IIM Calcutta celebrated its Foundation Day on November 14 in the august presence of Shri Amolak Rattan Kohli, the former Governor of Mizoram. The event also witnessed the institute felicitating fourteen of its alumni for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields at the Distinguished Alumnus Awards Ceremony conducted online. The celebration began with a welcome speech by IIM Calcutta former Director Prof Anju Seth. “This has been a year of both extraordinary progress and extraordinary challenge. Our accomplishments bear witness to the strength of our foundation, and the spirit of cooperation and commitment that have been so generously shared by all our stakeholders: students, administrators and faculty, officers and staff, alumni, the State and Local governments, the media, and visionary Board of Governors. “

Talking of the highlights of the year Professor Seth thanked the West Bengal government for granting of 5 acres of land at New Town in order to facilitate the goal of building world-class futuristic infrastructure for a satellite campus. Joka on the other hand she said is ready to be designed as a futuristic, environment‐friendly and ecologically sensitive state‐of‐the‐art iconic campus. Elaborating on the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic including the close down of the campus, she expressed gratitude to the administrators, chairpersons, faculty, officers and staff who rose to the challenge and prepared new digital procedures to take the admissions process as well as commencing classes online and thanked all students for adjusting to this new reality. She further congratulated all the recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award for their sterling achievements and contribution in their chosen fields which has brought laurels not only to them and their families but also to their alma mater.

This was followed by an address by Shri Shrikrishna Kulkarni, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIM Calcutta where he described insights gained from the current pandemic situation as well important skills management students should aspire to learn. He said, “This past year has made me think of how deeply involved each individual citizen is at the task of keeping the community safe. In this new world, students must equip themselves with the following skills to be effective leaders. They must create networks of partnerships for their organisation to be sustainable, scalable and survive disruptions and failures. They need to comprehend data, artificial intelligence and cyber security. Culturally, they should have a mindset of collaboration in this inter-connected world. The most important management skills one must have now are humanity, judgement and critical innovative thinking.”

The 59th Foundation Day lecture was delivered by the Chief Guest Shri Amolak Rattan Kohli, Hon’ble former Governor of Mizoram. A proud alumnus of the first batch of the PGDM programme, Shri Kohli said that his experience at IIM Calcutta gave him a distinct identity which he has carried all through his life. He encouraged students to use their expertise for the upliftment of the poor and unshackle the marginalised section of society. The skills of networking and collaborations learnt at the Institute can take them ahead in this role of using their management training towards the social welfare of the community and the country.

The event concluded with a ‘Vote of Thanks’ by Professor Bodhibrata Nag, Dean (Academic), IIM Calcutta.

The names and bio of the 14 alumni of the Institute who were bestowed with Distinguished Alumnus Awards for their exemplary contributions in their respective fields are:

Name of the Alumni		Current Company & Designation
Prof Prakash G. Apte		Former Director of IIM Bangalore (IIMB).
Prof Krishna G. Palepu		Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration and Senior Advisor to the President of Harvard University, Harvard Business School
Prof Sudha Ram		Anheuser-Busch Chair in MIS, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Professor of Management Information Systems. Director of INSITE: Center for Business Intelligence and Analytics
Prof Sankaran Venkataraman		MasterCard Professor of Business Administration; Senior Associate Dean for Faculty & Research Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia;
Prof Sumit Sarkar		Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair Professor of Information Systems; Naveen Jindal School of Management; University of Texas at Dallas
Prof Ananth Raman		UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics Chair, Owner/President Management Program (OPM), Harvard Business School
Shankar Venkateswaran		Advisor - Sustainability, Business, Society; Co-Founder, ECube Climate Finance; Chairperson, Oxfam India
Ingrid Srinath		Director, Center for Social Impact and Philanthropy, Ashoka University
Mahesh Pratapneni		Founder & Managing Partner, Emerge Life Sciences
Ramya Venkataraman		Founder and CEO, Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) Private Limited
K.B.S. Anand		CEO (Retd.) Asian Paints, Independent Non-Executive Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd
Shantanu Khosla		MD, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd.
Swami Raote		Worldwide President, Vision Care, Johnson & Johnson.
Ireena Vittal		Board Member, HDFC Ltd., Advisor (Business Building); Expert (Indian Agriculture & Urban Change)