India making its presence felt in world economy: Singhania

Business Bureau

Addressing the passing out students of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) here on Wednesday, Managing Director and Chairman of Raymond Group Gautam Hari Singhania said as India is increasingly making a greater presence felt in the world economy, it offers an opportunity for all.

“And with the rise of the new-age digital economy along with a robust manufacturing base, I believe the youths of our country can work on transformational ideas leading to new frontiers for growth,” he said, motivating the graduating students. He was chief guest of the convocation ceremony while former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath and Director, IMT Nagpur - Dr Bigyan Verma also were seated on dais. Singhania also encouraged the B-school passing out students to take on higher challenges that solve issues plaguing our nation and evaluate entrepreneurship as a lucrative career option that boosts job creation.

Remembering the challenges which the Raymond Group faced during the recent pandemic, Singhania said that

the group with 35,000 to 40,000 employees was squeezed to minimum. “We had come down to a last dollar and banks had refused to roll over Rs 5 crore to the company of this size. But I had belief in myself and the team and we gradually managed to overcome the challenge. Today, we are the best performing low cap in the stock market,” he said, advising the students to take bold decisions and experiment with innovative concepts that could be truly revolutionary. It is interesting to see the journey of the stock price of Raymond that was at Rs 219 on April 2020, saw a level of Rs 1,229 on Wednesday.

Gautam Singhania, who is also the first Indian driver to win a race in the Ferrari Challenge Europe Championship 2015, further narrated an incident of a race in Mugello Circuit in Italy when he was lagging behind in the initial rounds but won the race. “If you are focused, nothing can stop you,” he said.

In his remarks, Kamal Nath told the students to be proud of the country they live in. “There is no country in the world like India. It is because there is no country with so many religions, castes, cultures, languages, festivals and Gods and Goddesses. But still when we stand under one flag, we remain united. That is the power of India. The world gets amazed while looking at India and hence you must be very proud to be Indians,” he observed.

Kamal Nath further said that today’s students are very fortunate as they have access to the internet. “You should take advantage of this technological development,” he said. In his opening remarks, Dr Bigyan Verma highlighted various initiatives of the institution. It was a convocation ceremony of the graduating students of the last three sessions.

On the occasion, Shalupriya Nair was awarded the gold medal for highest CGPA in PGDM Marketing and all round performance.

R Rohini received the gold medal and Deepak Kumar received silver medal for highest CGPA in PGDM Financial Management. All the graduating students were awarded diplomas. The ceremony concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr P J Ramudu, Dean Academics and the tossing of the black caps in air which symbolizes the hard work paying off and the start of new beginnings.