ballal, in his presidential address, said, "In this 21st knowledge century, education has no physical boundaries and we should compete at the international level. He lauded TAPMI for its recent achievement of AACSB accreditation and emphasized that there were no shortcuts to success other than hard work. He asked the students to keep themselves updated continuously and never forget their parents, teachers and the alma mater. Prof Gururaj Kidiyoor proposed a vote of thanks.

The new students were then briefed on Brandscan, MIP, IT resources, library facilities, and hostel facilities.

The day-2 of the induction started with an Interaction with Simran Bhasin, an alumna of TAPMI, belonging to 1999-2001 batch, and currently brand manager at Titan Ltd. She spoke on the industry expectations of a manager and on her nostalgic moments at TAPMI. She compared the present, modern state of art infrastructure of TAPMI with those during her studies, when it operated out of simple, leased premises.

The students then had a brief interaction with Naru Navele, who leads the Risk Advisory Practice for Deloitte & Touche AERS India Private Limited, Hyderabad. He also serves as the Asia-Pacific Leader for Risk and Capital for the financial services industry. He gave insights on the Financial Services Industry.

A cultural presentation by the students marked the end of the programme.