IIM Calcutta celebrates Diamond Jubilee on November 14, 2021
IIM Calcutta marked its 60th-year celebrations by hosting the Diamond Jubilee Lecture online and the Distinguished Alumnus Award ceremony at the campus on November 14. The event began with a welcome address by Director IIM Calcutta, Professor Uttam Kumar Sarkar. Professor Manish Thakur, Dean (New Initiatives & External Relations), shared glimpses of how the Distinguished Alumnus Award was initiated. The Award, which is in its twelfth year, was instituted during the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2011 to recognize and felicitate eminent institute alumni. Prof. Thakur congratulated all the recipients of the Award for their exceptional achievements. He also added that their remarkable contributions in their chosen fields are a matter of great pride for their alma mater.
The award ceremony was followed by an address by Shri Shrikrishna Kulkarni, Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIM Calcutta where he emphasised the need to prepare managers not just for industrial, financial and commercial enterprises but also as enablers of social change and national development.
He also urged for a shift in the management paradigm from shareholders with wealth maximisation to equitable distribution of wealth to unlock the problem of poverty and unemployment.
The Diamond Jubilee Lecture was delivered online by Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty on ‘Business Education in the Anthropocene: Some Questions for Our Times’. Professor Chakrabarty is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History at the University of Chicago. He is the recipient of the 2014 Toynbee Prize that recognises social scientists for significant academic and public contributions to humanity. Professor Chakrabarty attended Presidency College where he received his undergraduate degree in Physics. He also received a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Calcutta in 1971(PGP 6th batch). He went on to receive a PhD in History from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Incidentally, Professor Chakrabarty was felicitated with IIM Calcutta’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in its maiden edition in 2011.
The event concluded with a ‘Vote of Thanks’ by Professor Bhaskar Chakrabarti, Dean (Academic), IIM Calcutta.