IIM Kozhikode takes pride in announcing a year-long empowerment programme for high potential women who would assume leadership roles in different sectors in the future. Speaking on the occasion of the International Women's Day, IIMK Director Prof. Debashis Chatterjee said "This is IIMK's modest contribution for making the better half of India take their rightful place in the growth and progress of the country."
The IIMK believes that management is not simply about number crunching but also about a collection of competencies and having a balanced batch contributes to a better learning experience. "Women make better managers. Women in our country have learnt to be more competent in a diverse set of skills and attitudes - things that are required of managers of this country. We acknowledge skills such as networking, social in"telligence, empathy and environmental sensitivity that women bring to the repertoire of manage"ment skill sets." said Prof. Debashis Chatterjee.
To begin with, IIMK in collaboration with the Malabar Gold Group is planning a series of Leadership Workshops targeting the best Secondary / Higher Secondary Teachers of the country in multiple sectors, and 100 teachers will be offered scholarships to participate in this prestigious programme.
The institute has been increasingly giving emphasis to diversifying the concept of inclusive growth on a much larger and global scale. In the first PGP batch at IIMK (Class of 1999), the number of women was only 1 in a total batch strength of 42. Thanks to the welcome transitions in IIMK's admissions policy, the Class of 2013 has 36% women, which is a national record for any comparable B-School so far. The objective behind this novel approach has been to achieve enhanced diversity including gender diversity to the student profiles. The increased intake of women was only one of the many strategies for inclusive growth and diversity on the campus.
Giving due importance to female students has become a trend in the Institute since the past two years when we had the maximum number of students among the IIMs. In the summer placements, girls of the last batch were better placed than the boys. Girls had brought in greater diversity both in the Learning environment and as well as their academic and social profiles.
IIMK wishes to make it clear that there is no quota or reservation for women however, and the Institute is able to achieve the gender diversity by adopting a suitable admission policy and criteria. The IIMK was the first IIM to meet the reservation norms even before the gov"ernment made them mandatory. This resulted in greater socio-economic and gender diversity on the campus.
It is gratifying to note that IIMK's women friendly gestures have been admired and acknowledged by pioneers in the country such as from the industry, academia, media and the Government. It is again a matter of pride to see that most other IIMs have now emulated the IIMK model and are looking at having more women.
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