• Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty delivered the Diamond Jubilee Lecture on ‘Business Education in the Anthropocene:Some Questions For Our Times’

• Four alumni were bestowed with the “Distinguished Alumnus” title for exemplary contributions in their respective fields

Kolkata, India, 15th November, 2021 (GPN): Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, marked its 60th year celebrations by hosting the Diamond Jubilee Lecture online and the Distinguished Alumnus Award ceremony at the campus today.

The event began with a welcome address by IIM Calcutta Director, Professor Uttam Kumar Sarkar.  He said, “IIM Calcutta has reached a milestone today. The Diamond Jubilee is a culmination of the countless efforts put in by our founders, Board of Governors, faculty members, students, staff and our alumni. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for being part of this epoch-making event.”

The Distinguished Alumnus award was introduced by Professor Manish Thakur, Dean (New Initiatives & External Relations). The award, which is into its tenth year, was instituted during the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2011 to recognise and felicitate alumni. Prof. Thakur congratulated all the recipients of the Award for their exceptional achievements. He added that their remarkable contributions in their chosen fields is a matter of great pride not only for them but also 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 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 felicited 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.

The names and bio of the four 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
Sunil Kumar Alagh, alumnus 3rd batch	Former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Britannia Industries Currently, Founder, SKA Advisors
Dr. Vallabh Sambamurthy; alumnus 18th batch	Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business
Srinath Narasimhan. alumnus 21st batch	CEO of Tata Trusts and former Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Tata Teleservices
Dr. K. V. Subramanian, alumnus 34th batch	Indian economist and Former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (CEA). Professor at the Indian School of Business (ISB)