Commencements 2009: IIFT records 40% increase in batch size

Indian Institute Foreign Trade (IIFT) New Delhi inaugurated the new batch of International Business program (2009-11) with 158 students on July 2, 2009. At the inaugural function, held at the IIFT campus at New Delhi, the new MBA program students got an opportunity to interact with Lieutenant-Governor of New Delhi Tejendra Khanna.

The function was aimed at familiarizing the new students with the IIFT campus, its faculty, and the alumni of the MBA institute. While commenting on the increase in this years batch size, Director of IIFT Dr. KT Chacko said, This year 158 students have joined IIFT. The batch size has increased by about 40% in comparison to last years batch size, which is a good sign.

The MBA institute also said that lately recruiters and industry people have been complaining about the decreasing diversity in the batch profile of the students and increasing engineers in the MBA institutes in India. But this year at IIFT, the proportion of non-engineers in the batch has increased by 50% than the last year and the number of engineers joining the course has come down by 70%.

The program started with an inaugural address by Dr. Satinder Bhatia, Chairperson, Graduate Studies Division followed by an address by the Director of the MBA institute, Dr. KT Chacko. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Chacko said, We at IIFT take immense pleasure in welcoming the new students to our MBA study program. Getting selected to this MBA institute is only half battle won. The real learning starts now that will help you achieve your career goals. Starting from the scratch, students will be taught various dimensions of professionalism and human ethics. At IIFT we believe in churning out not only excellent professionals, but good human beings as well.

L-G Khanna called upon the freshers to approach the MBA course with an open mind. He said, I would request all of you to approach the MBA course with an open mind since winds of wisdom flow freely only in an open mind. All of you are going to be the flag bearers of the country in the global business arena. He added that for succeeding in life the students need to have the capability for unsupervised and constant hard work.

The Delhi L-G asked the students to maintain good work-life balance and said, Amidst all this rush for success, it is equally important to enjoy the pleasures of life with your family.

Amrit Pal, who worked with an MNC Telecom major and is now a student of IIFT said, I think after completing this MBA program from IIFT, I will be able to make a career jump. I would like to leverage my work experience as telecom is one of the fields that is still doing well in times of recession and is also expected to do so in future. Students from Hanken University, Finland, and Strasbourg Business School, France, have also joined IIFTs MBA programs. Houda from Strasbourg, France, said, Its great to experience and learn business at one of the global hotspots of economic growth.

IIFT New Delhi, which was established by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India in 1963, is a leading research and training institute in International Business. The institute is today a deemed university and its MBA program has been consistently attracting attention from both aspirants as well as corporates over the years.