Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2013

From the Editor’s desk

An Internal Newsletter for IIMC CommunityAn Internal Newsletter for IIMC Community

After a hiatus, Sandeshis back. The delay hasbeen mainly because ofthe need to acco-mmodate the flurry ofactivities in the last fewmonths. As soon as wefinalized one version of

our magazine, we would realize that we hadforgotten to include some significant issue. Atsome point we had to stop, but with a lot ofreluctance.

In keeping with IIM Calcutta’s mission of advancingthe theory and practice of management, theInstitute has decided to institute five Post-doctoralResearch Fellowships (PDRFs) from 2013-14.Post-doctoral research represents an opportunityfor a researcher to make a transition fromsupervised research to independent research.The candidates selected for the PDRF will beattached to an appropriate Group depending onthe post-doctoral research and will be associatedwith a faculty member of the group who willessentially perform the role of a mentor andcollaborator. The duration of the fellowship willbe for a period of 2 years. Fellowships willgenerally be awarded to “fresh” Ph.Ds, i.e.researchers who have completed their Ph.D inthe last five years.

Sandesh reports the continuing efforts in thedirection of globalizing our programs. We are now(the only Indian) member of CEMS, which makes

us partners to a number of very highly ranked B-Schools all over the world. IIMC has also beenextended an invitation to become a member ofthe Graduate Management Admission Council,the owner and administrator of the GMAT examin 2012. Since PGPEX admissions are based onGMAT scores, the PGPEX office took the initiativeto complete the formalities associated with thisprocess. An interesting research conference,“Politics of the Changing World Economy, ” heldin Goa, during January 4 to 6, 2013 was sponsoredby IIMC jointly with the Niehaus Center forGlobalization and Governance at PrincetonUniversity’s Woodrow Wilson School, and theUniversity of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of

C o n t e n t sAcademics 3-10

Faculty 11-13

Publications 14

Events 15-17

Lectures by Visiting Dignitaries 18-20

Major Forthcoming Events 21

Student Activities 22-23

Placements 24-25

Miscelleny 26-30

Beyond Education 31-34

A New Students’ Council 35

2From the Editor’s desk

Public and International Affairs. The 6th batch ofPGPEX is back from their international immersion,and we carry a report on their immersionexperience.Speakers who visited the campus in the recentpast included not only academic personalities likeDr. Subir Gokarn, Dr, Kaushik Basu and Dr. PaulEmbrechts, but also those like the former captainof the Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguly and“the only certified witch from India”, Ipsita RoyChakraverrti. This eclectic mixture of speakersis matched by the activities of our faculty members,who not only continue the tradition of excellentteaching and publication, but also find the timeto stage a full-length play every year under theguidance of students.The 2-year long Golden Jubilee celebration whichwas kick-started in 2010 and continued in 2011came to an end on November 14, 2012 when Mr.Ramchandra Guha, formerly Philippe RomanChair of International Affairs and History at theLondon School of Economics and a distinguishedalumnus of IIM Calcutta, delivered an address aschief guest. On this occasion, the instituteconferred the Distinguished Alumnus Award onShri Kirit Modi, Shri Patanjali G Keswani, SriSrivatsan Rajan and Dr. Suresh MahadevanSundaresan. Two important events that took placeduring the closing ceremony were the screeningof the Documentary Film on IIMC directed by Shri

Gautam Ghosh, one of the most noted filmdirectors working in India today, and the releaseof a Commemorative Volume titled, “Citizens andRevolutionaries - An Oral History of IIM Calcutta”There was also a special exhibition with archivalmaterials at the foyer of auditorium on the day.Student activities included the highly successfulexperimental marketing event Mandi whichfeatured mouth-watering dishes, weekendventures@Kolkata, an exciting workshop whichhelped its participants to kick start their start-upsin just 48 hours, and I2i 2013, the internationalB-plan competition. In the cricket match betweenfaculty and students the latter got walloped. Butin Sangharsh 2013 and the IIMC-XLRI meet,where concerns about possible fallouts on gradesdid not play any role, the IIMC team emergedclear winners.Finally, Sandesh is happy to take note of theChairman, BoG’s book “The Wave Rider”, whichgives a front seat view of the roller coaster rideof the IT industry in the last 15-16 years. A reviewof the book by Gita Piramal is reproduced.Sandesh then carries an interview of Mr.Balakrishnan by the Business Standard inDecember last year to provide a glimpse into theauthor’s background and his views on a numberof topics, especially higher education.

Professor Anindya Sen

3Academics

IIM Calcutta has addedanother feather to its cap! On30th November, 2012, IIMCalcutta forged an alliancewith CEMS, an elite club of28 premier business schoolsfrom across the world, as itsAcademic partner. Throughthis partnership, IIMC haslaunched the prestigiousC E M S M a s t e r s i nInternational Management (CEMS MIM) postgraduate,pre-experience program. IIMC is the first and the onlyIndian member to be part of this global alliance.

CEMS, formerly known as “The Community ofEuropean Management Schools” had a beginning in1988, when an alliance was made between UniversitàBocconi, ESADE, HEC Paris and the University ofCologne. The alliance grew into 27 leading European,Asian, Australian and American schools of business.IIMC is the 28th member to join this distinguishedgroup. CEMS also includes 71 corporate partners and4 social partners.

CEMS has featured in the Financial Times Master’sin Management ranking since its creation and theCEMS MIM has permanently featured in the top 3,including Rank 1 in the world ranking in 2009, topplace in the 2010-12 3-year ranking and the strongestcombined international results over the entire period2005-12. Some of the key differentiating features ofthe MIM program are the strong association with thecorporate partners of CEMS. These partners play anactive role during the program through a structuredseminar such as the Block Seminar, which is conductedto kick-start the MIM program. This program issuccessful in bringing all the stake-holders- schools,students, companies and alumni together to offer aprogram which is truly international, with a combinationof academic theory and business practice.

The one year MIM program is structured to offer a

multi-faceted curriculumwhich exposes students tointerdisciplinary problems inan international context andstudents are encouraged toadopt an analytical and criticala t t i t u d e i n l e c t u r e s ,discussions and project work.Selected students need tospend one term at any of theCEMS partner school abroad

to ensure full-scale cultural and linguistic immersion.The MIM program is carefully designed to consist offollowing elements:

Block Seminar -is a week-long seminar organized byeach CEMS member school which provide theopportunity to debate and discuss innovativeManagement topics from different cultural perspectives.

Business Project -is a consultancy-like project.International student teams solve a real businessproblem as a one-semester part-time activity tutoredby the company and a professor in parallel.

Skill Seminar- training seminars in practical skills.Training is provided on essential skills which areeffective in a professional career and fundamental toadjusting easily to an international managementenvironment.

We know we need the highest achievers tostay at the forefront of international markets;bold decision-makers, innovative thinkers,those who have a truly global outlook and theinitiative to drive their careers far. CEMS'reputation for excellence and high-calibrestudents makes them an obvious partner forReckitt Benckiser.

Bart Becht (CEO, Reckitt Benckiser)(Source:http://www.cems.org/about/faces-of-cems)

IIMC – The First IndianMember of CEMS

4Academics

International Internship–All MIM students mustundergo a minimum 10 week international internshipwhich provides students with the real-life professionallearning experience of integrating an organization’sculture and processes.

MIM Courses consists of two components -:

Mandatory courses and Elective courses.

Mandatory courses would encompass one coursein the field of Strategy and one in the field of Cross-Cultural Management. Elective course wouldencompass a selection of the best courses with anInternational Management profile chosen from theportfolio of the courses offered by IIMC.

The CEMS MIM program will be offered for the firsttime to IIMC PGP II students of the academic year2013-14. It is expected that 15-20 students will beselected from the current PGP I batch to join CEMSMIM programme. The selected students, onsuccessful completion of the programme, will receivetwo degrees/diplomas- PGDM/PDCM of IIM Calcuttaand MIM of CEMS.

CEMS cohort of 2012-13:ü Total number of students: 1000ü 51% male, 49% femaleü 64 nationalities (including 32 non

European)ü 14% non-European students (almost

triple in 3 years)(Source:http://www.cems.org/about/facts-figures).

IIMC, having contributed significantly to managementeducation in India over the past 50 years, wasextended an invitation to become a member of theGraduate Management Admission Council, GMAC, the owner and administrator of the GMAT® examin 2012. The PGPEX office spearheaded theinitiative of completing all associated formalities andI IMC was awardedmembership to GMAC inJanuary this year. ThePGPEX uses GMATscores for its admissionpurposes. GMAT scoresare also used as anapplication criterion foroverseas applicants of thetwo-year PGP and the Institute’s FP.

The membership will serve as a networking toolenabling IIMC to exchange ideas and share insightswith fellow member schools through conferencesand participation in market research. Further, it willhelp establish contacts and build relationships. Itwill enable IIMC to showcase its initiatives andprogrammes to interested students. The platform

can be used to introduce prospective students toIIMC’s programmes, invite them to events, andinform them of opportunities at IIMC. Moreover,GMAC will also prepare candidates who are takingthe GMAT exams for the steps they need to take toapply to IIMC.

GMAC member establishments can be a part ofG M A C ’ s A P A CSymposium, which bringstogether the best AsianBusiness Schools fordiscussions on a theme ofc o m m o n i n t e r e s t ,participate in the GMATCHVirtual Fair, which is anonline global recruiting

event, attend the Leadership Conference whichbrings together Deans, Directors and ProgrammeHeads of different business schools, etc. providingopportunities to network. Membership in the Councilis also useful from the point of view of gaining aninsight about student aspirations and career goalsafter completion of their management education.

IIMC is now a member of the GraduateManagement Admission Council, GMAC

5Academics

In keeping with IIM Calcutta’s mission of advancingthe theory and practice of management, the Institutehas decided to institute five Post-doctoral ResearchFellowships (PDRFs) from 2013-14. The objectives ofthe PDRF are to provide management researchers inIndia an opportunity to contribute to theory ofmanagement specially suited to the Indian contextand to enable faculty members at IIMC to collaborateon research projects with bright young researchers inIndia.

Post-doctoral research represents an opportunity fora researcher to make a transition from supervisedresearch to independent research. The researchercan work alongside an experienced researcher andgain from the former’s expertise. Mentoring forindependent research is an indispensable element ofpost-doctoral training. The post-doctoral fellowshipcan therefore play an important role in grooming youngresearchers for a fruitful academic career. The

researcher can acquire new skills, broaden his/herhorizon and learn to work in cross-disciplinary areas.

The candidates selected for the PDRF will be attachedto an appropriate Group depending on the post-doctoralresearch and will be associated with a faculty memberof the group who will essentially perform the role of amentor and collaborator. Apart from the researchpursued by the post-doctoral research fellow, his/herservices may be utilized by the Group for academicassistance in the group work including researchassistance, teaching and handling of tutorials.

The duration of the fellowship will be for a period of2 years. The benefits will include a monthly stipend,an annual contingency grant and medical benefits andinsurance. The Board in its 206th BoG meeting heldon December 18, 2012 adopted the proposal forinstituting PDRFs, which was initiated by Dean(Academic) and approved by Faculty Council earlier.

Post-doctoral Research Fellowships

“Data Analytics” and “Business Intelligence”, the twobuzz words hailed as “the next big thing in IT” in almostevery industry were put under the microscope recentlyin the class-rooms of IIM-Calcutta. Recognizing thefact that class discussions may not be the best wayto the get real feel of the upcoming technologicalstorm, Prof. Ambuj Mahanti and Prof. Asim Pal arrangedfor a 2-day workshop for a batch of 57 PGDCM studentsthis November. The idea was to give a livedemonstration of how companies can mine nuggetsof gold (read: valuable and profitable information) fromthe copious amount of data generated almost everysecond. The workshop revolved around exploitingnumerous features and functionalities of SAS (StatisticalAnalysis System), the market leader in businessanalytics software and services, using Orion Stardatasets and the other high volume datasets for

analytics. While the first day’s focus was on predictiveanalysis and E-miner, the next day was more aboutBusiness Intelligence. Students saw their theoreticalknowledge coming live into action as they gained first-hand experience on data-sourcing, cleaning,integrating, classifications, clustering, association rule-mining, cube-analysis, and so on. As part of thecurriculum, students completed a full-fledged projectbased on the learning of the workshop in which theyeven tried their hands on several features not exploredduring workshop having a fulfilling experience. Thereal success of the workshop, however, was highlightedby the fact when many of these PGDCM studentsshared their experience and learning with their fellowPGDM students, who were not part of this workshopdue to different course structure.

