SPJIMR celebrates Annual Convocation 2026: Nearly 1,000 future leaders graduate across nine programmes at one of India’s premier management institutions
Nearly 1,000
participants graduated across nine programmes, joining a global SPJIMR alumni
network of more than 18,000 professionals. The ceremonies were presided over by
Dean Dr. Varun Nagaraj, and attended by Chairman of the SPJIMR Governing
Council, Mr Deepak Parekh, faculty, corporate partners, and the families of
graduating participants.
The morning ceremony
was graced by Ms. Zarin Daruwala, Group CEO, PL Capital (Prabhudas Lilladher),
Former Cluster CEO for India and South Asia markets, Standard Chartered Bank,
and Member, Governing Council, SPJIMR, bringing decades of banking leadership
and an inspiring message of resilience to the graduating cohorts of programmes
for working professionals.
The evening ceremony
welcomed Ms. Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, NITI Aayog, Former President,
NASSCOM, and Former Vice President and MD, Intel South Asia — and notably, an
alumna of SPJIMR herself (Batch of ’93). Her return to the institution she
calls home added a deeply personal dimension to an already historic occasion.
The morning ceremony
brought together nearly 500 participants across five programmes for working
professionals — Post Graduate Executive Management Programme (PGEMP) with 264
graduates from five PGEMP cohorts, Post Graduate Programme in Marketing &
Business Management (PGPMBM) with 33 graduates, Post Graduate Programme in
General Management (PGPGM) with 51 graduates across the Delhi and Mumbai
campuses, the inaugural cohort of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management
Online (PGDM Online), with 37 graduates, and Post Graduate Programme in
Development Management (PGPDM) with 91 participants, the highest graduating
cohort in the programme’s 15-year history.
The PGEMP marked a
landmark double milestone in 2026: its 25th year of operation, and the
graduation of the 1,000th participant from founding partner Larsen & Toubro
— a testament to a partnership that has shaped a generation of functional
managers into well-rounded, action-oriented business leaders.
The evening ceremony
also celebrated nearly 500 full-time graduates across four programmes — beginning
with the doctoral milestone of Dr Arti Jain, who completed the Fellow Programme
in Management (FPM, PhD-equivalent), Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)
with 239 graduates, Post Graduate Diploma in Management Business Management
(PGDM BM) with 118 graduates, and the Post Graduate Programme in Management
(PGPM) closed the evening with 164 graduates.
Drawing on a career
spanning the transformation of Indian banking from a pre-internet era to the
digital age, Ms Zarin Daruwala brought her message to life through vivid
stories of resilience and self-belief: “Just like the falcon, all of us can fly
high, reach the sky, and achieve much more. But very often, we cling to our
comfort zones. So embrace challenge and change, because change will be the only
constant in your journey ahead.”
In her closing charge
to the graduates, Daruwala brought together the three pillars of her address —
knowledge, values, and wisdom — with a single, defining call to action: “SPJIMR
has given you knowledge, frameworks, and discipline. Your parents have given
you values. Your professors have given you wisdom. Technology has given you
tools. But only you can give the future direction.”
Returning to her alma
mater after more than three decades, Ms Debjani Ghosh — a pioneer in India’s
technology sector — delivered a personal, urgent, and forward-looking address
on leadership in the age of AI: “The one thing, and the only one thing, that
defines your ability to get ahead in this race is your ability to learn, unlearn,
and learn again. I am sorry for those who thought that today learning is over.
Learning is just starting for you.”
Grounding her address
in what she believes will be the enduring differentiator for human beings in an
AI-driven world, Ghosh issued her most personal caution: “In this world of
ever-changing technology, humans will shine for things that are typically
human: our compassion, our integrity, our empathy, our creativity. Don’t give
up on these things. This is way more important than all the skills that you
have learned.”
Addressing the
graduating participants, Dean Dr Varun Nagaraj set a high and purposeful bar:
“You should be proud of your accomplishment, it is a testament to your talent
and effort. But today I also want you to look beyond yourself. Dedicate
yourself to the pursuit of the greater good, your success and happiness should
come from enabling others in society to succeed and thrive.”
And with the
relationship between institution and alumni now permanently inverted, he closed
with a challenge as enduring as the institution itself: “Paraphrasing John F.
Kennedy: ask not what SPJIMR can do for you, but what you can do for SPJIMR, by
contributing your time, talent, and treasure. Make sure that you and your
future organisations do well by doing good. Innovate and drive change, but do
so wisely.”
For 45 years, SPJIMR
has operated on a foundational belief: that management education must be a
force for societal transformation, not merely an instrument of individual
advancement. The Annual Convocation 2026 is perhaps the most vivid proof of
that conviction.
This graduating
cohort, diverse in context and unified in purpose, has been shaped not only by
academic rigour and case-study learning, but by SPJIMR’s defining commitment to
bridging the classroom with the real world. The message emerging from the
Annual Convocation 2026 was unmistakable: the leaders India needs tomorrow are
not those who merely optimise within existing systems, but those who reimagine
those systems for the greater good.
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