Sambalpur: Indian Institute of Management-Sambalpur’s (IIM-S) seventh batch of the MBA programme began with a five-day inauguration programme through virtual mode on Monday.
For the MBA course, there are 169 students from 22 different states of the country. Out of 169 students, 81 are female.
In 2019, the percentage of female students was 49 which dropped to 44 per cent in 2020 and it is 48 per cent in the current session.
“We became the first IIM in 2019 with MBA admission having highest gender inclusive diversity of 49 per cent and we have been continuing it since last three batches,” IIM-Sambalpur director Mahadeo Jaiswal was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.
Prior to 2019, female students were not taking admission in IIM-S. However, IIM-S took a policy decision to provide relaxation to girl students in cut-off marks for admission and the outcome is encouraging, the director said.
Chief guest, IAS Chief Executive Officer, UIDAI, Dr Saurabh Garg, keynote speaker, co-founder, Edduus, Leadership Coach, and ZIIL Malaysia, Lalit Gupta, spoke during the virtual induction programmes.
“There is a huge amount of disruption happening around us and Covid has only accelerated those changes. While this is an era of uncertainties, it is at the same time an era of opportunities and possibilities. We have to figure out how to take advantage of these opportunities and possibilities and not get bogged down by the challenges,” Lalit Gupta said in his address to the new batch.
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