Mangaluru: ‘Inception -16’, a workshop for the undergraduate students on leadership, was organized by the department of MBA of AIMIT, St Aloysius College Mangaluru on February 5. The main theme was ‘Building Leaders for the future.’

Over 270 students from colleges from in and around Mangaluru participated in the event. The inauguration of Inception was held at the Arthur Shenoy memorial auditorium, Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT).

Dr Beena Dias welcomed Dr Sharanappa Dhage, superintendent of police, Dakshina Kannada, who was the chief guest, and all the dignitaries and the student delegates. Dr Sharanappa was florally welcomed by Fr Pradeep Sequeira S J. The chief guest narrated his amazing success story as the son of a marginal farmer in the remote Khajuri village of Gulbarga district who had struggled to finally achieve success. He had studied up to fifth grade at the government primary school at Khajuri, and later joined the Jawahar Navodaya residential school at Shahapur in Gulbarga district till he completed his higher secondary. After that, his life took a different turn with him joining B Sc in agriculture at Raichur. He recounted the difficulties his parents had to face to make both ends meet, with their small landholding.

Dr Sharanappa had to find an alternative source of income to pay for his education even while he was well into his graduate studies. He also said he received a scholarship for his postgraduate studies, thereby not depending upon parental finances. It was only during his postgraduate studies in agriculture at the Tamil Nadu agriculture university at Coimbatore, did he first thought of taking up the UPSC examination. He passed the examination in his second attempt. After his post-graduation, he joined the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, for his PhD in Genetics and Plant breeding. He took over as superintendent of police in Dakshina Kannada district on 5 March 2014. He concluded by saying that the best way to predict your future is to create it and to make right decisions at the right time. He even added that leaders are not born or made, but rather they are created.

The guest of honour, Fr Pradeep Sequeira, appreciated Dr Sharanappa for his motivational speech and added that one has to decide what one is going to be and that everybody should have a clear vision, work consistently, trust God and have an inner drive of self-motivation in order to be successful leaders for tomorrow. Dr Rowena Wright presented a memento as a token of appreciation to Dr Sharanappa as he made time and addressed the gathering in spite of his busy schedule. The programme concluded with Royce Baretto proposing the vote of thanks.

The inaugural was followed by a session on ‘Happiness’ by Rayan D’souza, Faculty, AIMIT. Fr Denzil Lobo SJ, director, gave a presentation on realizing human potential. John Fernandes, alumnus, gave an interactive session in the afternoon on leadership. Some of the AIMIT students shared their experiences as students of MBA at AIMIT.