MIS group organizes workshop onStatistical Analysis System

6Academics

On 23rd January 2013, IIM Calcutta participated inthe first ever public lecture on the National KnowledgeNetwork (NKN). The lecture was delivered by thephilosopher, Prof. Michael Sandel of Harvard Universityand chaired by Mr. Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the PrimeMinister. IIMC was one of the five institutions nationallythat participated. The participation took place usingVideo Conferencing through IP. Students from PGP IIand PGPEX participated. There was a Q&A followingthe lecture.

The technical aspects of the event were handled by

Mr. Samir Sadhukhan and Mr. Tapan Sen with thecooperation of the VLMP office. Inter- Programmecoordination was done by Mr. A. Bhaduri (SAO-PGP)and Ms. A. Rudra (Asst. Manager, PGPEX). Mr. A.George, President, Students Council, coordinated onbehalf of the student body. Prof. B.P. Abrahamparticipated in the VC and oversaw the entire process.

The Acting Dean (Academic), Professor MritiunjoyMohanty thanked and congratulated the whole teamfor conducting a very successful event at the cuttingedge of new technology in the education.

IIMC's Participation in the firstever public lecture on NEN

IIM Calcutta organized the Second International

Marketing Conference, MARCON 2012 during

December 28, 29, and 30, 2012 at IIM Calcutta. The

theme of the conference was Sustainability, and

Marketing to Socially Connected Consumers. The

conference aimed to bring together thought-leaders

and practitioners, from marketing and other social

sciences to facilitate a dialogue that would contribute

to the theory and practice of marketing. MARCON

2012 received more than 225 papers from more than

10 countries. Out of these, more than 150 papers were

presented on the broad theme of the conference across

20 tracks, during the three days of the conference.

The presenters came from more than 70 different B-

Schools and Universities. The participants travelled

from countries such as USA, UK, Bangladesh, Turkey,

and Iran. The welcome address was delivered by the

director of IIM Calcutta, Prof Shekhar Chaudhuri,

followed by a keynote address by Prof V. Kumar from

Georgia State University. A Panel Discussion on

”Sustainability and the Changing Role of Marketing in

Organizations” was held. Another panel discussion on

“Markets and Society: Charting a New Role of

Customers in Marketing” was held on December 29th

and a workshop led by Prof Naresh Malhotra on

“General Approach to Theory Development and Testing

and How to Publish in a Top Journal” was held on

December 30th. The conference formally ended on

December 30th with a valedictory function, followed

by lunch.

IIM Calcutta organizes 2nd InternationalMarketing Conference, MARCON 2012

7Academics

IIM Calcutta hosted the India Finance Conference2012 (IFC 2012) in its campus in Joka, Kolkata duringDecember 18-21 2012. The conference, which wasjointly organised by IIM Calcutta, IIM Bangalore andIIM Ahmedabad, invited academics, researchers,doctoral students, and practitioners, to submit papersin all areas of finance from across the world. The IndiaFinance Conference traces its roots to the twoInternational Finance Conferences organized by IndianInstitute of Management Calcutta in 2009 and 2010.The current initiative was organized jointly by IIMBangalore and IIM Ahmedabad and the name of theConference was changed to India Finance Conference(IFC). The first India Finance Conference was held atIIM Bangalore during December 20-23, 2011.

The conference received and reviewed over 300research papers from across the world out of whicha total of 115 papers were accepted and the authorswere invited to present their papers. The short-listedpapers spanned most of the areas in finance including:Asset Pricing, Corporate Finance, CorporateGovernance, Financial Policies and Regulations,Financial Reporting and IFRS, Industry and Economy,Risk Management, Behavioural Finance and Volatility.

The Conference was Inaugurated by Prof. KaushikBasu who is currently the Chief Economist and SeniorVice President of the World Bank and has previouslybeen the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government

of India. In his inaugural speech titled, EconomicReforms in India, Prof. Basu talked about the recentpush of the Government in opening up the economyand also gave his views on the newer initiatives likeDirect Cash Transfer and FDI in retail.

The conference also saw a number of tutorials andkeynote speeches delivered by many senioracademicians and researchers of very high reputefrom top institutes across the world. In his keynotespeech titled, Do CEO’s matter, Prof. Sudipto Dasgupta,Chair Professor of Finance and Director of Centre forAsian Financial Markets at Hong Kong University ofScience and Technology (HKUST), analysed therelationship between corporate results and theirleadership. Prof. Dasgupta also conducted a tutorialon Topics in Capital Structure research for theconference participants. Prof. Marti Subrahmanyam,Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance, Stern Schoolof Business, NYU, gave a keynote speech on thetopic, Liquidity Effects in US Corporate Bond Market.Prof. Marti also conducted an on-demand session onBest Practices in Research Publications for the youngresearchers, which was highly appreciated. Anothersession which was highly liked by the students andpractitioners alike was the panel discussion on thetopic, “Indian Financial Sector – Is it mature enough”.The panel included Mr. Ananda Bhowmick, SeniorDirector, Indian Rating and Research, Mr Arun Kaul,CMD, Uco Bank and Prof. Jayanth Varma, Professorof Finance and Accounting at IIM Ahmedabad. Thepanel discussion was moderated by Prof. Rama Sethof IIM Calcutta.

The President of the Finance & Investment Club, IIMCalcutta, led a group of over 30 students to providelogistical and organisational support. The next seasonof Indian Finance Conference will be hosted by IIMAhmedabad in December 2013.

India Finance Conference 2012held at IIM Calcutta

8Academics

IIM Calcutta along with the Niehaus Center forGlobalization and Governance at Princeton University’sWoodrow Wilson School, and the University ofPittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and InternationalAffairs jointly sponsored a research conference, “Politicsof the Changing World Economy, ” that was held atthe Vivanta by Taj - Fort Aguada in Goa, during January4 to 6, 2013.

The conference brought together political scientistsand international economists from the United Statesof America and India who are engaged in research onhow the global economy affects domestic politics andinstitutions. Papers presented and discussed duringthis conference explored political dynamics and policyimplications that may be relevant for the globaleconomy, international politics and domestic politicalstability.

The conference hosted scholars and researchers fromPrinceton University, University of North Carolina,University of California, Harvard University, YaleUniversity, University of Pittsburgh, Stanford University,Georgetown University, Indira Gandhi Institute ofDevelopment Research (IGIDR), Indian Council forResearch and International Economic Relations

(ICRIER), Centre for Development Studies (CDS),Delhi School of Economics (DSE), Center for Studiesin Social Sciences (CSSS) and the Indian Institute ofManagement Calcutta.

Papers with an Indian perspective included ‘India andthe recent wave of regionalism in Asia Pacific’, ‘KeyIssues in Indian service sectors’ and ‘India’s integrationwith the world economy’. There were also papers ontopics such as ‘How trade restrictions encouragecorruption’, ‘Industry, self-interest and individualpreferences over trade policy’ etc. Contemporaryissues like ‘FDI, redistribution and perception of upwardmobility in developing countries’, ‘Mass attitude towardsoff shoring’ and ‘Attitude towards foreign aid in arecipient country’ were some of the other topics ofpapers presented and discussed at the conference.

The conference brought together a whole gamut ofideas, views and thoughts shared over a period ofthree days and was the beginning of what will surelybe a long and fruitful collaboration between PrincetonUniversity’s Woodrow Wilson School, the Universityof Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public andInternational Affairs and the Indian Institute ofManagement Calcutta.

Conference on 'Politics of theChanging World Economy'

The third video on Insight was launched on 29thNovember, 2012 and featured Prof. Ranjan Banerjeewho spoke about BehavioralEconomics. Prof. Banerjeeelaborated several interestingaspects of the subject andrelated it by giving ampleexamples of how a person’sbuying choices can be alteredby using techniques such as“The Decoy Effect”, “Anchoring”and so on. Prof. Banerjee citedsurprising examples of the Behavioral Economics inpractice, such as the experiment on the students of a

leading international business school and also thelaunch of the iPad.

Incidentally, the first and secondvideos of this series werelaunched on 15th August, 2012and 18th September, 2012respectively featuring ProfessorAnup Sinha and Professor C.D.Mitra. Professor Sinha spokeabout the uncertainty throughwhich the Indian governmentwas leading the Indian economy

while Professor Mitra spoke on contemporary marketingeducation. Insight is a production by IIM Calcutta’s

Insight’s Third Video Launched

9Academics

The PGPEX class of 2013 had a very enlighteninginternational immersion in UK in the month ofNovember. The group of 16 students had a diverseagenda chalked out for them right from industrial visitto the prestigious JLR factory to lessons in ValueMarketing from Prof. Nirmalya Kumar, the guru ofMarketing and getting first-hand insight into the topmistakes of today’s CFOs from Prof. Henri Servaesfrom London Business School.

The highlight of the immersion program was thestudents’ exposure to the real management consultingat many start-up and medium sized companies wherethey got an opportunity to interact with the company’sexecutives and then prepared a business plan toachieve the future goals of these firms. The businessproblems included many interesting topics such asglobal expansion of the business, launching a companybased in the UK in India, advice on the functioning ofa company’s workforce. These plans gave theimmersion participants a real internship experience inthe UK which helped them learn extensively about thebusiness environment in the foreign country as wellas increased their awareness of the features of the

global business arena.

Some of the participants had prior experience ofworking in the UK and yet the immersion experienceoffered them with a refreshing angle of looking atbusiness issues in the real world. For others, thebusiness outlook of the industry was definitelyenhanced beyond that can be achieved inside theclassroom.

The programme also included a day-long seminar atAmsterdam on cutting-edge best practices in the ITmanagement and emerging methodologies forintegrating Development and Operation functionsinside a company. The group caught a glimpse of thepristine European landscape and culture while travellingby the Euro-rail between London and Amsterdam.

The one-month long international immersion was notall work and no play. The huge list of museums andarchitecture marvels such as St. Paul’s Cathedral,London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, TowerBridge and a walk along the Thames were literallyfascinating.

— Priyanka SahaPGPEX 6th batch student

PGPEX VI backfrom the International Immersion

External Relations cell and is essentially an informativevideo-series containing discussions on contemporarymanagement issues by IIM Calcutta’s professors.Videos are launched periodically on IIM Calcutta’s

official Youtube channel. The initiative has receivedfavorable responses and has a popular following bymany IIMCians as well as the rest of the people.

The UK Diaries

10Academics

FPM SeminarsDate Title of the Paper Speaker Faculty Host

10.10.12 Fiscal Federalism, State Lobbying and Dr. Rongili Biswas Assistant Professor of Prof. Soumyendranath Sikdar, Economics GroupDiscretionary Finance Economics at Maulana Azad College.a

30.10.12 Business Group Affiliation and Earnings Quality: Prof. Sandip Dhole, Assistant Professor in Prof. Manju Jaiswall, F & C GroupEvidence from Indian Business Groups the accounting & finance area at ISB, Hyderabad.

03.11.12 Society, Markets and the striving economic Ms. Rajni Bakshi, Free lance Journalist, Author, Prof. Ramendra Singh, Marketing Groupdemocracy Speaker and Gandhi Peace Fellow at Indian

Council on Global Relations.

