‘Colonial’ convocation robes may make way for Indian ones at MDI

Gurgaon: Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday he would extend the services of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) pro bono to “Indianise” the convocation costume of graduating batches from next year and replace the “colonial” cap and gown that are ubiquitously used on campuses.
“It’s high time we shut every little vista of the colonial era and accept our own tradition. So, I am happy to offer the services of NIFT to Indianise the costumes that our graduating students are donning at the convocation here,” Goyal said.
He was attending a joint convocation of the Gurgaon and Murshidabad branches of the Management Development Institute (MDI) on the NCR city campus on Saturday.
The cap and gown tradition dates back to the time the first universities were founded in Europe in the 12th century and were a necessity to stay warm in the cold weather. Over time, they became the universal symbol of graduation ceremonies.
To engage with modernity, Goyal said, it was necessary to break free of the “colonial” mindset. “I was happy that the institute is thinking about going back to its roots. It was difficult for me too to present medals to the students with a hat on their head,” the minister said on being informed about MDI’s plans to change the convocation costume.
He urged the youth to adopt Indian traditions and add speed and scale skillfully to their work.
“Youths are the growth engines of the country. India is the growth engine of the world as we have proven during Covid-19, the Turkey earthquake and several other dire circumstances around the world,” he said.
In all, 556 students from different PG programmes of the 2021-2023 batch received their diplomas from MDI Gurgaon on Saturday. The institute awarded 21 medals to meritorious students. MDI Murshidabad conferred diplomas to 158 students from its PGDM programme and five medals of merit.
At the event, acting director-professor Sangeeta Shah Bhardwaj said, “This year, five international faculty members visited our campus and eight MDI teachers visited international campuses under a faculty exchange programme. Similarly, 57 students went on student exchange programmes to partner with international business schools while 22 students visited us.”
The highest salary offered in the campus placement was Rs 60 lakh and the median salary offered to the batch was Rs 26.1 lakh per annum, she said. A total of 102 companies participated in the recruitment drive, of which 21 were first-time recruiters.