Minister seeks suggestions from IIFT graduates

Inviting suggestions on proposed Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 from graduating students of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Nirmala Sitharam expressed her appreciation of the institute and the students who undergo rigorous academic programme in their pursuit of excellence.

Rita Teaotia, Chairman, IIFT and Secretary, Department of Commerce, Government of India, presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of Commerce & Industry expressed her pleasure that IIFT has expanded and it is soon to set up its third campus at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. She pointed out that the programmes in international business and trade are most relevant in today's world. This is because though the euphoria of globalization did benefit different economies initially, but gradually due to various reasons, economies found the gap between rich and poor broadening and economic prosperity not increasing as expected which has led to a tightening in the Global economy and increase in protectionism in different forms. The Minister highlighted that while global strategic and political interactions have been studied in depth, global economic interactions need greater study and analysis and that in this there is immense scope for India to build its capacity. She emphasized the need for building multi-disciplinary experts with knowledge of the international business trade, economics, and law to contribute to India's world trade negotiations and pointed out that IIFT students can contribute in this area by further building on the knowledge and skills acquired at IIFT.

The Minister also pointed out the increasing importance of services which contributes 70% of GDP globally and recommended that more research should focus on the trajectory that trade in services is expected to take. She announced that India has presented a paper to WTO on the formulation of a trade facilitation agreement for services.

Talking about the growing shortage of good faculty for top Institutes like IIFT, Sitharaman suggested that cross pollination between industry, government officials and academia should be encouraged to bridge this gap.

Speaking on the occasion, the commerce secretary, Government of India, Rita Teaotia, congratulated the graduating students and appreciated that IIFT has equipped them well with both managerial skills and ethical values required to be successful managers and business leaders. She emphasized that focus of higher education should be on rewarding knowledge, education and research. Skill India, Start up India and Digital India would play a key role in bridging the skill gap in the Indian economy, she said and pointed out that creation of new knowledge and effective use of knowledge can be leveraged to allow traditional sectors to access wider markets.

Director IIFT, Binoy Kumar, highlighted that IIFT is consistently ranked among the leading Business schools in the Asia Pacific region. He was pleased to share that in 2016-17 IIFT placed the largest ever batch of 258 students in companies across the world. At the highest end, 3 students crossed a salary of Rs 1 crore and 6 students got the salary of Rs 75 lakh each.

Average compensation increased to Rs 18.4 lakhs p.a., with international placements growing by 33% this year. The Director spoke about IIFT's international collaborations and also shared that IIFT has conducted 35 development programmes in 33 African Countries in the past few years.

The incubation centres at IIFT and export facilitation centre in Himachal Pradesh are key initiatives of the Institute to broaden the reach of IIFT's specialized expertise to a wider audience.