Special Secretary, Shri Rajesh Agrawal receives the distinguished Alumni Award

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi, in partnership with MBAUniverse.com, successfully hosted the 15th Indian Management Conclave (IMC) 2025. Widely regarded as India’s most respected platform on management education, the conclave attracted more than 400 participants including directors and deans of leading B-schools such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Ranchi, IIM Sambalpur, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR Mumbai, IMT Ghaziabad, Jaipuria Institute of Management, XLRI Jamshedpur and senior leaders from Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, IndiGo, Yatra.com and AACSB International to deliberate on the theme “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Business and B-Schools to Enhance Competitiveness.”

Across two days, the conclave featured high-level plenaries, an international research conference, master classes, and the IMC Awards. Sessions ranged from “Leveraging AI in Indian B-Schools: Current State, Future Outlook” to a roundtable on “Artificial Intelligence in B-Schools: Insights, Challenges & the Road Ahead.” Faculty from IIT Delhi, INSEAD, University of Southampton, IFMR Graduate School of Business and other institutions shared research on AI-enabled pedagogy, ethics, employability and globalisation of management education.

The Valedictory Session saw the presentation of the IMC IRC Best Research Paper Award 2025, the IMC Awards for Excellence in Management Education 2025, and the IMC Distinguished Alumni Award 2025. This year’s Distinguished Alumni Award went to Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, Special Secretary, Department of Commerce, for his contribution to trade policy and economic diplomacy. Thanking his alma mater, he said that IIFT had shaped his values and outlook and called the AI theme “timely and forward-looking,” emphasising the need for B-schools to reimagine curricula, pedagogy and industry collaboration.

The conclave opened with an Inaugural Session featuring a welcome address by Prof. Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Vice Chancellor, IIFT, and an address by Mr. Amit Agnihotri, Founder & Chair, Indian Management Conclave. Dr. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, delivered the Inaugural Address as Guest of Honour, setting the tone for the two-day event. He underscored the critical role of Artificial Intelligence in enhancing competitiveness and called for Indian management institutions to embrace innovation and multidisciplinary learning in line with the National Education Policy 2020.

The Valedictory Session, held on September 26, was  graced by Shri Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, as Chief Guest. In his address he congratulated IIFT for creating a platform of global relevance and underlined that India is “moving from being a receiver of global education to becoming an exporter of world-class management education.” He highlighted IIFT’s expansion into Dubai and its LinkedIn Top 50 Global MBA Program ranking as examples of India’s rising intellectual capital, and urged B-schools to integrate Artificial Intelligence into curricula and pedagogy while maintaining ethics and human-centred values.

With participation from leading Indian and international institutions, the 15th IMC reaffirmed IIFT’s position as a thought leader in international business education and as a catalyst for preparing future-ready managers who will lead with competence, conscience and a global outlook.