JAMMU, Jul 18: Renowned theatre director and cultural visionary Padma Shri Balwant Thakur was felicitated by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu in recognition of his pioneering innovations in performing and visual arts education. The honour was conferred by Prof. B. S. Sahay, Director, IIM Jammu, during the valedictory ceremony of the institute’s Mega Performing Arts Festival held at the packed Mandapam Auditorium.
Addressing the gathering, Prof. B. S. Sahay lauded Balwant Thakur’s exceptional contribution over the past three years in conceptualising and implementing a unique, management-oriented arts curriculum for IIM students. He highlighted that Thakur has successfully redefined the role of arts in management education by introducing innovative pedagogical practices that seamlessly integrate performing and visual arts with leadership and personality development.
Prof. Sahay observed that the specially designed arts interventions have empowered students with enhanced self-confidence, effective communication skills, compelling storytelling abilities, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and stage presence. The remarkable transformation achieved through this initiative was evident in the students’ performances during the festival, which displayed extraordinary confidence, originality, and expressive excellence.
Speaking on the occasion, Padma Shri Balwant Thakur shared his vision behind designing an entirely new framework for arts education tailored specifically for management students. He explained that instead of following conventional approaches centred on the history, evolution, and theoretical schools of performing and visual arts, he developed an application-oriented curriculum aligned with the aspirations and professional requirements of future managers and leaders.
“The objective was never to produce performers or artists,” Thakur said. “The aim was to harness the transformative power of the arts to nurture confident, creative, emotionally intelligent, and socially aware individuals who can lead with empathy and communicate with conviction.”
He further elaborated that every component of the programme was carefully designed to strengthen students’ performance not only on stage but also in boardrooms, workplaces, public forums, and everyday life. Through theatre-based exercises, storytelling, voice and body language training, improvisation, collaborative creativity, and visual arts practices, students were encouraged to explore their hidden potential and develop essential life and leadership skills.
Highlighting the visual arts component, Thakur said students were introduced to the concept of Visual Thinking, an innovative approach aimed at sharpening observation, enhancing aesthetic sensitivity, encouraging creative problem-solving, and cultivating the ability to interpret and communicate complex ideas through visual expression. This unique intervention helped students develop a refined sense of aesthetics while strengthening their analytical and design-thinking capabilities.
The Mega Performing Arts Festival served as a vibrant showcase of the remarkable outcomes of this pioneering initiative, with students presenting a series of performances that reflected not only artistic excellence but also confidence, discipline, teamwork, innovation, and emotional depth.
The felicitation of Padma Shri Balwant Thakur marks a significant recognition of the growing role of arts as a powerful instrument in management education. His innovative work at IIM Jammu has created a pioneering model that demonstrates how performing and visual arts can become catalysts for holistic personality development, leadership enhancement, and human-centric management education in the twenty first century.