27.11.12 Current Challenges in Indian Monetary Policy Michael Debabrata Patra, Advisor in charge, Prof. Soumyendranath Sikdar,Monetary Policy Department RBI Economics Group

28.11.12 Diffusion or Polarization in Industrial location Prof. Baldev Raj Nayar, Prof. Emeritus of Political Prof. Anindya Sen, Economics Groupafter Economic Liberalization Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

05.12.12 Class Structure in Pakistan Dr. Taimur Rahman, Assistant Professor at Lahore Prof. Anindya Sen, Economics GroupUniversity of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan

12.12.12 An Empirical Investigation into the Determinants Dr. Sarbapriya Ray, Assistant Professor at Shyampur Prof. Manju Jaiswall, F & C Groupof Capital Structure of Aluminum Industry in India Siddheswari Mahavidyalaya, under

University of Calcutta, Howrah

03.01.13 Transforming Drinking Water Crisis in India into an Prof. Arup K. SenGupta, P.C. Rossin Professor Department Prof. V. K Unni, PPM GroupOpportunity for Economic Growth: of Civil & Environmental Engineering Department ofRole of Science of Technology Chemical Engineering

07.01.13 The financial crisis and lessons for regulation Dr. Arupratan Daripa, faculty member in Economics, Prof. Uttam Kr. Sarkar, MIS GroupMathematics and Statistics in BirkbeckUniversity of London, UK

08.01.13 Business Format Franchising - A Brief Introduction to Prof Kabir C Sen, Professor of Marketing at Lamar Prof. Ramendra Singh, Marketing Groupits existence as on organizational format and its link University, USAwith retail growth

09.01.13 The economic impact of investment treaties Prof. Julien Chaisse Associate Professor of Law, Chinese Prof. Rajesh Babu, PPM GroupUniversity of Hong Kong and Prof. Bellak, AssociateProfessor of Economics, Vienna University of Economics

16.01.13 Finanzkapital, Marketing and Consumers Prof. Nikhilesh Dholakia, Professor of Marketing and Prof. Rohit Varman, Marketing GroupInternational Business in the College of BusinessAdministration at the University of Rhode Island (URI) in USA

16.01.13 Employment,Growth and Inequality in India: Dr Subhanil Chowdhury, Assistant Professor, IDSK Calcutta Prof. Soumyendranath Sikdar, Economics Groupa Critical Analysis

21.01.13 Trends in the Use of Technology: Changing Prof. Ruby Roy Dholakia, Professor of Marketing and Electronic Prof. Rohit Varman, Marketing GroupInfluence of Gender and Location Commerce College of Business Administration, Kingston

29.01.13 Effect of Feedback on the Dynamics and Dr. Pallab Sanyal, Prof. Indranil Bose,Outcomes of Continuous Combinatorial Auctions Assistant Professor, George Mason University MIS Group

30.01.13 Sharing News Articles Using 140 Characters: Prof. Sudha Ram University of Arizona Prof. Indranil Bose,A Propagation Analysis on Twitter MIS Group

11Faculty

After a fantastic cricket match between the Facultyand the Student teams, the much awaited Faculty Playwas another example of faculty and student interactionat its very best at IIMC. Incidentally, this was thesecond faculty play in the history of IIM Calcutta afterthe tremendously successful all-faculty play that tookplace last year. Dramatics Cell, in association with thePGP Representatives organized "House of Quirks, anall-faculty cast play". The play was staged before apacked auditorium at 5:30pm on Friday, January 11,2013. The plot was very interesting, and had plentyof twists and turns as it went from being a goofycomedy to a suspense story, ending with a dramatictwist that had better not be mentioned here as a spoiler!

The cast of the play included Professors Arpita Ghosh,Biju Paul Abraham, Devi Vijay, Mritiunjoy Mohanty,Nimruji Prasad J, Nivedita Sinha, Pragyan Rath,Sumanta Basu and Vishal Gupta, while the direction,production and publicity were managed by the PGPstudents. The play was directed by Deepa Khannaand C. Geeta Manasa and produced by Deepan Malikand Shraddha Mehta, while the publicity was handledby Anirudh Choudhary and Jayant Kharote.

One of the faculty members who acted in the playreflects on his role in the play.

When Deepna (Khanna) and Geeta (Mansa) from theDramatics Cell approached me one Novemberafternoon last year to invite me to join the cast of thisyear’s Faculty Play, I said to myself, “They really arescrapping the bottom of the barrel. They must haveapproached me out of sheer desperation! ”. I couldthink of a number of reasons that I could cite to turnthem down. There were a hundred things that weredue the day before that were still pending, I would

have to attend meetings at short notice and that woulddisrupt rehearsals, I would have to travel out of thecity often…. However, I knew persuading them tospare me would a long and difficult exercise, and truthbe told, I agreed to join the reading sessions only toavoid this pain. My fond hope then was that I wouldjoin the readings for a few days, find another facultycolleague to take over my role,and escape the FacultyPlay at least for this year.

That, fortunately, was not to be. It soon became clearthat let alone finding a replacement, keeping theexisting cast itself would be a difficult exercise. Mycolleagues on the faculty probably had many of thesame concerns that I had. The Faculty Play that hadbeen staged last year was an outstanding success.Abhishek (Goel), Anup (Sinha), Manju (Jaiswall),Megha (Sharma), Prashant (Mishra) and Runa (Sarkar)had put on a terrific performance and doing somethingas good would be next to impossible. Given theenormous increase in faculty work-load over the pastfew years finding the time to attend readings andrehearsals would also be very difficult. For me therewas an additional concern. As one gets older onebegins to worry about memory loss and I really wasnot sure that I would be able to remember my lines.Nothing terrifies a man more than the thought of beingon stage and forgetting his lines in front of colleagues,students, family and friends. However within a fewdays, and with no replacement in sight, I realized thatthere was no choice but to see things through to theend.

The play that the Dramatics Cell had chosen was‘Mind over Manor’ by Loretta Willoughby. Renamedthe ‘House of Quirks’, it was about the residents of‘Summer Meadows’ an estate owned by OpelSummers, played by Arpita (Ghosh). She gathersaround her a motely bunch of residents all of whomhave ‘small quirks of their own’. Many commentedlater that this was quite an appropriate choice for afaculty play at IIM Calcutta!

The play starts with the arrival of Jasmine Winters,played by Devi (Vijay), Opal’s long-lost niece who isout to take control of the estate from her aunt. Shehopes to convince a court that her aunt is mentallyunstable and no longer capable of running the estate.She is assisted by a lawyer, Chester Banks (played

IN THE ‘HOUSE OF QUIRKS’

12Faculty

by yours truly) who is there to collect ‘evidence’ ofabnormal behavior among residents so that he canprepare a case. The residents include Donna Summers,played by Nimruji (Prasad), a family friend who hasbeen with Opal since her father died, Peter Von Schtuk,played by Mrit iunjoy (Mohanty), a bri l l iantmathematician who leaves a top-secret governmentresearch programme which ended in failure, andTawnee Patterson, played by Pragyan (Rath), whohelps Opel and Donna in running the estate. Otherresidents include Mavis Jones, played by Nivedita(Sinha) a beauty queen who never recovers from thefact that she fainted during the final of a Miss USApageant, Bryan Biggs, played by Sumanta (Basu),who has a fetish for milk because his father used tomake him eat his breakfast cereal dry and VinceMacchio, played byVishal (Gupta), agardener at theestate who is tryingto escape h ismurky past as adriver for the ‘mob’.

It was the experience of the early readings that mademe realize that I was indeed fortunate to be part ofthe team. There were unexpected discoveries andexperiences. Readings, I found out, are a great wayto relieve stress. Getting into one’s role took one’smind off the normal routines. Having students as‘directors’ whom you had to listen to was a novel

experience as well. But above all there was there wasthe unique experience of working with eight otherfaculty colleagues. The readings and the rehearsalswere occasions to cherish. Learning ones lines,knowing what to do when someone missed theirs,getting used to Geeta and Deepna playing differentparts on different days as stand-ins for those who wereaway…every day brought in new challenges andsurprises. They were overcome only because of thespirit of camaraderie that developed along the way.

It was two days before the play was to be staged thatthe cast had to face one last, and most terrifying,challenge. This was the ‘sledge run’ during which alarge group of students tried to unsettle us during afull rehearsal. The laughter (not all appreciative) wasloud, the comments (sometimes)sounded harsh, andI was terror-struck. Many stumbled over their lines.I discovered to my horror that I had forgotten largeparts of the script. Overcoming the fear of a repeatduring the final performance was a challenge for meand, I am sure, for many of my colleagues. Whatseemed an enjoyable exercise until the day beforenow became a more serious affair. Deepna, Geeta,Shraddha (Mehta), Deepan (Malik) and their team-mates from the Dramatics Cell were, as always, veryhelpful. Their assurance that it would not be as badon the final day really helped. It did spur us on to domore break-out rehearsals and full-runs the next day.

Once the curtains went upon the final day everythingseemed to move aheadfast, and like clock-work.Did we miss lines? Ofcourse, some of us did. Didthe audience notice? Well,

not everyone. What we had at the end of theperformance was the feeling that as a group we didthe best that we could have done. We also establishedthe Faculty Play as an event in the Institute’s calendar.That in the end is perhaps what matters. Would I doit again? You bet I will. Not next year though!

Biju Paul Abraham

13Faculty

At the close of the working hourstoday, I will be superannuating in mypresent position. On this occasionof the formal conclusion of animportant part of my professionallife, I wish to record my sincerethanks to all my faculty colleaguesand friends in the staff, includingthose on contract, for the warm

friendliness that I have received from all, over the years.This, and the rich natural environment of the campus,made my working in IIMC a privilege and an enrichingexperience.

In 1997 I joined IIMC at the invitation of the Instituteand was given a mandate to strengthen interdisciplinaryactivities largely based on policy research of internationalstandards, on the complex relation between environmentand development. Till date I have followed that mandatebut an assessment of how much I have succeeded inrealizing that mandate, is not for me to undertake. Thereare widely accepted global criteria which can be usedfor such evaluations.

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library at Teen MurtiHouse in New Delhi has kindly decided to establish acollection in my name for students and researchers offuture years. This will consist of selected publicationsand communications of myself, in which work donefrom IIMC will constitute an important part.

I wish the very best to IIMC and all of you in the NewYear and beyond.

With best regards and hoping to keep in touch,

Prof. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

December 31, 2012

(written by him through an e-mail on 31st December2012 – the day of his retirement)

Professor Manisha

Chakraborty of the

Economics Group

successfully applied

for a research funding

under the UKIERI

(UK-India Education

a n d R e s e a r c h

I n i t i a t i v e ) . H e r

research partners are in Madras School of

Economics (Prof Ekta Selarka), Aston

Business School in the UK (Prof Sumon

Bhaumik) and Southern Illinois University

Edwardsville in the USA (Prof Ali Kutan).

Their application went through a severe

process of selection which rejected 80% of

the proposals received. Under the UKIERI

grant, IIMC will be the Principal Investigator.

Being the Principal Investigator, IIMC can

host one workshop and one international

conference under the banner of SSEM

(Society for the Study of Emerging Markets),

fully funded by British Council.

UKIERI grant forour professor

India InternationalFriendship Societyhonoured ProfessorAmnbuj Mahantiwith their "RashtriyaGaurav Award"a l o n g w i t h a

Certificate Of Excellence at a befittingfunction. This Ceremony was held onDecember, 20, 2012 in New Delhi.

Rashtriya Gaurav Award

Musings byProf. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

14Publications

Book chapter byProfessor Partha Ray

Jointly with Arvind Virmani, ProfessorPartha Ray's paper titled, "CalibratedFinancial Liberalization in India: Has ItServed the Country?” has recently beenpublished (as Chapter 4, pp. 43 - 64)in a book titled Twenty Years of India'sLiberalization: Experience and Lessons,from UNCTAD, Geneva. The link is at

http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/osg2012d1_en.pdf.In this paper, trying to be free from the stereotypes,the authors take an eclectic position and try to assessthe various aspects of financial liberalization India.The paper covers a wide canvas - various sectors (likebanking, insurance companies, development financeinstitutions or mutual funds) and markets (e.g., money,government securities, corporate debt, equity andforex), as well as capital account liberalization are alsolooked into. Based on the stylized facts and empirics,the broad conclusion of the paper may be summedup as follows: while financial liberalization in Indiaimproved the allocation of funds and allowed theeconomy to reap the benefits of static welfare efficiency,reforms that could have increased competitive supplyof funds to new entrepreneurs, credit rationed producersand (direct) investors have been somewhat limited.Nevertheless, given the fiscal deficit and inflationconfiguration, the opening up of the financial sectorto foreign players has been rightly calibrated. If thereis any lesson from the global financial crisis, it isperhaps that it is better to be measured and safe ratherthan fast and rash. To say that financial liberalizationis a process and not necessarily an end in itself is acliché - but such a cliché perhaps describes the truespirit of financial reforms in India in this paper.

Book chapter byProfessor Rajiv Kumar

Kumar R., & Chhokar, J. S. (2013), “Cross-cultural leadership”. In M. Rumsey (ed.),“The Oxford Handbook of Leadership”,Oxford University Press, NY.In this chapter, the authors have offereda summary of different conceptions of

culture, and have highlighted the dynamic nature ofculture. After mentioning some key findings fromprevious reviews of cross-cultural leadership research,they have reviewed recently published empirical work.This review suggests that directive leadership may be

more problematic in individualistic cultures. Culturealso seems to play a role in the difference betweenself and others’ rating in 360-degree feedback.Conceptions of ethics, ethical leadership, and reactionsto unethical practices seem to vary across culture.Some studies point out that cross-national differencescould be due to factors other than culture. The authorsalso identify some issues warranting further research.

