XLRI hosted its 64th annual convocation on Saturday evening, the first-ever virtual degree day, to bid farewell to the 2018-20 batch.

Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Unilever, graced the convocation ceremony as chief guest.

T. V. Narendran, chairman, Board of Governors at XLRI and managing director of Tata Steel, Fr. P. Christie, director of XLRI, Ashis K. Pani, Dean (Academics) at XLRI, graduating students and their parents all connected virtually.

In all, 527 XLRI students received their graduating certificates and medals, including 182 and 180 students of Postgraduate Programmes in Management - BM, and HRM; 104 students of 15-months PGDM (General Management) Programme; 13 students of Fellow Program in Management (FPM) and 48 students of 2017-2020 batch of PGDM-BM Programme (Evening).

The first five rank holders in the two-year postgraduate diploma in Human Resource Management (HRM) 2018-20 batch were Abhishek Goyal, Subham Agarwal, Urmi Arora, Aditya Kompella and Sana Azeem, respectively.

The first five rank holders in the two-year postgraduate diploma in Business Management (BM) 2018-20 batch were Utkarsh Bahuguna, B Raja Reddy, Madhavi Gupta, Srenevasan M N, and Geetanshu Sethi, respectively.

The first five rank holders in the postgraduate diploma in General Management (GM) 15 -months programme 2018-19 batch were Arijit Kar, Aditi Raina, Satish Kumar, Manav Bhargava, and Zafar Ali Kanchwala, respectively.

The first five rank holders in the Three-Year Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management Evening Programme 2017 - 20 batch were Korivi Sravan Kumar, Poornima Radhakrishnan, Randeep Singh, Rahul Sharma, and Anubha Priya respectively.

Congratulating the students, T. V. Narendran, chairman, Board of Governors, XLRI said, "As you join the remarkable network of XLRI alumni let the valuable education that has been imparted to you in the preceding two years be a guiding force to help enable you to make this world more sustainable and livable for future generations. I urge you to espouse a professional and ethical attitude in your work-life journey and try to give back to society to the extent possible."

Fr. P Christie, director, XLRI, advised the graduating students to uphold the values they have imbibed at XLRI to be responsible leaders who are extraordinary professionals with a sensitive conscience.

This year, XLRI conferred the prestigious Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Social and Industrial Peace on Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Unilever.

Accepting the medal, Mehta said, "I would like to express my gratitude to the governing board of XLRI for bestowing on me the prestigious Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Social and Industrial Peace. It is a big honour and a great privilege to receive this medal."

Delivering the convocation speech to the graduating students, he said, “I am delighted and deeply honoured to be with you today. My heartiest congratulations to the graduating class. This is a day of celebration; this is a moment of pride and high emotion and joy for all of you, who are at the threshold of realizing your aspiration and potential. Today marks a new beginning when you are moving out to face the real world's ups and downs."

The medal, instituted by XLRI in 1966, in honour of the Late Sir Jehangir Ghandy, former chairman of the Board of Governors - XLRI is awarded to those business leaders who have contributed towards the growth of their respective organizations and also impacted the growth of the nation in a significant way.