Delighted to share that I got qualified for a fully-funded scholarship to be in the cohort of 30 global leaders from 23 different countries to study at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for the program “Leadership 4.0: Management & Governance in the Emerging World of Digital Leadership”. I am immensely grateful to the Ministry of External Affairs, India thru the Indian Embassy to the Philippines for considering me to its Indian Technological and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Program which made me the very first scholar from the private sector to represent Philippines. The high level learning experience provided by IIM thru its professors (Prof. (Dr.) Roopak gupta) led by IIM Kozhikode Director, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, the multi-cultural learnings and exchanges with my fellows in the program, and the opportunity to be part of the ITEC Global Alumni are such a blessing. I have gained brothers (Mohamed Firaz Ts. Muhammad Hafiz Laili) and sisters (Francisca Schwerter Özge Savaş Rocío Falla) from another mothers from 22 other countries as our journey together during this program created a strong bond that we parted ways with a promise to see each other again. So I went back Manila after the program and was requested by the Indian Embassy to speak during the ITEC Day. I was one of the five (5) speakers selected from the 2023-2024 Batch to share knowledge and experience on respective programs.
I have long been fascinated by everything about India and it has become a captivating land for me — it’s intriguing cultures, diversity, history, landscape, and above all its people. I have a lot of wonderful Indian friends and every time I step on the land of India, I genuinely receive what Atithi Devo Bhava is, a famous Hindi saying which means “Guest is God”. Yes, Indians treat their guests like Gods. Indians mean it when they say it. Truly, this ITEC program was another wonderful journey for me in an incredible India. Shukriya! 🙏