51st Annual Convocation of XLRI

The 51st Convocation of XLRI Jamshedpur was held on March 31st, 2007 and 230 of the countries most brilliant minds received their diplomas in a glittering ceremony at the JRD Tata Auditorium. Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons Limited was the Chief Guest on the occasion. In addition to the convocation ceremony, the prestigious Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace was awarded to Mr KV Kamath, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank. Mr Muthuraman, MD Of Tata Steel Limited and Chairman of the Board of Governors of XLRI delivered the Presidential Address.

Out of the 230 students graduating, 65 are from the Personnel Management and Industrial Relations Programme, 116 from the Business Management Programme, 44 from the executive Post Graduate Programme, out of which 2 students were awarded the prestigious title of Fellow of XLRI; and 3 were awarded the Fellowship in Human Resource Development by XLRI in association with the Academy of Human Resource Development, Ahmedabad.

Mr R Gopalakrishnan is a physics graduate from Calcutta University and holds a degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Other than being Executive Director of Tata Sons, he is also the vice-chairman of Tata Chemicals, the director of several Tata Group companies such as Tata Motors, Tata Power and Tata Internet Services, and serves on the board of two non-Tata companies: ICI and Castrol India.

Mr K V Kamath is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank. He is widely credited for making ICICI a financial powerhouse with global ambitions. Mr. Kamath has a degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Mr. Kamath was named CNBC-TV18's “Outstanding Business Leader of the Year” in 2006, Business India's “Businessman of the Year” in 2005 and CNBC’s “Asian Business Leader of the Year” in 2001.

The Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal was instituted by XLRI in 1966. Previous recipients of the Medal include illustrious names from diverse fields such as J R D Tata, Arvind Mafatlal, Holck-Larsen, Rajmohan Gandhi, V R Krishna Iyer, S Moolgaonkar, P N Bhagwati, V Kurien, Keshub Mahindra, P A Sangma, Jyoti Basu, N A Palkhivala, J N Godrej, Brijmohan Lall Munjal and M S Banga.