Professor Partha Priya Datta’s paperPartha Priya Datta & Rajkumar Roy havepublished a paper titled “Incentive issuesin performance-based outsourcingcontracts in the UK defence industry: asimulation study” in a Special Issue: TheDesign, Control and Measurement ofOutsourcing Practices, of Production

Planning & Control: The Management of Operations,Volume 24, Issue 4-5, 2013.Traditional outsourcing literature has claimed gainsfor the customer in terms of quality and costs. However,such gains are illusory in outsourcing of high-risk,complex tasks. The use of contracts and governancemechanisms for handling complex procurements isessential in obtaining rewards from outsourcing.Powerful incentives and risks are normally used inindustrial service contracts to transfer risks to measurecompliance with performance measures. Theavailability contracts for complex engineering servicesprovision are forms of outsourcing contracts thattransfer resources from government to external serviceproviders on a substantial scale. The change movesthe contractor role from creating resources to managingresources. Such role change mandates collaborationwith customers and suppliers in supply/value chains.The management task is then perceived in terms oflinking and optimising alignments rather than increasingservice levels. Incentive design is one mechanism forlinking the coordination of resources required inavailability contracting to the business model. Thisarticle studies the impacts of agreed contract type andincentive mechanism on the customer and serviceprovider profits using agent-based discrete eventsimulation model under multiple risk sharing scenarios.

Dr. Lawrence Gomes's paperResearch Associate, Dr. Lawrence Gomes's researchpaper titled "Role of NGOs in Rural Development : AnExploratory Study in West Bengal" has been publishedin ASIAN Journal of Research in Business Economicsand Management, Vol. 2,Issue 12, December 2012,ISSN:2249 - 7307, Pg.214-231.

15Events

The closing ceremony of the Golden Jubilee at IIMCalcutta was held on November 14, 2012. The 2-year long Golden Jubilee celebration which was kick-started in 2010 and continued in 2011 came to anend on November 14, 2012 when the occasion sawDr Ramchandra Guha, formerly Philippe Roman Chairin History and International Affairs at the LondonSchool of Economics and a distinguished alumnusof IIM Calcutta, deliver an address as chief guest. Dr.Guha has taught at the Universities of Yale andStanford, held the Arne Naess Chair at the Universityof Oslo, and has been the Indo-American CommunityVisiting Professor at the University of California atBerkeley. Dr. Guha has been conferred the PadmaBhushan in 2009 and the 2011 Sahitya AcademyAward for his book “India after Gandhi”. His otherawards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the AmericanSociety of Environmental History, the DailyTelegraph/Cricket Society Prize, the MalcolmAdideshiah Award for excellence in social scienceresearch, the Ramnath Goenka Prize for excellencein journalism and the R K Narayan Prize. IncidentallyDr. Ramchandra Guha was the recipient ofDistinguished Alumnus Award for 2011 but since hecould not make it last year, he was presented theTrophy and Scroll belated by Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan,Chairman BoG, IIM Calcutta.The inaugural session included a welcome addressby Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIMC, followedby Chairperson's address by Shri Ajit Balakrishnan,Chairman, BOG, IIMC and address by the ChiefGuest. The next session was the screening of theDocumentary Film on IIMC directed by Shri GautamGhosh and release of a Commemorative Volumetitled,“Citizens and Revolutionaries - An Oral Historyof IIM Calcutta” by Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan, ChairmanBoG, IIM Calcutta. The occasion also included a

special exhibition with archival materials at the foyerof auditorium on the day. The post-lunch session sawthe announcement of the Distinguished AlumnusAward 2012 by Prof. Ashok Banerjee, Dean (NewInitiatives & External Relations). There four recipientsof the award were Shri Kirit Modi, Shri Patanjali GKeswani, Sri Srivatsan Rajan and Dr. SureshMahadevan Sundaresan. They were presented theTrophies and Scrolls by Shri Ajit Balakrishnan,Chairman, BOG, IIMC and Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri,Director, IIMC.Kirit Modi is amongst the pioneers to have institutedthe concept of corrugated boxes and pan-Indiadistribution of Kraft paper back in 1979 and set upHPG in 1991. Over the last twenty years HPG hasrevolutionized the packaging industry in India withexcellent quality of products and services. HPG’sinstallation and usage of sophisticated electro-mechanical and automated production machinery,material handling and quality assurance, up-scaledproduction and planned on-line quality systems andcontrols have uplifted the quality of packaging tointernational standards, helping India’s exportssignificantly.Patanjali Keswani started his career with the TataAdministrative Services upon graduation from IIMCin 1983 and after 15 years, rose to the top as the SR.VP and COO in the Taj Group of Hotels. He startedLemon Tree Hotels in 2002 and pioneered the conceptof the mid-market hotel segment and created this‘low cost carrier’ equivalent of the hotel industry inIndia. As a transformative entrepreneur, he conceivedand implemented a disruptive market innovation inproviding high-quality yet affordable services in theIndian hotel industry.Srivatsan Rajan graduated from IIMC in 1986 andwas awarded the B S Dua medal for Leadership.

Golden Jubilee Closing Ceremony

16Events

While doing his MBA at Wharton School of Businesshe was a Palmer Scholar for his outstanding academicperformance and has served as a member of theDean’s Graduate Student Advisory Council. He wasone of the founding partners of Bain and Companyin India. Bain India, under his mentorship, has grownto over 300 employees, making it one of the mostsuccessful and fastest growing offices of Bain &

Company.

Suresh Mahadevan Sundaresan holds a PhD andM.S. in Finance from the Graduate School of IndustrialAdministration, Carnegie-Mellon University, a PGDMfrom IIM Calcutta and a B.E. (Honours) in MechanicalEngineering from University of Madras. He startedhis academic career as a Faculty member at theAdministrative Staff College of India and now holdsthe prestigious position of ‘Chase Manhattan BankProfessor of Economics and Finance’ in ColumbiaUniversity, USA.

Another interesting feature was the Open Forum on“Journey for the next fifty years: Some thoughts”moderated by Professor Ashok Banerjee. ThePresidents of Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai chaptersof IIM Calcutta Alumni Association spoke at lengthinteractively on how they would like to help their almamater in next fifty years. The day-long event came toan end with the cultural programme organized by thevarious student-run Cultural Clubs of IIM Calcutta.

A Panel discussion on “The Missing Dimension inEducation” was held on October 6, 2012 as a part ofLattice 2012 organised by the PGPEX students atMCHV.

The event was sponsored by ONGC in keeping withits long standing association with the ManagementCenter for Human Values at IIM Calcutta. Mr. TridibeshBandyopadhyay, education entrepreneur, IIMCalumnus moderated the discussion. Prof. B.Mahadevan, Indian Institute of ManagementBangalore, Prof. Gautam Mitra, London University,Prof. S. Ramkumar, nuclear physicist andÊfreelancemanagement educator, were the panelists. The paneldiscussion introspected on whether the present dayB School educational framework instills the requiredvalues, beliefs and attitude in students, makes themaware of ‘right and wrong’, produces world citizens,and helps students in integrating organizational and

personal goals. Some of the points highlighted in thepanel discussion are:

l Employability index for Indian graduates is meager25% - a glaring disconnect between recruiters’demand and the product of the B Schools.

l Dealing with constant conflict between values andethics faced in work situation.

l Spirituality and sustainable growth arequintessential dimensions crying for attention intoday's business arena.

l Importance of mission, vision and values inindividuals and in organizations and the need forcollecting and acting on the feedback from industryto fine tune B School curriculum to meet theexpectations of the industry.

l Freeing students from placement mentality andlure of fat pay packages and enabling them forunconventional careers.

The panelists answered various questions fielded bythe enthusiastic audience. Insightful observationscame up on challenges faced by the Indianmanagement education system and possible waysof confronting them. Improving the business curriculum

Panel Discussion:The Missing Dimension in Education

17Events

to generate transformational instead of transactionalleaders, tapping business value at bottom of thepyramid and moving from ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’ to createa solid foundation to build sustainable enterprisesetc. came up in the discussion among the panelists

and the audience comprising of students, faculty, staffand alumni of IIMC and invited guests. The PanelDiscussion left the participants with a lot to ponderover and act on as they prepare to emerge as futurechange agents in business and society.

With the theme of “Winds of Change” referring to themyriad socio-economic transformations that the worldis presently going through, IIM Calcutta hosted itsannual Business Symposium of the PGPEX students,Lattice 2012. The two-day event was inaugurated byProf. Shekhar Chaudhari, Director, IIM Calcutta. ThePGPEX Chairperson, Prof. Runa Sarkar highlightedhow the Lattice event has evolved over the years intoan idea incubator, and has brought alumni andstudents together. In his keynote address, Mr. M.Goutham Reddy, Executive Director, Ramky Group,expounded on increasing importance of the role of

Infrastructure Development and Public-PrivatePartnerships in India’s growth. Mr. Vijay Mahajan,Founder and Chairman of BASIX tickled the listener’sbrains with the paradox of poverty amidst India’samazing economic growth. This was followed bylaunch of the book ‘Whose Sustainability Counts?’which is an exposition of BASIX’s long journey frommicrofinance to livelihoods.

The Leadership Talk sessions concluded with theaddress from Mr. Aritra Sarkar, VP-Strategy of ABPGroup who intrigued the audience with his ideas onOpen Innovation in Media and Technology. Next wasa thought-provoking panel discussion on the MissingDimensions in Management Education in India withProf. Gautam Mitra (Director, OptiRisk Systems),Prof. B. Mahadevan (Professor of OperationsManagement, IIMB) and Prof. S. Ram Kumar (NuclearPhysicist and Management Educator) as panelistsand the esteemed panel was moderated by Mr.Tridibesh Bandyopadhyay, who is an educationentrepreneur. The Business Quiz conducted by quizmaster Mr. Biswabijoy Sen was held next day.

Lattice 2012 focuses on “Winds of Change”

Reminiscence, IIMC’s annual event (and Alumni-Cell’s flagship event of the year) was held from 27thto 29th December, 2012. Many distinguished alumnifrom the batch of 1987 visited the campus for a fun-

filled 3 days to re-live some of their college days.Some of the key highlights of the event were thebonfire and antakshari night, dinner cruise on theGanges, the heritage walk around the campus, brilliantperformances by the dramatics cell and choreographyclub and a stellar performance by IIMC’s band, JBSBaroC on the night of 29th December. All in all, it wasa fun-filled event and a fantastic opportunity for thecurrent batches to interact with and learn from theever-impressive yet humble alumni, who shared alltheir memories and gave very valuable advice to theaspiring future leaders

1987 Batch’s Visit duringReminiscence 2012

18Lectures by Visiting Dignitaries

On 7th December 2012, IIMCalcutta had the honour of hostingDr. Subir Gokarn, former DeputyGovernor, Reserve Bank of India.D r . G o k a r n s p o k e o n :“Accelerating long-term growth:C o n s t r a i n t s a n d P o l i c yResponses”.

Dr. Gokarn began his speech by introducing thevarious macroeconomic issues necessary for thecountry’s stable growth. He emphasized theimportance of sound macroeconomic policies keepingin mind the vulnerability of global trends while makingassessments about future growth. He stated that thethree most important conditions for sustained growthare External stability, Fiscal Consolidation and LowInflation, all three of which have been conspicuouslyabsent in the last five years giving rise to India’s

lagging growth in recent times.Dr. Gokarn underscored that India’s “window ofopportunity” lies in the huge population which isageing at a slower rate than world average age-growth rate, but maintained that India needs tocapitalize on this Human Resource by equipping itwith the right training and skills required to migrateto the manufacturing sector from the “shrinking”Agriculture Sector which employs more than half ofIndia’s employable population. Before culminatinghis address he stressed the necessity of constraininginflation “sustainably” and rebalancing fiscalconsolidation towards capital expenditure to providethe required impetus to spur India’s growth byremoving infrastructural constraints. The lecture wasfollowed by a Q&A round in which students as wellas faculty members grilled Dr. Subir Gokarn but wereoverwhelmed by his sharp and insightful responses.

