One-year MBA cohort at IIMB has civil services officer to bank employee who converted his disability to strength

The Hindu

06-05-2025

Gone are the days when an MBA degree used to be pursued only by those who wanted a career in management, or those who had finished a commerce degree. Today, these courses act as gateways for those who are looking to transition from one role to another, resuming their career after motherhood, or an opportunity to pause their professional life to upskill.
This academic year's one-year MBA (EPGP) cohort at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is a mix of many such students.
Balancing studies and motherhood
Richa Jha, an IT service professional, worked in five organisations over a period of eight years. After working in various roles like transition trainer and associate operations manager, she made a conscious decision to pause her career when her son turned one.
She enrolled in the one-year course when she was looking to get back to the workforce. 'I had to upskill and evolve to match my aspirations. Pursuing an MBA felt like the right choice, and IIMB was the only place that aligned with my vision for career transformation and growth,' she said.
Along the same lines, Neethu Mary Mathews chose IIMB for MBA as it offers family accommodation, which helps her balance her studies with taking care of her three-year-old toddler. Ms. Mathews has an impressive career having cleared the Indian Engineering Service (IES) examination of UPSC twice.
She first served in The Indian Naval Armament Service and later in the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE). She was responsible for prepping loco pilots for the operation of the first Vande Bharat Express train at South Western Railway (SWR).
Disability to strength
Himanshu Chopra met with an accident and suffered multiple disabilities. He survived with the help of seven plastic surgeries. He received an academic scholarship during his under-graduate course for being amongst the top 5% students in the batch.
'In partnership with National Service Scheme (NSS), I, along with 25 other members, decided to adopt a nearby village. I took charge of the education issues and mentored over 20 disabled children to learn and educate themselves while overcoming their disabilities. Over the span of two years, our first batch of students got admitted in give schools and passed their examinations,' he shared.
His earlier plan to join an IIM, when he secured 99.91 percentile in CAT 2021, did not pan out due to medical reasons. He then took up a job in State Bank of India (SBI) in Mohali (Chandigarh), and simultaneously finished all the levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) course.
'After 7.5 years at SBI, I recognised critical knowledge gaps that were limiting my professional growth. This programme stood out as the ideal platform to bridge these gaps,' Mr. Chopra shared.
Rohita Mary Raju, who taught in government schools in Mumbai for two years and is now a co-founder of a non-profit; Anshul Chatter, who has worked for more than nine years in the automotive industry and co-founded an EV startup; Mihir Prakash who served as the Senior Trade Advisor (Professional Services) for the U.K. government in India, leading trade negotiations and market advisory for the British High Commissioner to India, are some of the other candidates who are a part of the cohort.