TIMS 14^th CONVOCATION 2010 SATURDAY, 1^st MAY, 2010
WELCOME ADDRESS BY DIRECTOR-PGDM

Respected Madam Anjana Hazari, President, GCB and Chairperson, TIMS Governing Council, honoured Chief Guest Dr. Bakul H. Dholakia, Advisor, Adani group of companies and former director, IIM-A, hon’able Dr.A.H.Kalro, Provost, Ahmedabad university, former director IIM-Kozhikode,and founder member of TIMS governing body, eminent members of TIMS Governing and advisory councils, representatives of professional bodies and industries, distinguished guests and invitees, Prof.H.K. Kripalani, Administrator, GCB and founder director-TIMS, Prof. L.H.Daryani, Campus director, GCB, respected Didi Kishna Bhambhani, respectable members of Tolani vidhya mandir campus, Media personalities, my dear esteemed members of faculty and staff,, dear alumni, my dear and affectionate students and today’ s shining stars, their proud parents, relatives and friends, ladies and gentlemen:

On behalf of TIMS family and governing board, I join our chairperson, Madam Anjana Hazari, in extending a warm and hearty welcome to you all to this auspicious occasion – the 14th annual convocation of the institute, popularly known as TIMS. It is indeed my proud privilege to heartily welcome Shri Bakul Dholakia ji, as our chief guest at this ceremony. Sir, your presence among us on this auspicious occasion is a great source of encouragement for all of us. TIMS family and board members feel greatly honored to join me sharing the pleasure of expressing their gratitude and wholeheartedly welcoming you.

We are also delighted to have the gracious presence of our mentor and eminent advisor Dr. Amar Kalro, The TIMS fraternity warmly welcomes you, sir on this occasion. It also gives me immense pleasure to extend my warm and hearty welcome to all the esteemed distinguished guests and invitees present over here on this memorable event.

Convocation is the culmination of relentless efforts by the faculty, staff, students, their families and other will-wishers and stakeholders of the institute. It is the commencement of a new phase of life for the graduating students. On this momentous occasion, I would like to convey my heartiest congratulations to each and every student of the passing out batch, their parents & mentors, and all those who contributed, directly or indirectly, to bring this day to us.

The untiring efforts of the faculty and staff and the keen interest shown by the management in translating the vision of the members of TIMS governing and advisory councils has won the TIMS the place it deserves in the eyes of all interested in quality management education in the country.

At this juncture, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly share with you the selected achievements of TIMS during the academic year 2009-10.

From the modest beginning in 1995, with a vision of respected Madam J.H.Kanal, the eldest daughter of Rev Kaka Shri P.S.Tolani, to provide quality management education and further nourished by our beloved Madam Anjana Hazari, a real source of inspiration to all of us, TIMS is now well recognized as a premier and dynamic center of excellence in management education. The ethics, values and principles of Rev. Kaka P.S.Tolani, Founder of this Vidhya Mandir Campus, stand as the guiding light to help us produce professional with a humane and pragmatic approach, and making TIMS primarily a “ Nursery for citizens .

The year 2009-10 was a real big transformation for TIMS.