Dr. Subir Gokarn addresses thestudents of IIM Calcutta

Aseem Shrivastava, a professorof economics and philosophy andco-author of ‘Churning the Earth:The Making of Global India’, gavea talk at IIM Calcutta on 18thNovember 2012. His bookexamines the socio-economic andecological impact of globalization

on India, in the context of India’s emergence on theglobal stage over the last two decades. The bookreviews the impact of reforms, arguing that the highgrowth of the Indian economy has been of a predatorynature. It poses questions on their political andecological sustainability.The key takeaways from his thought-provoking talkincluded the idea of a Radical Ecological Democracy,

which brings control back to the local level anddisplaces the desire for a rising GDP with larger goalscentered on citizens’ welfare. It was emphasized thatpanchayats should be vested with legislative powerand more up-down transparency in the 3-tier systemof government should be facilitated. As is the prevalentsystem in countries like Norway, local communitiesneed to have the right to veto decisions taken abovethem. With a focus on community rights, localizingeconomies and boost ing agricul ture andagribusinesses, better ecological rationality can alsobe achieved. A more sustainable city-village balancealso needs to set in for such a model to be sustainable.In a nutshell, he underlined that true globalization ofpeople all over the world is possible only by localizationof where they are.

Aseem Shrivastava’s Talk at IIM Calcutta

The Finance Lab of IIM Calcuttahosted the 3rd session of FinanceLecture Series on 17th January2013 on “Risk, Regulation andStatistics”. The speaker,Prof. PaulEmbrechts is an SFI SeniorProfessor in the Department of

Mathematics and RiskLab, ETH Zurich. Author of fivebooks on financial statistics and risk management aswell as more than 160 papers, Prof. Embrechts isalso in the editorial board of many journals. Herepresented and chaired several professionalcommittees, scientific programme committees andinternational evaluation committees.

Third Finance Lecture deliveredby Dr. Paul Embrechts

19Lectures by Visiting Dignitaries

Dr. Embrechts during his speech put some emphasison extreme-quantile tracking for financial time series.He started with history of financial innovation andnoted that as we go higher up in the direction ofsynthetic derivative products and structured products,the analytical valuations become imprecise and evenimpossible at times. “Thus”, he stressed that theBASEL committee, over the course of last threedecades, has been advocating the use of Value atRisk (VaR) to estimate the riskiness of bank assetsand deciding the capital charge required in case ofextreme loss scenario. He also explained the waybanks are allowed to use their own methodology tocalculate VaR, albeit it is being back tested by theregulators. Moving into BASEL 3.5 he pointed outthe paradigm shift that has been proposed by thecommittee to incorporate Expected Shortfall (ES) that

measures the riskiness of a position by consideringboth the size and the likelihood of losses above acertain confidence level. He noted that ES at timesgives unprecedented estimates of expected loss butalso argued that those estimates are comparablewith the highest losses history has seen over last halfa century. He explained that the problem of ES islack of accepted methodology to back-test it. He alsoemphasized the technique of POT analysis to estimatethe confidence interval of certain level of loss.The lecture has been a good foundation for riskmanagers, professors and students who attendedthe lecture and returned with an idea that how in aworld with more uncertainties at the extremes, potentialrisk can be measured.

- Sayantan Kundu, FP Student

After the initial excitement created on campus whenthe Colloquia Cell members announced a talk by the“Only Certified Witch from India”, there was an intenseperiod of expectation and curiosity as over 75 studentsflocked to the hall L2, eagerly awaiting the lady tospeak to them.By 6 p.m. L2 was overflowing. Reporters from ETVand Telegraph clicked photographs of Prof. AnindyaSen as well as Mrs. Chakraverti as they walked intothe hall and gave brief interviews to them. “I was theEnglish teacher of your Professor Anindya Sen,” Mrs.Chakraverti announced as she took her seat and wasgreeted to a loud round of applause by the students.“I have been a Wiccan for many, many decades now,”she said, and went on to explain how when scienceand mysticism meet, it is truly amazing.“Our (Wiccan Brigade’s) intention is to eliminatesuperstition,” said Mrs. Chakraverti and went on toexplain how it was perfectly possible to be of ascientific mind and at the same time have belief in

the mystical. “Crystal, and by thatI mean rock quartz, and not justcrystal balls,” she said in her well-educated and thoroughly polishedtone, “is scientifically known torespond to human emotions. Thisis the piezoelectric effect, and thecrystal responds to humanthoughts and the corresponding waves that causecompressions of the crystal.” She immediately hadeveryone’s attention, and they went on to listen intentlyof her remarkable story of becoming a believer in theWiccan way. She spoke of their upcoming activities,the “Psychic Wing’s” next investigation which is anin-depth look at spirit activity at Bhangarh (Rajasthan).Once the talk was over, the students applauded justas loudly as they had done before, and left withthoughts of what they had heard from Mrs.Chakraverti’s experiences in a more mystical realmof existence.

Colloquia Talk by Mrs. Ipsita Roy Chakraverti

The pin drop silence in the IIMCauditorium was broken byroaring cheers as one of Indiancricket team's finest captainswalked with a composureresembling the one he depictedwhile walking to the crease.Sourav Ganguly was at IIMCalcutta on 4th January 2012

to speak to the IIM Calcutta community on hisexperiences on leadership, as the captain of theIndian Cricket Team. "I was at the Eden Gardensyesterday, and I did not receive such enthusiasticwelcome cheers there", he remarked, referring to astanding ovation by a full house. He enthralled thecrowd with his witty humour, profound words andcalm demeanor. He spoke about leading by exampleand how leadership was all about helping peers.

Former Indian Cricket captain,Sourav Ganguly on Leadership

20Lectures by Visiting Dignitaries

("Leadership is about helping your own mates, yourown people at the right time and there is no substitutefor hard work"). He laid emphasis on the need for B-School graduates to be cooperative with each otherdespite being in competing firms just like the wayinternational cricketers are friendly off-the-field withtheir counterparts in rival teams.What was striking about his speech was the candourwith which he spoke. He emphasized that despitemany talks on leadership and many theories on howto succeed; the core of success remains the same:hard work. He spoke about how to focus on smallgoals to reach a big one. He was open about his

camaraderie with his teammates, the current poorform of Indian cricket team but added that this is a"rebuilding phase". Recollecting on variousexperiences with the team in the dressing room andon the field he gave insights on how he graduallybuilt aggression into the team to face a domineeringAustralian side. Ganguly took questions from anenthusiastic crowd comprising of students, facultyand staff members of the campus and answered witha brilliant presence of mind. Ganguly was at IIMCalcutta as the first speaker at Reverberations speakerseries at Intaglio, 2013.

Continuing the series of talksby industry experts, Colloquiaconducted a session by RheaDatta Gupta at IIMC on 17thJan 2013. Rhea Datta Guptais an Entrepreneur, Coach andAuthor. She was born inLondon and raised in India.

This youngest director of PWC (2005) is consideredas an inspirational speaker on the topics likeLeadership, Entrepreneurship, Motivation, Resilience,

Women in Boards etc. She has delivered speechesat London School of Economics, MalaysianGovernment, Companies from Japan & UK, Ministryof Defence, London Business School, DubaiGovernment etc. She recently launched a book'Leadership - It's in your DNA'. Mr. Anamitra Chatterjee(alumnus of the London School of Economics (LSE),UK and IIM Calcutta) introduced the speaker for thesession. It was indeed a thought-provoking sessionand the students eagerly look forward to more suchtalks by Colloquia in the future.

Colloquia Talk by Rhea Datta Gupta

During October 2012,Rocky Singh and MayurSha rma o f NDTVheaded to IIM Calcuttato find out what the futureCEOs and CFOs of Indiaare eating. In this foodadventure, they made aserious "investment" tofeed themselves byeating a "balanced" diet,

which "profits" them with energy throughout theday. The NDTV crew anchored by Rocky Singhand Mayur Sharma visited IIM Calcutta campusand spent a weekend with the students at variousplaces which included LVH mess, RamanujanHostel mess, other eating joints and the places likeNew Academic Block, ABC Block, Jetty, Footercourt, Library, classrooms, Gymnasium and all

around the campus. They spent a special sessionwith the contingent of JBS Baro C. The episodewas telecast in NDTV Good Time under theprogramme of 'Highway on My Plate' on November5, 2012.(The episode can be watched at http://cooks.ndtv.com/video/player/highway-on-my-plate/rocky-and-mayur-visit-iim-calcutta/253608)

IIM Calcutta featured inNDTV Good Times show

21Major Forthcoming Events

IIMC and Tata Group tolaunch TATA SocialEnterprise Challenge

IIM Calcutta in collaboration with Tata Group launchesa social enterprise contest called, TATA SocialEnterprise Challenge. This joint initiative is a nationallevel challenge to find India’s most promising socialenterprises. The 3-Week Mentorship would start fromFebruary 1, 2013 ad the Grand Finale would be heldon February 23, 2013. TATA Social EnterpriseChallenge aims to encourage the youth to be thenext generation of social entrepreneurs. The challengewill invite social entrepreneurs from across India, whoeither have early stage ventures or ideas with proofof concepts. A proposed venture needs to have asustainable business model that creates social impact.There is no restriction on the business model and itcan be for-profit, not for profit or even a hybrid model.The teams are required to submit a detailed Impactproposal for the event based on which teams will beshort-listed for a 3-week mentorship program whichincludes a three-day mentorship at IIM Calcuttacampus. Social entrepreneurs identified through thecompetition will be offered mentorship support,awarded cash grants and will have an opportunity topitch for funding and incubation at IIM Calcutta.

International Conference onContemporary Debates inPublic Policy &ManagementWith the changing role of the state, the design andlandscape of public policies are changing.Contemporary public management too is intenselydebated across academic disciplines, as they are in

different countries.

The International Conference on ContemporaryDebates in Public Policy and Management at IIMCalcutta to be held during 7-9 February 2013 willfocus on theoretical issues of public policy andmanagement by embracing concepts of Politics andPolicy, Public Sector Reform, Public PrivatePartnerships, and Law and Public Policy Regulations.There would be sectoral focus on health, education,infrastructure, urban and rural development,microfinance, and energy and environment. Keynotespeakers from academia and practitioners willdeliberate on contemporary public sector issues, andon the gap between policies and implementation. TheKeynote speakers would include Dr. Aivita Putnina,Executive Director of the Public Policy Institute, Latviaand faculty member, Department of Anthropology,University of Latvia, Riga, Dr. Chiranjib Sen, FormerProfessor of Public Policy, IIM Bangalore and Dr.Pulapre Balakrishnan, Director of CDS, Trivandram.

World Conference on"Emerging Issues inManagement"The first ever world conference on "Emerging Issuesin Management" is being jointly hosted by the IndianInstitutes of Management, the premier managementinstitutes in India. The Indian institute of ManagementCalcutta is the lead coordinator of the Conferencesupported by the Indian Institute of ManagementIndore and the Indian institute of ManagementKozhikode. The conference will be held at Goa MarriottResort & Spa, Goa, India during May 30 to June 1,2013. The Conference will offer a platform to discussgame changing ideas in management placed in asocietal context that are expected to provide aroadmap for managers in the future. The conferenceencourages submission of papers which seek to gobeyond the obvious, are multidimensional, provideimplementable ideas, and offer new insights to existingmanagement problems. The Conference will have 5major themes-The Firm of the Future, Looking beyondProfits, Inclusive Growth, Managing People and Futureof Management Education. The conference issponsored by the Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, Government of India.

22Student Activities

Intaglio is IIM Calcutta’s Annual International B-Schoolmeet, the biggest Business summit in Asia. It hasalways seen immense participation includinginternational students, generous amounts of prizemoney as well as global reach. The 25th edition ofIntaglio was held from 3rd to 6th January 2013 withover 20,000 participants worldwide. Adding to theexcitement of an already happening event, modernIndian leaders like ex-Indian cricket captain, SauravGanguly, along with Bimal Jalan (Ex-RBI Governorand Ex-member of Rajya Sabha) and RonnieScrewvala (founder of UTV group and the acclaimedproducer of Rang De Basanti and Jodhaa Akbar)

came to the campus and delivered illuminatingspeeches on leadership.

The theme for Intaglio ’13 was “CelebratingLeadership… Inspiring a silver lining” keeping in mindthe fluctuating fortunes of the business world today.Intaglio ‘13 provided the global platform for youngthinkers to see the crisis as an opportunity, to inspireand to show the road ahead. This year, Intaglio wasopen to top undergraduate schools internationally toprovide them the early opportunity.

The 25th Edition of Intaglio

With annual sales of over 73,000 – a 100% increasefrom last year, and 500+ buyers, Mandi 2012, anannual inter-collegiate event organized by TeamCensus in association with Market Insight Consultantswas a terrific experience. The objective was to set

up stalls and sell food or non-food items to maximizeprofit along with various promotional activities to winthe competition.

