Mr. Anil Agarwal, founder and chairman of Vedanta resources visited the IIM Udaipur campus to interact with the students. He was accompanied by Mr. Akhilesh Joshi – CEO Hindustan Zinc Ltd., Mr. A. Thiru – HR head, Vedanta Resources, Ms. Queenie Dhody – renowned columnist and socialite, and Mr. Zafar, an oil and gas entrepreneur from Oman.
Mr. Agarwal spoke about his life as an entrepreneur and how he has built the $ 50 billion Vedanta group into one of the largest natural resources groups in the world. He encouraged the students to become entrepreneurs or work in a company which allows entrepreneurial ideas to flourish. He said that the students should learn from the people of Rajasthan, who are hardworking and business-minded yet have their head firmly on their shoulders.
In a lively and interactive Q&A session with the students, Mr. Agarwal went on to talk about social upliftment and the CSR activities which the Vedanta group has undertaken as part of socially inclusive development of their mining sites. He also spoke about his possible retirement in the next 3-4 years, his interest in eradicating child malnutrition, developing the higher education system in India and the opening of Vedanta University – at par with Ivy League universities.
Mr. Agarwal also spoke about India becoming self-sufficient in the field of natural resources and energy and exhorted the students to work towards stopping India from becoming an import based economy. He said that this can be done by utilising our natural resources more efficiently and manufacturing using our own facilities instead of importing goods.
The session ended with Ms. Queenie Dhody expressing her happiness on seeing the gender diversity amongst the students of IIM Udaipur.
The interaction was a great learning experience for the students who got an opportunity to be inspired by a self-made man such as Mr. Agarwal.
Press Release