ConnexionVolume 9, Issue 3, November 2019

Lead News

59th Foundation Day celebrated

IIM Calcutta celebrated its 59th Foundation Day on November 14, 2019 in the august presence of Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal. The event also witnessed the institute felicitating 7 of its alumni for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields at the Distinguished Alumnus Awards Ceremony.

In her address, Director Professor Anju Seth announced that “The Class of 1992, IIM Calcutta's 27th batch, has committed Rs. 3 crores to support IIM Calcutta’s exciting trajectory of expansion and continuous improvement. Part of the gift is earmarked for a named faculty chair while the rest is slated for infrastructural improvements.” She noted that this represents the largest alumni gift to date, and thanked the batch for their generous support of the Institute. Former President of the 27th batch Shekhar Ganapathy, shared, “We have got so much from the IIM Calcutta that we wanted to give back. Our aim is to help the Institute continue to impact students and society in the future. We are very proud to present this to our beloved alma mater, and hope that it sets a good benchmark for other batches to emulate and exceed."

The Distinguished Alumnus Award Ceremony was led by Professor Prashant Mishra, Dean (New Initiative & External Relations), IIM Calcutta, where Director Professor Anju Seth, Chairperson of the Board of Governors Shri Shrikrishna Kulkarni and the Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal Shri Jagdeep Dhankar presented the Awards and Mementoes to the 7 alumni at the Ceremony. The recipients were Gita V. Johar, K Ganesh, Sumant Sinha, Sanjiv Aiyar, Sunil Duggal, Srikar Reddy and Vini Mahajan.

Distinguished Alumnus Awards 2019

This year IIM Calcutta honoured 7 of its esteemed alumni with its annual flagship alumni award, Distinguished Alumnus Awards.

The recipients were Gita V. Johar, Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dean’s Office and the Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business Marketing, Columbia Business School (CBS) for her notable contribution in academia. Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary, Investment Promotion and in addition Additional Chief Secretary, Industries & Commerce and in addition Additional Chief Secretary, Information Technology and in addition Additional Chief Secretary, Governance Reforms & Public Grievances, Government of Punjab received the award for her otable contribution in government sector. Sunil Duggal and Srikar Reddy received the award for their notable contribution in corporate. Sunil Duggal is the Former Chief Executive Officer of Dabur India Limited, while Srikar Reddy is the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Member of the Board of Directors of Sonata Software Limited. In the category of notable contribution in business entrepreneurship, K Ganesh and Sumant Sinha received this award. K Ganesh currently runs GrowthStory.in, a leading venture builder platform that promotes and incubates 10 new ventures along with great entrepreneurs, while Sumant Sinha is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of ReNew Power – India’s largest clean energy company. Sanjiv Aiyar, Founder & CEO of ApKar Consulting – a Strategy Consulting Company that advises clients on growth, restructuring, operational transformation, capital raise, and mergers and acquisition (M&A) received the award for his notable contribution in social entrepreneurship.

Special Feature

IIM Calcutta Ranks 1st Amongst India’s B-Schools and 17th Globally in FT MIM Rankings 2019

IIM Calcutta secured Rank 17 globally, as part of the Financial Times Masters in Management Rankings 2019 for its 2-Year Masters in Business Administration (earlier Post Graduate Programme in Management). Advancing by 6 ranks this year, the Institute has been ranked 1st in India among the five Indian B-Schools listed in the Rankings. This elevation in ranking is a reflection of the quality of education provided by the Institute, and the final outcome of successful employment among the 2-Year MBA programme’s alumni.

Among the parameters that the ranking was focused on, IIM Calcutta did better than its nearest Indian compatriots on categories which include - today's salary, weighted salary, salary percentage increase, career progress ranking, involvement of international faculty, inclusion of international board members, percentage of female faculty and student gender diversity ratio.

Commenting on the 2019 Rankings, Professor Prashant Mishra, Dean, New Initiatives and External Relations said, “The FT Ranking for 2019 is a reiteration of the leadership positions that IIM Calcutta holds in the global management education landscape. With the internationalization of our curriculum over the years and some of the best faculty from across the world, our offerings are curated to address the needs of the dynamic business environment. As a result, we’ve been able to create a pool of ethical and responsible leaders across domains. The rankings will help us network more closely with the top B-schools across the globe.”

The other parameters that are considered for the rankings are value for money ranking, aims achieved by alumni on taking the course, career services ranking, employability among students within three months of completing the course, involvement of women in the Institute’s board, international student in-take, international mobility ranking, international course experience ranking, faculty with doctorates, languages, course fee (local currency), course length (months), number of students enrolled 2018-19 and company internships.