On the second day, the event gave in to Laissez Fairewith three external teams competing in an experientialmarketing experience that only IIM Calcutta can offer.Team IIFT – Seth Chhaganlal and Co. – stole manya heart with mouth-smacking paan, thandai and otherchillers. They were obviously the most crowded stallas their team reversed the gender ratio prevalent atmost Indian B-Schools! Reports indicate that therewas more window-shopping than actual purchases!XLRI set up a game stall with an Angry Birds theme,with a real slingshot to drop tin cans. Interestingly,they gave unlimited chances to participants to getaccustomed before taking the final shot to knock all

Mandi 2012: An ExperimentalMarketing Event held at IIM Calcutta

23Student Activities

the cans down. Also appreciable was the fact that everycustomer was given at least a chocolate bar for participating!Army Institute of Technology also made their presence felt witha rare non-food stall. They had a gamut of Indian handicraftsthat were absolutely unique – every piece was a one-of-a-kindat their stall!

Sachin Kumar, a PGP2 student, was dressed up as Thakurfrom Sholay and spearheaded team Ramgarh Style that wonhearts and got fingers licking with their authentic butter chicken,paneer masala and a kheer to die for! One thing thatdifferentiated their presence at the scene was a videoadvertisement that played continuously in a loop on a monitorjust outside their shop. It had reviews of people tasting theirfood and also the team dancing to the hit song “GangnamStyle”. Nair’s Tea Stall was another interesting setup, with allstall-runners dressed in mundus and actively promoting theiralluring Kerala cuisine with an aura of authenticity in terms ofsumptuous fish delicacies and the stall visible from afar dueto its unique straw thatching. Dabangg also set the stage witha much-needed non-food stall! People popped little balloonsaway to glory with an air-rifle but smashed pyramids of steelglasses with rare success. After all, not everyone is a ChulbulPandey!

Defending champions Angry Dhaba made a late but well-appreciated entry and set up their trademark chicken biryaniwith professional efficiency. With barely any loud publicity, theirchicken flew off the stall and into many a connoisseur! Therewas certainly a good amount of good-humored rivalry betweenAngry and Ramgarh, with the latter resorting to rib-ticklingverbal attacks on the microphone from time to time! WhileGrasshopperz had their mid-Eastern kebabs being an instantclassic, their chocolate momos and Sheikh Shake were verypopular as well. The amazing blend of peanut butter blendedwith the taste of Boost and all shaken with a number of otherdelicious ingredients was indeed memorable. It was indeed avery foody Mandi as expected with even team ChorBazaariopting to sell food. They were the only all-girl run stall in thehistory of Mandi! Their prime bestseller was chole-chawal andkulche along with mojitos, rasgulla, fish chops and sinful cookie-with-ice-cream desserts!

Team Ramgarh made the most profits and were declaredoverall winners of Mandi 2012. Nair’s Tea Stall stood first inpromotions, and Team Angry were rated the best by the judgesProf. Prashant Mishra and Prof. Ramendra Singh. Of theexternal teams, IIFT’s stall – Seth Chhaganlal and Co. wonfirst prize.

Weekend Ventures@KolkataE-Cell of IIM Calcutta, in association withW e e k e n d V e n t u r e s(www.weekendventures.org) presented aunique workshop cal led "WeekendVentures@Kolkata". This exciting workshophelped its participants to kick start their start-ups in just 48 hours!! Participants were ableto meet like-minded people, discussed ideas,worked on their respective business model,got mentored and eventually pitched theirproducts to investors during this workshop.To make the deal even sweeter, investorswere around looking to make an angelinvestment of up to 25 lakhs in ideas theyliked! Weekend Ventures and Mentor Edgeprovided guidance at each of the stages ofplanning and execution. It was open to anyoneand everyone who was thinking of launchinga venture or just wanted to learn. Apart fromthe plethora of skills and great networkingopportunities, participation certificates fromE-Cell, IIM Calcutta and Weekend Ventureswere given to all attendees.

I2i 2013Ideas to Implementation, popularly known asI2i is an International B-Plan Competitionwhich endeavors to provide an ideal platformfor budding entrepreneurs to realize theirdreams as it connects them to Ideas, Moneyand People who matter. I2i, one of the largestand most serious processes of its kind inscale and scope in India, is sure to attractserious entrepreneurs via its networks in theNational Entrepreneurship Network, Pan IIMand IIT Alumni Networks and a large base ofworking professionals. The core philosophybehind this event has always been not tojudge a ‘B-Plan' but to make a robust planready to spread its Wings. The event hascommenced on December 20 and would becompleted on February 16, 2013.

24Placements

Students can now opt for multiple offersas the institute shifts focus from spotoffersIIM Calcutta has conceptualized and implemented anew “Functional Preferences” placement system forthe summer placements which took place duringNovember 2012. This change is expected to bring inmore order and opportunities into the placementsystem by introducing a better method of handlingstudent preferences.The institute has decided to shift from its earlierprocess in order to make the entire affair less stressfuland give the students more time to evaluate thevarious alternatives at their disposal. Placements atIIM Calcutta have generally been a four to five daylong affair with dozens of companies hiring every day.Students were allowed to accept only one offer, whichusually gave them very little leeway regarding whichfirm they wish to join. The new process is slightlymore drawn out so that students do not have tocompromise on their preferences. As per the newrules, a student can receive multiple offers on thesame day, and choose the best out of them. Thus,the placement process is shifting from spot offersystem to multiple offer system for summerplacementsStudents now have an option to accept multiple offerson the same day. Even if a student gets an offer froma firm, he can still attend other interviews, thus givinghim more alternatives to choose from. This becomesimportant when companies of a particular sector

attend the process later in the day and studentschoose another firm out of peer pressure. The newsystem is believed to be beneficial for both companiesand students, as the students undergo lesser pressureduring the process and make better decisions.

Day BreakThe concept of a day-long break has been introducedto serve as a respite for the students. It will be abreak with only group discussions happening on thatparticular day. Companies which have their interviewprocess on the next few days will conduct their groupdiscussion rounds on this day. The advantage ofintroducing this day-long gap is that the students aregiven some time to evaluate the choices they haveat their disposal and take informed decisions, therebymaking the entire process a little less stressful.The institute has been in talks with the industry forsome time now and has implemented the changesafter due consideration. The recruiters are optimisticabout the new process.“We believe the current process is a little too stressfuland at times leads to a herd mentality. Out of peerpressure, the students tend to accept the first offerthey receive, without much regard for the role offeredor the sector where their interests lie. We believe thenew system grants the students time to evaluate theiroptions and make the right call. This helps them getthe right job, and not just any job. The companiesare also able to select the best candidates from theavailable pool,” says IIM C Placement Chairperson,Professor Krishanu Rakshit.

IIM Calcutta introduces“Functional Preferences” placement

process to support student preferences

Summer placements at IIM Calcutta for the batch of2012-14 were dominated by the finance and sales &marketing sectors with 24% of the batch taking upoffers in these sectors. Consulting followed with 20%offers, general management with 11% while systemsand operations roped in 8% and 7% of the studentsrespectively.

More than 230 firms had confirmed participation at

IIM Calcutta this year, however only 154 firms couldmake offers due to the process ending ahead ofschedule. The number of new recruiters this yearstood at 73, which included firms like MizuhoSecurities, DuPont and Facebook.

The process concluded by the end of slot 1, withsuccessful placement of all the 449 students whowished to take offers from the process. Five students

Summer placements 2012

25Placements

chose to explore other opportunities.

The institute's summer placements kicked off onNovember 5 and concluded on November 9. Theprocess was conducted in two slots of two days each.

For the first time, the concept of a day-long breakwas introduced to give a breather to students. Also,unlike other years when students were traditionallyallowed to accept only one offer, as per new rules astudent could receive multiple offers on the sameday. Thus, the placement process upgraded fromspot offer system to multiple offer system for summerplacements.

Slot Zero saw a total of 232 offers being made forinternships, an unprecedented number of offers in

Slot-0 so far. Management consulting firms startedthe processes with consulting majors such asMcKinsey, BCG, Bain & Co, Accenture and A.T.Kearney hiring in large numbers. BCG extended thelargest number of offers, recruiting 12 students fortheir summer internship program. The total numberof consulting offers stood at 43.

Also participating at IIM-C summers were majorbanks. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Nomura and

HSBC were amongst the many international banksthat made offers to the students. Other banks whichhired from the campus include JP Morgan Chase,Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland, CreditSuisse, Standard Chartered, and Rothschild amongothers. Private Equity firms including MacquarieInfrastructure Fund, India Alternatives and MizuhoSecurities made offers to students.

Sales & Marketing saw offers from companies likeHUL BSE 0.77 %, P&G, ITC BSE 1.76 %, Kraft

Foods, Nestle BSE 0.49 %, Johnson & Johnson,

Dabur BSE 0.78 %, Asian Paints BSE 0.65 %, Airtel,

and Nokia. P&G and Kraft Cadbury led with 7 offers.

In the general management space, ABG made 8

offers, with TAS and Mahindra recruiting in good

numbers as well. DuPont, M.H. Alshaya Co and

Amazon were among the other recruiters.

26Miscellany

Director hosts lunch for theIIMC communityOn the eve of completing the tenure of his directorship,Director, Professor Shekhar Chaudhuri thanked eachone of the Institute for their wholehearted cooperationand support in meeting all the milestones that theInstitute overtook. To celebrate their collective workand achievements, he hosted lunch for all faculty,officers and staff members on January 16, 2013.

Film Show on SwamiVivekananda at MCHVThe Management Centre for Human Values arrangeda Film Show on "Swami Vivekananda" in connectionwith 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanandaon January 18, 2013. The film was based on theautobiographical writings of Swami Vivekananda, the19th Century warrior monk of India. This film was anattempt to recreate the life and times of one of thegreatest visionaries in this world, through his ownwords.

Faculty-studentscricket match

The much anticipated faculty-student annual cricketmatch was held in IIM Calcutta on 9th January 2013.The match was looked forward to by both the facultyand student community every year especially becauseit is a great way to build camaraderie amongst theIIMC community. There was plenty of support for bothsides with many non playing faculty members cheeringtheir team and almost the entire student communitycame to watch their favourite professors on a differentpitch altogether. As usual, the faculty team defeatedthe students this year. The faculty student cricketmatch also marks the beginning of the IIM CalcuttaPremier League Season, which is a cricket tournamenton the IPL model and is one of the biggest events inIIM Calcutta.

Laurel to ourPGPEX studentDisha Chhabra, a PGPEX student has won the firstprize in the recently concluded Indian Case Challengeevent, sponsored by ITC, held at the Vinod GuptaSchool of Management, IIT Kharagpur in January,2013. 450 teams across the country participated andin the screening round they had to make a case studyon contemporary challenges in the field of internetbanking. An on-campus round was included wherethe teams were given 24 hours to work on and presenttheir recommendations on a new case study, focusedon B2B exchanges in the automotive sector. Theteams were then put through a question and answerround, where eminent professors from XLRI and IIT-KGP judged each team. Apart from a winner's trophy,Disha has been awarded an angel investmentopportunity for a business plan from ITC. The finalcase would be published in a casebook.

Special 7th batch reunion

The 7th batch students of IIMC, who belong to theEmerald Bower campus and form a very closely knitgroup, paid a visit to IIM Calcutta after forty years toreconnect and re-bond over the fond remembrances.The half a day programme was organised onDecember 1, 2012. The Acting Director, ProfessorMritunjay Mohanty initiated with a welcoming speech,which was followed by a special speech by ProfessorC.P.Bhatta on Human Values and Ethics.

27Miscellany

The Chairman of theBoard of Governors, AjitBa lak r i shnan , haspenned a chronicle of theinformation age in Indiain his book, The WaveRider. We reproduce

below a review of the book by Gita Piramal in TheAsian Age, and an earlier interview of Mr. Balakrishnanby Business Standard.

From Gita Piramal,“Worth a Ride”,Feb 03, 2013, The Asian Age

In The Wave Rider, Balakrishnan sets out tounderstand the trends which might save, grow ordestroy his company, rediff.com. The book is a mish-mash of thoughts and experiences, history andautobiography, the ideas of others and his personalbeliefs.

Chapter 14, “Getting on the wrongside of a tech revolution”, is a perfectexample of how many strings hepulls together to unearth an insight.

