Woman power shines at IGNOU convocation

BENGALURU: Women bagged all the four gold medals at the 32nd convocation of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Bengaluru region, on Wednesday.
Kiran Kumari, 30, who was awarded a gold medal for securing the first place in bachelor’s degree in nursing, was excited about her achievement. She works as staff nurse at a hospital in Rohtak, Haryana.
“I’m married and have two kids.After working at the hospital, I would return home and complete household work and later study for five to six hours. I’d stay up till 2am for studies,” she said. Kiran wants to pursue masters in social work.
Kerala-based Lima Mathew bagged a gold in postgraduate diploma in hospital and health management and secured 83%. Lima works as an assistant nursing superintendent at a private hospital in Kochi. “I always wanted to achieve something in life and took up the exams,” said the 30-year-old mother.
Falak Zia landed a gold medal for her top performance in bachelors degree in library sciences and Gaithiry Raji Kumar for postgraduate diploma in geriatric medicine. In all, 2,951 individuals graduated from the Bengaluru regional centre.
IRS officer among graduates
Satish Gurumurthy, a 2012 batch IRS officer under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, received his post-graduation certificate in public administration from regional director GH Imrapur. He is currently posted as deputy commissioner of directorate of revenue intelligence in Coimbatore.
Born and brought up in Bengaluru, Satish served as a police sub-inspector before passing UPSC exams.
“I completed engineering from BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru, and served in the state government for over eight years before getting selected as an IRS officer. As I am into public administration, I chose to complete my post-graduation and IGNOU, Bengaluru, was the best place. Though time management was a big challenge for me, I used to study for three to four hours during weekends. I will enrol for PhD from Tamil Nadu Open University.”