French Ambassador Visits the IMI Campus

French Ambassador Visits the IMI Campus

Given India's international conduct, he expressed no hesitation that India should be allowed to have access to nuclear technology. He lauded India's openness and reasoned that the degree of openness of the polity was one of the mechanisms by which India has been able to offset the disadvantages of red tape, coalition politics, infrastructure bottlenecks, etc., within the country.

He argued that Indo-French relations have changed over time from one of dependency to one of partnership. India's growth has ensured that the foreign assistance afforded by France to India until the 80s has given way to mutually beneficial partnerships in various fields, including culture, and of course, business. The Mittal-Arcelor saga, according to him, was in no way an indication of French Policy and certain silly remarks in the French press muddied the real issues in the debate. Examples of companies such as St. Gobain, Renault and Airbus studded the talk, but he predicted that in future more and more SMEs from both sides will occupy positions of eminence in the economic relationship between the two countries. He described the Indo-French cultural relationship as special and highlighted the importance of people-to-people contact in forging strong and sustainable bilateral ties.

Although the audience wanted more interaction, paucity of time drew the lecture to a close. Perhaps another visit by the Ambassador is justified, stated Prof. Rajat Kathuria of IMI in his vote of thanks. Aparna, a second year student, spoke in fluent French to thank the Ambassador on behalf of the students which fittingly reflected the growing significance of France and its language in India, and of course, in IMI!

The programme was concluded by signing of the MOU between the IMI and IDRAC in the august presence of H. E. Mr. Dominique Girard. The collaboration between the two institutions covers all aspects of management education, namely of student's exchange, faculty exchange, joint research and executive education.

Ambassador Girard has been among the long list of speakers to have graced the Silver Jubilee Lecture Series in IMI. Those who have already participated are Swami Bhodananda Saraswathy, Dr. Durval De Noronha Goyos Jr., Mr. Jagdish Sheth, Mr. D. N. Ghosh, Mr. Vinod Dhall, Mr. S. Sridhar and Mr. Ravi Bhoothalingam. The idea of the Series is to invite distinguished speakers from various fields to share their experiences, wisdom and knowledge with IMI students. The Series is fully supported by IMI's distinguished Board of Directors.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Ms. Anjali Sinha,
Exec. Corporate Communications,
International Management Institute, Delhi.

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