Placement record cheers IIFT

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) held its 50th convocation (Golden Jubilee) in the national Capital. Nine students were conferred with PhD awards and 319 students received MBA degree in International Business.  

Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce & Industry, government of India was the chief guest, and Rita Teaotia, chairman, IIFT and Secretary, Department of Commerce, government of India, presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, Sitharaman said that India was proud to have an institution like IIFT. She pointed out that IIFT plays a very crucial role in making students ready for business and challenges in the corporate sector. She also advised the students and faculty to be more proactive and assertive in contributing their inputs to policy formulation, particularly on important issues pertaining to the current trade scenario of the country including space in global value chain, means to enhance manufacturing sector growth in the country.

Teaotia talked about the significant achievements and continued contribution of IIFT since its inception in 1963 towards trade policy, research and skill development through training in international business. She further highlighted IIFT’s role in promoting key government programmes like Skill India, Startup India and Digital India through its training and research initiatives. Surajit Mitra, Director and Vice Chancellor of IIFT congratulated the largest ever batch at IIFT for beating all previous placement records. There has been 23.8 per cent rise in average compensation at Rs 18.01 lakh per annum with the highest foreign salary going over Rs 1 crore for international placement and highest domestic package of Rs 29 Lakh. 

He also spoke about the industry’s attention which IIFT enjoys especially in the trade domain, where there is recruitment from global organisations like OECD and WTO, in addition to Arthur Daniel Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, popularly known as the ABCD of world trade. He lauded the batch for achieving unprecedented heights and motivated them for the challenges ahead. 

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is an autonomous public business school established in 1963 by the government of India (Ministry of Commerce and Industry) to help professionalise the country’s foreign trade management and increase exports by developing human resources. It also helps in generating, analysing and disseminating data; and conducting research. 

Its flagship program is the Master of Business Administration in International Business (MBA-IB). It is the only institute among the top 10 business schools of India that offers International Business program. 

The institute visualises its future role as: A catalyst for new ideas, concepts and skills for the internationalisation of the Indian economy, the primary provider of training and research-based consultancy in the areas of international Business, both for the corporate sector and government and the student’s community. 

IIFT started out as a centre to provide foreign trade advice to governments and since then has played an instrumental role in conducting research in trade policy formation.