Balakrishnan’s starting point is thebelief that we are today living in theearly stages of social unrest, thekind of social unrest that almostinevi tably occurs when anestablished techno-economicparadigm is being dismantled tomake way for a new one.Ominously, the author reminds us that “extensivesocial unrest can be harnessed for many differentcauses by political entrepreneurs.”

The author illustrates his point using Gandhi’s 1914confrontation with the British Raj on behalf of theIndian peasants of Champaran, Bihar. British plantersforced tens of thousands of landless serfs, indenturedlabourers and poor farmers to grow indigo and othercash crops instead of the food crops necessary fortheir survival. Balakrishnan places this event in the

context of the global history of indigo and itstechnological development. I won’t say more, becauseit is worth a read. The story is told simply andeffectively.

In this illustration, Balakrishnan focuses on thedevastating impact a technological innovation in onepart of the world can have on a slightly different typeof business in an entirely different part of the world.

In his second illustration, the author shows how easyit is to misunderstand the key set of ideas on whicha technological wave is based, and the devastationthat can occur when these ideas are used in a contextwhere they cannot be applied. One key set of ideasbehind the Industrial Revolution was the concept ofeconomies of scale. It works excellently inmanufacturing but not in farming. In Russia, between1928 and 1940, Joseph Stalin applied the concept to

manufacturing, achieving rapidindustrialisation from a very loweconomic base. When heapplied the same concept tofa rm ing , i t r esu l t ed i ncatastrophic famines and thedeaths of at least five millionpeople.

Other mistakes we typicallymake i s t o m is read atechnological wave. All too often,one’s fetishes colour the realitybut reality is one where a wave

has been bolstered by necessary changes ininstitutions and culture. At other times, you can seea technological wave emerge but pretend that itdoesn’t exist.

Scattered through his description of the books hehas read, the author tells the story of his life and hisneed to grow and protect Rediff. Don’t be put off bythe blurb’s overactive hype. Meander through thebook. Ponder over Balakrishnan’s insights. It’s a lifeworth knowing.

Ajit Balakrishnan:The Wave Rider. Pan Macmillan, 2012

28Miscellany

India's earliest internet entrepreneur doesn't seevalue in selling out

Kanika Datta / New DelhiDecember 11, 2012, 0:01 IST

Whenever Ajit Balakrishnan is quoted in the press,it’s usually in connection with wise pronouncementson information technology (IT) or higher education.But there had to be more to India’s first internetentrepreneur than the sum of these quotes. Thepublication of The Wave Rider, asemi-autobiographical “chronicleof the Information Age”, providesa good reason to invite him toLunch with BS, writes KanikaDatta.

He had selected The Machan, thecoffee shop at the Taj Mahal hotelon Mans ingh Road , bu texperience has taught me that thenoise levels there preclude saneconversation. There’s Wasabi, theJapanese restaurant in the samehotel, I suggest hopefully, sinceit’s a personal favourite, and heagrees.

This meeting takes place a fewweeks ahead of the official launchof The Wave Rider, which he saystook all of eight months to write.“I am a very determined fellow,”he tells me cheerfully when Iexpress wonder at this speed, “Iwrite from 2.30 to six in the morning” adding to myobvious query, “I go to sleep at nine at night – I ama very boring man!”

True to his creed, however, the launch plan was goingto be virtual. There was to be no gathering at a hotelinvolving a chat, question-and-answer session andcocktails and hors d’oeuvres to follow. The format

would be the same but minus the socialising becauseit would be entirely online. “You have to live by yourcreed,” he explains. “Besides, you draw in muchlarger audiences. If you have two or three well-donechats, you can pull in audiences of 100,000 to 200,000,so the scale is very different.Ê

The wine waiter appears. Balakrishnan requestsSake, but we’re told it’s only available by the flagon.I decline to share since I have to return to the office

after this meal and am extremelywary of the effects of thisdeceptively potent Japanese ricewine. He sportingly agrees to aglass of red wine. This turns outto be a complex procedure; thewaiter offers three bottles of wineto taste and choose.

The first is a young wine so tartthat I blench. Next, I ask?Balakrishnan is an interestedobserver. “This is the first time Ihave seen anyone return a bottleof wine,” he says. Since I havenever done so before either, I amembarrassed and hurriedly agreeto the next one, a Malbec BodegaNorton (I forget to note the year),which turns out to be extremelydrinkable.

For the meal, we share twostarters and no main course: rockshrimp tempura and an assortedsushi platter. The shrimp, wrapped

in a delicate batter that looks easy to make but actuallyisn’t, is unexceptionable, but my guest proves a pooreater. He is anxious that this interview be “more aboutmy book than me” but I am keen to discuss the issuehe deals with in his avatar as the chairman of theboard of governors of Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Calcutta, of which he is an alumnus.

Lunch with BS:IT's marathon man Ajit Balakrishnan

29Miscellany

What did he think of this recent rush to tie up withforeign universities? “Education has become a branchof the real estate business,” he replies. “If I ask youto judge an institution, you’ll look at the building andsay it resembles an Ivy League institution, so it hasto be a good college. So an unseen competition hasdeveloped among institutions to have better-lookingbuildings rather than focusing on pedagogy, whichgoes beyond faculty and teaching processes.”

Decentralised learning, he says, is the future, a pointhe has often discussed in his fortnightly column inBusiness Standard. In IIM Calcutta, for instance, Rs20 crore of the Rs 100 crore revenues came fromdistance learning. On an annual basis, 5,000 studentscame out of the distance learning programme and600 out of the institute.

But what about the questions being raised about thevalue of an IIM education? “I am a product of thesystem and intimately involved in it. I think what theydo, they do well,” he answers elliptically.

The broad point he makes is that entry is purely merit-based and an IIM education is valuable preciselybecause of this. “I keep pointing out that in a countryin which virtually anything be bought, you cannot buyan IIM or an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) seat.”No pressure from politicians to admit this or thatrelative, I ask incredulously. He smiles. “The beautyof the system is that over time it has developed intoa nice, obtuse structure, so that nobody can pressureyou!”Ê

Balakrishnan’s resume says he holds a BSc degreein physics, so I am curious to know why he went toIIM and not an IIT. Pure serendipity. “If you live insmall-town India in 1969, you had no idea what anIIM might be; nobody in the family had been insidein a corporate set-up.”

The son and grandson of doctors in Kannur, Kerala,he says he was more interested in football thanstudies, playing at the university level as goalkeeper“because I was a tall kid”. “One day, somebody saidthere’s something called IIM, do you want to take atest? It coincided with a trip I was taking to Trivandrum

to play in a match. I took the test in the morning,played the game and forgot about it. Then I got aletter saying I was one among 35,000 who had beenchosen for IIM.”

The sushi is served and as the waiter grates freshgreen ginger on to our plates, we’re chatting aboutRediffusion (now with the Dentsu Young and Rubicamname tagged to it), the ad agency co-founded withDiwan Arun Nanda and Mohammad Khan six monthsafter he graduated IIM (the name, he says, was“shamelessly copied” from a now defunct British radiostation).

At that time it was quite easy, he adds laughing,“because all the ad agencies of that time tookinternational ads with Indian models. We broughtwhat we thought was a fantastic breakthrough ideathat advertising must be creative. The first year wewon all the awards in the Bombay ad club and by thesecond year, we were up and running.”

When he set up Rediff.com in 1996, I recall that manypeople didn’t follow what he was up to because theinternet was an unknown animal. How did he catchthe wave so early? The beginnings are rooted inIndia’s economic crisis. “Around 1989, things werecollapsing all around us in our business. I wasbewildered and thought, is it possible that I had spentmy working life from 1971 like a frog in a well insideIndia? Things like import substitution, socialism,nationalism were like mother’s milk to us but Indiawas changing and we no longer knew how todistinguish the story from the truth. So I decided toclear the cobwebs and joined an executive programmeat Harvard.”

There he recalls reading this “lovely case study onCompuserve, a pioneer in what was then called theinformation services business – and the founder’sstruggle to set up the company and how a newcompetitor called America Online emerged.” Hedecided the business fascinated him but the generalview at the time was that information services wasnot taking off because computer screens were tootechie. When he learnt of attempts by the Universityof Illinois to create a browser – Mosaic – he “instantly

30Miscellany

knew it was a winner”. How did he know? Becausehe had “played around with” the earlier version – yes,he replies, “I can write programming code, alwayscould”.Ê

So he told his partners, “Hey guys, stay there and Istarted rediff.com and wrote personal cheques forthe next two years!” I comment that this book didn’tsay much about start-up pangs, unlike, say, NarayanaMurthy’s memoirs. “I wish I could relate some sorrytales of desperation but that was later. In 1971, thePC hadn’t been invented. So it was a different worldand I jumped into the PC industry. That was terrifying.”That company, PSI, failed and “we lost so muchmoney we had to sell the business” (to Groupe Bullof France).

His book, he points out, does recount many acts offailure, the result of advice he received from a writinggroup he joined in America while his book was inprogress. “They told me, write about things whereyou’ve failed not just about where you’ve succeeded.”They were right, since, "modern innovation is the artof failing cheaply.”

Which allows me to raise the general opinion thatRediff.com had lost its steam; it was no longer amongthe top five internet properties and the stock doesn'tdo that well. Why didn’t he sell? “Under nocircumstances,” comes the prompt reply. “I tell all myguys in the office to see this as running a marathon.The front runners are a million times our size. In amarathon, you don’t run in front of the pack; you stayin the back and wait for your turn, otherwise you’llrun out of steam.”

Since 99 per cent of the world’s top programmersare in five square miles in California, you can’t domuch short of relocating. Why didn’t he? “I thoughtof it but it proves nothing. It doesn’t matter if yourwealth rises $50 million doing it in California. Theidea is to demonstrate that these things can be donehere."

So it’s dil hai Hindustani I tease. “Not even remotely,”he retorts, “I don’t believe in India shining crap.” But

he sees the opportunity in a Schumpeterian future ofcreative destruction. “The next five or six industriesare going to get demolished and rebuilt – first media,then health care, then justice. You’ll see justicedelivered by the afternoon, for example! That’s thekind of thing that makes it so exciting.”Ê

He warms to a subject that’s clearly a current passionsince he forgets all about eating and his wine glassis almost untouched. “Learning happens when somenew bit of information attaches itself to somethingyou already know, through a process of scaffolding.So the leading edge educators are putting a PC oran iPad in front of a young person and interactivelydiscovering what level he’s at and incrementallybuilding or adding to the scaffolding so you can learnat your own pace. This scaffolding is the mostimportant thing – I wish I could take a year off andjust do that – that would be a breakthrough.”

But it wouldn’t be a business proposition, I point out.“Who cares! Innovation and what it can do societallyis much more important. I could have been allotteda coal mine and sold it and made a lot of money andbeen part of the coal scam. It’s not worth it!”

What’s recorded here is a minuscule part of aconversation that ranges over: reservations ineducation (needed for a few more years), caste (hedoesn’t think about it and, like me, wonders why TCS’S Ramadorai mentions that he is a Brahmin in hismemoirs; his own caste (“write that I am of peasantstock”), the government’s role in IT (not for reporting),public sector delivery of health and education (believesin it) and what he does in his free time (has to thinka bit).

As I switch off my old-fashioned recorder, he gleefullydeclares he’s going to write about my adherence toold world technology. Someone needs to design anapp as comfortably reliable, I explain as we head outafter a meal where I’ve done all the eating and drinking.

Business Standard, December 11, 2012

31Beyond Education

The Joy of Giving week was officially launched inIndia in 2009 by various NGOs. It was inspired byvarious festivals of charity and social goodwill observedacross the world. The Joy of Giving Week is widelyobserved by numerous colleges, universities,corporations in addition to NGOs. At IIM Calcutta, itwas observed during October 2nd to 8th, 2012 andinvolved a plethora of activities aimed at promotingphilanthropic activities. INCA (Initiative for CommunityAction) – the NGO Consulting Club of IIMC,collaborated with three NGOs- CRY, Goonj andAkshaya Patra for the event. Also involved in makingthe event successful were various clubs such as

Armageddon, Lakeside Lens Lovers and otherstudent-run bodies working for social causes. Overthe preceding years, the Joy of Giving week waswidely promoted on the campus and led to a vastcollection of old books, clothes and other items ofutility. The proceeds from such collection drives wereutilized for charitable purposes.

