IMT Ghaziabad Becomes a United Nations PRME Champion; Announcement Made at WEF’18 Davos
Ghaziabad: IMT Ghaziabad (IMTG), India’s premier management school with a distinct focus on grooming Leadership through Innovation, Execution and Social Responsibility, was selected as one of the champions of the United Nations – Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative on January 23, 2018. PRME Champions Group comprises a group of B-Schools engaged as PRME signatories from across the world, committed to making broad-scale implementation of sustainability principles a reality.
Highlighting the need for developing the next generation of leaders with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Within less than a year of joining the PRME as an ‘Advanced Signatory’, IMTG succeeded in earning the coveted recognition of joining the league of 38 leading B-schools from all across the globe that has been meticulously selected by the UN-backed PRME Initiative for the 2018-19 Champions Cycle. Tasked with contributing to thought and action leadership in responsible management education, the goal of the PRME Champions group is to work collaboratively to develop and promote activities that address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to deliver value for business and society at large.
The recognition adds yet another feather to the cap of IMT Ghaziabad’s I’M The Change Initiative on Sustainability & Social Responsibility (SSR) that has already won myriads of accolades and awards nationally as well as internationally including the Gold Award at the Indian Management Conclave 2017 held in IIM Lucknow. In the first year itself, a total of 74 social projects undertaken across Delhi-NCR in partnership with 12 NGOs and district-level government agencies in Ghaziabad have touched an estimated 5231 lives. This year, 91 social projects are in alignment with SDGs and cover a whole range of areas including Education, Women empowerment, Skill development, Sustainable Livelihood, and Market linkage development, among others.
Since its inception in 2007, The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) has become the largest organised relationship between the United Nations and management-related higher education institutions, with over 650 signatories worldwide.
Focusing on the objectives, the institution is working on integrating the SDGs further into its Curriculum, Research and Partnerships. Member institutions will be required to take the lead in transformative action in these three areas, as well as to contribute to group learning with examples of innovative practices in implementing the goals. The inputs would then be aimed towards formulating a comprehensive blueprint for integrating the SDGs in various other Business Schools and Management Related Institutions.
Recognizing that business is vital to solving global challenges like climate change, poverty and inequality, the event was a chance to reaffirm the importance of instilling a holistic purpose of business in future leaders. It was also suggested that business school ranking studies take into consideration focus on the Global Goals as a way to incentivise a more rapid transformation in teaching, research and campus practices.