1. The institute has been rated as an “A+” grade management institute by Business India Survey 2009. It is indeed a matter of great pride for all of us that TIMS is the only autonomous management institute in Gujarat with “A+” grade rating.
2. It is a landmark in the history of TIMS, when, first of its kind, a MOU was signed between TIMS and HDFC Bank Ltd. to offer a Joint Certificate Program in “ Retail Banking “to the students of TIMS and giving a priority to HDFC Bank in recruitment of our students. I am pleased to announce that 11 students have been placed with HDFC Bank Ltd. under this MOU. My hearty congratulation to all these students.
3. Today is the historic day for the institute, when the first batch with increased intake of 120 students is passing out from TIMS. This is also the first batch passing out with one more ( New ) specialization in Human Resource Management.
4. The real transformation has taken place, when a comprehensive TIMS PGDM Program review exercise, involving leading academicians, industry stalwarts ( including recruiters ), and alumni of the institute, was successfully undertaken during the year. The exercise was aimed at reviewing the entire program, its course curriculum in terms of contents, pedagogy, evaluation and feedback. From the next batch onwards, the TIMS 2-year full time PGDM program will be offered on Trimester basis with revised & well structured courses, including few new courses. I would like to take on record the commendable contributions of our mentor and advisor- Dr, A.H. Kalro in making this transformation exercise a fruitful one, which will pay rich dividends in future.
5. Self-renewal and development : Faculty is the backbone of any management institute. TIMS provides ample opportunities for self- renewal and development of its faculty and staff. During the year, Pro. Suresh Lalwani was nominated by the institute to the FDP at IIM –A during June to October 2009. Prof. Lalwani was the recipient of the highest scholarship from IIM. Our founder faculty – Dr. Sampada Kapse presented her Ph.D. thesis in International Conference at Dewas. Prof. Bhavesh Vanparia’s research paper was awarded the best paper of the session at the 5th International conference at PIMR, Indore and two research papers were published in the Conference books. I take this opportunity to heartily congratulate each one of them.
   The other faculty members also participated in national and international conferences, seminars, workshops and FDPs at different management institutes including Nirma university. Our librarian, Mr.Suresh Lalwani also attend a 2-day workshop on “Information Literacy for Librarian. “at Atmiya Institute of Technology and Science, Rajkot
6. Good faculty is the most critical component of any business school. I am glad to state that TIMS has been able to add 4 new members in its team of highly qualified and experienced core faculty. Expert and eminent visiting faculty is regularly relied upon to supplement our core faculty, particularly in term of experience. Dr. A. Kumar, Head Business Management, Bhavnagar University, Prf. N.G.Hiranandani, Principal TFGP, Prof. Murari Sharma, renowned advocate of the town and director of TIL, Dr. Rajesh Thakkar, Sr. faculty, TCAS, Prof. Suryakant Solanki and Prof. ( Mrs. ) Ruchi Trehan of TIL participated in teaching programs of TIMS.
   We have been further supplementing our visiting and regular faculties with the national and international guest speaker and faculty. This year 32 distinguished dignitaries , including TIMS alumni , from the corporate world, academic institutions and spiritual organizations ,shared their experiences and interacted with our faculties and students.
7. FDP /MDPs : During the year, following FDP/MDPs were organized by TIMS.
   1. FDP on “ How to write a research paper” .
   2. “Agri-business Management Program “for VRTI, Mandvi .
   3. Panel discussion of “ Impact of Union-budget 2010-11 on the Indian Economy and Industry.” The eminent academicians and experts from industry were invited for the panel discussion.
8. In-house programs : In its efforts to build interface with the corporate world, we also offer customized training programs for various industrial organizations including IFFCO, KPT, and GCCI. To name a few, A program on Pesonal Effective was conducted by Dr. Kinajal Ahir and Prof. Deepa Mishra at IFFCO, a workshop on 5-S Housekeeping was conducted by Dr. Teajsh Pujara & Prof. N.G.Hiranandani at Excel Crop Care Ltd..
9. Non-teaching staff : I am pleased to report that our administrative staff, headed by Mr. Mohan Malkani, did a wonderful job this year. With addition of just one staff ( and that also during the second half of the year ) they have supported all expansion and transformation happening at the institute.
10. SPARK : A State level Summer Projectl competition was organized continuously in the second year also under the sponsorship of GCCI, with a good number of participation. I am happy to announce that from the next year onwards, SPARK will be a National level Competition, hopefully under the sponsorship of GCCI.
11. Placement : We feel motivated when we receive employers showing preference to hire our students. Our students have established their mark in the private as well as public sector for the quality of their professional training. This year more than 60 companies have shown interest in recruitment of our students in their esteemed organizations. 60 % of our students are already placed in organizations of repute & 15 % have opted out from placement. Further, all our 120 students of Batch 2009-11 are successfully place in 60 organizations across the country, for their forthcoming summer internship during May-June 2010.
12. Alumni Relations : TIMS alumni are occupying high positions in industry both in India and abroad. We keep on receiving appreciating feed-back from the employers. With a vision of strengthening institute-alumni interaction & networking, this year, TIMS established 4 alumni chapters at Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Baroda and Adipur. Faculty were deputed to have interaction with the alumni in all these chapters. Apart form that an Annual Grand Alumni Meet was organized on 14.2.10 at the institute; wherein TIMS alumni turned up in great numbers to make the event a memorable one. They shared their experiences and expressed their gratitude for what they acquired at TIMS and for what they are today. They also appreciated the activities and development of TIMS. Once again, I am happy to announce that a separate web-portal has been created on TIMS web-site for alumni interaction All are requested to register themselves and take this opportunity to mingle and interact with each other.

