Mission Accomplished …Himanshu Kapadia Does It Again By Winning The IFLA AWARD…

This month is a month of a flurry of activities and excitement for Himanshu Kapadia as he makes WeSchool proud by winning the Oscar of management education in India; the prestigious ‘Dewang Mehta Award For Best Student In Management’, standing 4TH in the International contest ‘INFOCOM FUTURE LEADERSHIP AWARDS 2011 ‘and still finding the time to bag the second prize at ENCORE at JIMS, Indore. Participating in challenging corporate events, competitions, quizzes, paper presentations and winning them has become a way of life with Himanshu, so much so that it has become difficult to keep pace with him and his many multifaceted achievements. Himanshu, a student of our PGDM (HR)-2010-12, is also holding the responsibility of two vital portfolios; Coordinator-Social projects and placement secretary. His winning of the Dewang Mehta award is a fitting tribute to the legendary figure of the Indian IT industry as the late Dewang Mehta though a CA by profession, kept doing things differently right through his student days. He constantly changed pace and dabbled in an assortment of work that polished his skills and professional acumen. He worked as a journalist, wrote passionately and experimented with politics. His passion for computer graphics took him to the famous Imperial College London, where he learnt the creative aspects of movie and ad film making. In 1991, he joined NASSCOM, an association of then the struggling and unorganized Indian software industry and together they created history as the next ten years saw both Mehta and NASSCOM grow from strength to strength and become a voice to reckon with as Industry leaders. The Dewang Mehta awards have therefore become synonymous with the spirit of corporate adventure and attract the best institutes and students from management education. Himanshu’s presentation in the final round of the competition in which 240 B-Schools across India had participated, was made in front of an esteemed panel of 25 Jury Members comprising of CEOs, MDs and HR Heads of various Blue Chip Companies like Canon India, Sony Television, Deloitte Consulting, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Ltd etc that really grilled the participants in a grueling Q&A session. Himanshu faced it all and won the much coveted award that consists of a trophy, a citation and a special sache that was presented amidst the galaxy of academicians and corporate world. And even before the applause of this ceremony could get over, he was on his way to Kolkata to participate in the international contest ‘IFLA- INFOCOM FUTURE LEADERSHIP AWARDS 2011’. Himanshu had earlier submitted a paper on ‘Inclusion’ for the competition in which entries were invited from top B Schools from across the globe. The challenge was tougher this time as quite a number of highly reputed leading international B Schools had participated in it .Himanshu’s paper on ‘Inclusion –thru social service sector’ was shortlisted and he became one of the top 6 finalists who had to present the paper at INFOCOM 2011 in front of the who’s who of leading corporates and media. The jury consisted of Julian Evans - British High Commissioner to India, Jon Williams - Principal Consultant - Deloitte Consulting LLP, Roopen Roy - Managing Director - Deloitte Touche Tohamatsu Consulting India Pvt Ltd, Prosenjit Datta - Editor – Businessworld, and S Radhakrishna - JSW Group .And he has done us proud by holding the Welingkar flag high by winning the 4th position and bagging a trophy, a certificate and prize money of US $1500. ”But more then the prize, the spontaneous accolades and praises I received after my presentation were really heartening. Mr S.Radhakrishna, Head-corporate sustainability at JSW really appreciated my work while handing over the award to me. And that’s not all, our photos and profiles are the on the front page of a special tabloid brought out by The Telegraph-Business world jointly and our papers are published in the IFLA 2011 Compendium .I am really thankful to our Group Director, Dr Uday Salunkhe for all his support, motivation and encouragement and also to all the faculty members who constantly push us to think creatively and see to it that each one of us becomes an innovator and a leader with a global mindset ” conveyed an excited Himanshu from Kolkata. Congratulations Himanshu, WeSchool is proud of your achievements and here is wishing you all the very best for many more such adventures!