The activities included an awareness marathon“Armathon” organized by the club Armageddon, tospread knowledge of the event as well as the NGOsinvolved with the event. A blood-donation camp andeye-donation pledging drive was also arranged withcollaborations with a large hospital in Kolkata. Underthe “Shadow a CEO” activity, students could bid tospend a day with the CEOs of large and reputedcorporate houses such as Infosys, Teach for Indiaand KKR. The funds collected off the auction weredirected towards charity.

The photography club of IIMC – Lakeside Lens Lovers– promoted “Click Rights… Ichha Campaign” of CRY.The week ended with a “Thank-You Dinner”, wherestudents organized a grand meal for the support staffincluding the mess workers, security guards, hostelemployees and the housekeeping personnel. Thiswas done as a token of gratitude towards theircontribution to the campus.

IIMC Celebrates “Joy of Giving Week”

Staged to a jam-packed audience at the Auditorium,

consisting of distinguished guests, students andfaculty, the play, The Art of Seduction – the awardwinning play by the dramatics Cell of IIM Calcuttadelivered as promised. Taking a final bow, theDramatics Club rightly presented the play on theoccasion of the Closing Ceremony of the GoldenJubilee Celebrations of IIM Calcutta. The play is oneof the iconic productions by the Dramatics Cell. It isthe recipient of many an accolades at various eventsacross well-known colleges. It was the winning playat Varchasva - 2012, the Annual fest of IIM Lucknowwhere it also bagged the award for Best Actor. Itcame a close second at both XLRI as well as at Carpe

Dramatics club stages "The Art of Seduction"

32Beyond Education

Diem, IIM Calcutta.

The play is based on the character, Peter Semyonych,

who is the master at the art of seduction. Peter is

well known for his Casanova personality, wittiness

and charm. He explains his modus operandi of

seducing beautiful wives through their husbands.

Peter goes on to portray his skills very vividly by trying

to seduce Irene, who is the wife of Nicky, a friend of

Peter. Peter, in a conversation with Nicky, explains

him the problems associated with being in love with

a married woman. Nicky in turn goes to his wife and

speaks about what Peter felt. This leaves Irene thinking

about Peter's feelings all the time. Within no time

Irene falls for Peter's bait hook, line and sinker! Then

slowly Peter reels her in through his deviousness

only for a great twist in the end! The entire production

was picture perfect from the word go, free from any

kind of speed bumps. The comic timing and dialogue

delivery by the actors was simply amazing, and many

a times the spontaneity left the audience gasping for

breath. Peter Semyonych was aptly played by Aakash

Bhotika, Harleen Kaur was Irene and her husband

Nicky was played by Akhil Saraogi. The play was

directed by Dhananjay Wanare and produced by

Ujjwal Kumar Singh.

The cast of the play got a standing ovation from the

audience. The Dramatics Cell once again lived up to

its name in IIM Calcutta by enthralling the audience

with a spectacular and entertaining performance

leaving everyone waiting for their next production.

Sangharsh 2013, the annual sports meet betweenIIM Calcutta, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIMLucknow, which was hosted by IIM Calcutta, concludedwith a lot of action and closely contested battlesacross a gamut of sports during mid of January, 2013,with IIM Calcutta emerging as the overall champions.ÊSangharsh 2013 was held during 11th to 13thJanuary 2013. With a total of 83 participants fromIIM Ahmedabad, 110 from IIM Bangalore and 67 fromIIM Lucknow, the sports meet saw some seriouscontention for victory. IIM Calcutta dominated inBasketball (men), Tennis (men) and swimming, beating

the others by huge margins. The swimming team ofIIM Calcutta won Gold medals in all the formats withthe following standings:

l Men: 7 Gold, 5 Silver, 1 Bronze [Ankur Dalal : 6Gold 1 Silver, Ahmed Aslam: 3 Silver 1 Bronze,Rahul Jain: 1 Gold 1 Silver]

l Women: 2 Silvers [Parvathy Kailasam(w): 2 Silver]

Swimming points were not considered in the finalstandings and were subject to rules mutually agreedby the contingents. IIM Calcutta was the clear winnerdespite the swimming points not being included.

IIM Bangalore, which came second, won the crickettournament, Badminton (men) and Table Tennis (men).The women’s sports were fiercely contested as playersfrom each of the IIMs battled out in Basketball,Throwball, Badminton and Table tennis and the factthat these tournaments were won by the girls of IIMA,IIMB, IIMC and IIML respectively bears testimony tothe close competition between the women contingents.

The sports that were included in the meet were:Cricket, Basketball (men and women), Football,Volleyball, Tennis (Men), Table Tennis (men andwomen), Badminton (men and women), Chess,Carom, Pool and Swimming (men and women).

IIM Calcutta wins ‘Sangharsh 2013’

33Beyond Education

ResultsSport IIM A IIM B IIM C IIM LCricket 7 10 1 4Basketball (men) 1 4 10 7Football 1 7 4 10Volleyball 7 10 4 1Tennis (Men) 7 4 10 4Table Tennis (Men) 7 10 4 1Badminton (men) 4 10 7 4Chess 10 4 7 DNPCarrom 7 4 10 1Pool 7 1 4 10Swimming DNP 4 10 7Basketball (women) 10 4 7 1Table Tennis (Women) 4 1 7 10Badminton (Women) 1 4 10 7Throwball (Women) 4 10 7 1Swimming (Women DNP 10 7 DNPPoints without swimming 77 83 92 61

IIMC: XLRIThe famed IIM Calcutta-XLRI sports meet concludedon January 27, 2013 at IIM Calcutta with IIM Calcuttadominating XLRI to win the trophy for yet anothertime. This was the 42nd edition of the sports meetand the scoreline now stands 37-5 in favour of IIMCalcutta.

IIM Calcutta now boasts of being the champion ofthe two of the most tightly contested sports meetamongst Indian B-schools, namely Sangharsh (IIMA,B,C,L meet) and the IIMC-XLRI meet, in 2013.

IIM Calcutta won the event comfortably, with theresult in favour of IIMC even before the last event(men’s volleyball) was played. This was on account

34Beyond Education

In pursuance of the UN general Assembly resolutionof 1981, the International Day of Persons withDisabilities is observed around the world on 3rdDecember to promote an understanding of disabilityissues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights andwell-being of persons with disabilities. This year thetheme selected by the UN for International Day ofPersons with Disabilities 2012, is "Removing barriersto create an inclusive and accessible society for all"Indian Institute of Management Calcutta had organizeda session of public discussion on December 3, 2012at L-4 classroom in "C" Block at 11:00 am. ProfessorMritiunjay Mohanty, Acting Director, Wing CommanderVibhas Gupta, General Manager (OD & Admin), and

Lt. Col. (Retd.) Alok Chandra, Chief AdministrativeOfficer participated as the speakers on the occasion.Shri B S Panda, Senior Administrative Officer (HRD)& Public Information Officer, in association with ShriAloke Guin, Public Relations Officer coordinated thesession. The programme was held with full houseand participations were from all quarters of the Institute,which comprised of students’ representatives of newly-elected Students' Council, faculty members, officersand staff.Professor Mohanty in his address advised studentsto conduct a survey on whether adequate facilitiesare being extended towards the differently-abledstudents on campus, if not, what are their suggestionsto improve upon so that the Institute can take up theissue for its proper implications. GM and CAO sharedtheir ideas with relevant live examples of thesuccessful disabled persons who are doing the samestandard as with the normally abled persons. All thespeakers emphasised that we should encourage thedisabled to do the normal work and it may so happenthat they will excel in life, if given proper support andencouragement. One PGP student came forward andspoke on the occasion in saying that they will put upthe issue as advised by Professor Mohanty on theagenda of Student Council's forthcoming meeting tobe held soon.

International Day of Persons withDisabilities celebrated

Engineers’ Day celebratedThe Engineers’ Day was celebrated by the staff members of the engineering division of theInstitute on September 15, 2012 to commemorate the 152nd birth anniversary of legendaryEngineer- Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya in presence of Director Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri,Executive Engineer, Sri.D.K.Misra, Assistant Engineer (Civil), Sri Mahesh Patnaik, and allother engineers of engineering division.

of brilliant sports play by the IIMC students who wonthe football match 1-0 and also the women’s table-tennis matches on the last day. These two eventsput IIMC at an unassailable position of 11 eventvictories compared to XLRI’s 8 victories before the

last event. IIMC dominated the last event as well,winning all three men’s volleyball matches in a best-of-five setup. The teams continued the fierce fightingspirit till the very end and concluded yet anotherhistoric edition of the IIMC-XLRI Sports meet.

35A New Student’s Council

The elections to the Student Council for the year 2012-2013 have been completed. Some of the initiatives thatthe new Student Council has for the year include thecreation of a Student Welfare Team that would workwith the Student Council on implementation of newinitiatives, CUG facility for the campus, better hostelinfrastructure and opening of a common eating joint.Successful conduct of convocation for the 48/18 batch,separate convocation of the Student Council members,academic assistance for the weak students, increasingthe number of partner B-schools for the STEP, thoroughassistance on the first CEMS-MIM program of IIMCalcutta, arranging guest lectures from our alums whoare domain experts in various industries, leadershipsummit involving our alum in top leadership positionsare some of the other initiatives that are high on agenda.Efforts are also being made to increase the visibility ofIIMC online through our Facebook page and throughour initiatives such as the Coolage blog that promotesour events. We are also looking into the coordinationand mentorship programs for the incoming PGPEXbatch. Plans are on to facilitate better usage of thelibrary.Plans on improvements in hostel infrastructure includeprocuring better sports infrastructure like pool tables,dartboards,replacement of old furniture in the roomswith better furniture etc. Improvements on sportsinfrastructure around the hostels are also being lookedinto like the revival of the volley ball court near WH.The other area of concentration vis-à-vis living conditionsis the Hostel Mess System and improvements in themess infrastructure. We have started exploring thepossibilities of renovation/replacement of some veryold infrastructure in the dining hall and the kitchen(toasters and inefficient utensils). Efforts are underwayto increase the intensity of club activities and increasingthe accountability of the club members by timely internalreviews of activities. We are also looking into the timelydelivery of high quality year book to the passing outbatch, CASification of email and NAC to enable singlesign-in for internet, email, Bulletin Board, Course Web

and other services.BetterWi-Fi facility, ironing facility,tuck shops and creation of common reading rooms thatwould help inGD / Prep / group assignments are a fewinitiatives for LVH.With consecutive wins in the Sangharsh (Inter IIM meetinvolving IIM C, IIM A, IIM B and IIM L) and IIMC-XLRImeets we have asserted that the campus has a goodbalance of extracurricular activities and Academic rigor.After being hosts for two major sports meets we realizethe increasing need for the improvements in sportsinfrastructure in the campus. With a generous grantfrom the batch of 1987 for sports complex the StudentCouncil stands committed in extending its cooperationwith the administration in conveying the student needsto bring about a sports complex that would benefit thestudent community the most. Efforts are also beingmade to facilitate maximum utilization of the swimmingpool.

Alosies GeorgePresident – Students’ Council, 2012-13

Agenda for the term

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CALCUTTAJoka, Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata 700104,

Phone: 91-33-2467 8300 – 8304, Email: newsletter@iimcal.ac.in

Reporting/Editing support from: Jay Puranik, Siddharth Malhotra, PGP Students

Newsletter Editorial Team:Professor Anindya Sen, Dean (Academic) and Aloke Guin, Public Relations Officer

IIM Calcutta Students’ Council: 2012-13Position Name

President Alosies George

Hostel Affairs Secretary Samprati Motghare

PGP Representative Sachin Gupta, Aditya LabrooAnkit Jajodia, Amritansu Nanda

Placement Representative Anjanjot Singh, Mohammad MalikVamseedhar Reddy, Amit PhadkeVenu Madhav

External Relations Secretary Jay Puranik, Siddharth Malhotra

Alumni Secretary Pallab Kumar DuttaSTEP Representative Aalok Kushwaha

Sports Secretary Pratap Singh

Treasurer Koneti Jagadish

IT Representative Varun Jain

Library Representative Sravanthi Madishetty

New Hostel Representative Ajit Singh Verma

New Hostel Mess Representative Amol Kotkar

Old Hostel Representative Ravi Kumar

Old Hostel Mess Representative Vidhu Shekhar

White Hostel Representative Amar Sesma

White Hostel Mess Representative Yunus Parvez Shaik

Lake View Hostel Representative Shinde Abhishek J

LVH Mess Representative Ashwin Arun Choudhary

Cultural Secretary Nirdesh Kumar

FP Rep Anand Ambuj Bhairavnath, I. Biswas

PGPEX Rep Shahvir Irani