• Social focus : In addition to our service to the corporate sector, TIMS puts special focus on its social responsibility. TIMS annual social awareness program, Awaaz- Ek Behtar Kal Ke Liye –, this year also received overwhelming appreciation from the society.
• CULFEST 2010 : An annual cultural festival was celebrated during 4 days with lots of excitement, energy and enthusiasm providing an opportunity to the students to showcase their latent talents with fun and frolic. This is the right platform to bring them on the surface zestfully and in lucid manner.
• Students scholarships : On social front , our motto has been to avoid drop outs due to paucity of funds. Accordingly, TIMS offers 50 % scholarship to 8 students every year on economic-cum- merit basis.
• Students activities : Many students participated in various competitive activities in different institutes and universities across the country. Many of them have won the prizes and awards securing 1 to 3 ranks.. Jigyasa – Search for Knowledge – a weekly quiz contest , Daily ET sessions, Mantavya, Vaktavya, Book reviews, Movie Reviews are few of the regular student activities. These curricular and extra-curricular activates had been well received by the students and helped them in building their self-confidence and all-round personality development.
• RESEARCH : It’s my pleasure to announce that TIMS is coming out for the first time with a publication of TIMS Research Journal, ( a journal of management practices and contemporary thoughts ). The first issue of the journal will be published in June 2010.
• NATIONAL CONFERENCE : Once again, I am delighted to announce that we are going to organize a national conference 2010 on “ Emerging trends in management “ with different functional themes, on December 4-5, 2010.

The institute has stared witnessing increased involvement of all its functionaries in various activities of the institute. All these commendable achievements would not have been possible without the dedicated and untiring efforts of all my colleagues, staff, alumni, students, governing and advisory council members, corporate & professional bodies/ associations and organizations and other functionaries. I take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to all of them for their confidence and putting in their best for the overall growth and development of the institute. But for their efforts, this institute could not have achieved its present position and rating.

Before I conclude, I would like to leave a message for the graduating students. Friends, Never underestimate you ability and the capacity of your brain. Your education so far has given it a particular direction. Your on the job experience will surely influence your mind. But, what is more important is the way you develop your ability to learn how to learn which will determine your real success. You have to look for opportunities where apparently there seems to be none. This is possible only when you think beyond your education, training and experiences.

You are the real ambassadors of TIMS. Live by consistent moral and ethical values an spread the philosophy of TIMS through integration of your thoughts, actions and deeds, wherever you are and whenever you get an opportunity to do so. Our blessings are always with you. The whole TIMS family is proud of you.

Finally, my very best wishes to all of you for a happy, prosperous and peaceful life. Enjoy whatever you choose to do and come back as often as you can to share your experiences with us and to re-live the memories of the time you spent at TIMS. We would always be there to welcome you back again and yet again.

May God bless you all, in all your endeavors to be a good human being & a person of real success. Once again, on behalf of TIMS family, I warmly welcome you all to this auspicious ceremony of TIMS Convocation 2010.

Thank you

By the authority vested in me as Director of Tolani Institute of Management Studies, Adipur I do hereby admit the 111 students presented to the Post Graduate Diploma in Management on this 1st Day of May 2010

I seek permission of the honorable Chief Guest to declare the 14th Convocation, of Tolani Institute of Management Studies, Adipur, open.

I seek permission of the honorable Chief Guest to declare the 14th Convocation, of Tolani Institute of Management Studies, Adipur, close.