Incidentally, in Ranking by Subjects parameter, IIM Calcutta ranked 2nd in Economics and 6th in Finance among the top 10 B-Schools in the world as subjects being taught at the B-Schools.

IIM Calcutta partners with Coursera for online certificate courses

IIM Calcutta has partnered with Coursera, a global online learning platform, to launch the courses which will be delivered fully online. "IIM Calcutta wants to be at the forefront of using technology to deliver learning and to expand our presence among learners globally," said Anju Seth, Director, IIM Calcutta. With this partnership, IIM Calcutta joins the ranks of 170 top universities including Yale, University of Michigan, Stanford and Imperial College of London that offer programs on Coursera which has 44 million registered listeners. These certificate courses will provide aspiring managers with an accelerated development of critical skills required to operate modern businesses. Through industry case studies, students will learn to appreciate the power of data-driven decision making. They will learn how to analyze data to solve real-world problems, and develop mathematical and computational models to inform actions. Learners will have an opportunity to master various programming models through hands on projects. The program will demonstrate actual applications

across industries including manufacturing, transport and distribution, finance, agriculture, health among others.

Events Held

28th ILS by Sri M

IIM Calcutta organized the 28th Institute Lecture Series on. The talk was delivered by renowned spiritual guide, social reformer, author and educationist, Sri M. The talk focused on “Man’s Search for Happiness”, accompanied by Sri M’s account of his transformational journey, from a young boy to a spiritual leader, driven by discipline and dedication.

The event started with a welcome address by Shrikrishna G Kulkarni, Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIM Calcutta. He provided a brief introduction about Sri M and spoke about how the spiritual leader has influenced his life as his guide and teacher.

The welcome address was followed by Sri M’s talk on how the human mind has a built-in tendency to search for happiness. He said, ‘’We search all over the world, forgetting that happiness is resident within us and, only when it is found within us, that we derive the complete satisfaction’’. Sri M further added, ‘one needs to maintain equanimity for praise as well as criticism and that one shouldn’t base his/her happiness and unhappiness on the basis of what others think of them.

He further went on to discuss that meditation has two parts – one is gathering all the energies so that it moves in a certain way and then the effort of finally letting it go. He said that Yoga aims to find a balance between the mind and body and shared some words of wisdom on how to live a better life and how to rejuvenate and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The talk was followed by an interactive discussion between the students and Sri M. The event concluded with a Vote of Thanks by the Director, Prof. Anju Seth.

IIM Calcutta hosted the first Amitava Bose Memorial Lecture

IIM Calcutta organized the first Amitava Bose Memorial Lecture on July 29. The lecture was delivered by Professor Debraj Ray, Julius Silver Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Professor of Economics, New York University.

The event started with an address by Prof. Prashant Mishra, Dean, New Initiatives and External Relations where he spoke briefly about Late Professor Amitava Bose. This was followed by an

introductory speech by Prof. Anju Seth, Director, IIM Calcutta who welcomed Prof. Debraj Ray to the inaugural lecture.

Prof. Debraj Ray started his speech with a brief account of his meeting and interactions with Prof. Amitava Bose. He recollected a conversation he had with Late Prof. Bose where they had discussed how structural transformation, technical progress and globalization can send industries into upheaval. He went on to then discuss ‘Aspirations, Inequality and Conflict’, a topic he has often advocated for through his work. He described how ‘Individual preferences fundamentally depend on the lives of others’ and how aspirations are multidimensional which involves consideration of parameters like income, dignity, good health, recognition by others, etc. He also presented a narrative on social interdependence.

The lecture was followed by an interaction between the students and Prof. Ray, and was concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Prof. Soumendranath Sikdar.

Students & Happenings

Summer Placements for 56th batch, class of 2021

IIM Calcutta repeated its feat of 100% summer placements for the 56th batch of 480 of the MBA programme.136 participating firms offered nearly 200 roles to the class of 2021. Several students exercised “Dream” options that allowed them to secure multiple offers from the choicest recruiters.

Finance and Consulting firms accounted for 43.2% of the total offers. Several firms also opened international roles including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Hexaware. Finance majors such as Brookfield, Macquarie, Gaja Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BPEA, Edelweiss, DE Shaw, Avendus actively participated in hiring interns. Citibank (15) closely followed by Goldman Sachs (11) were the largest recruiters in the Banking and Finance sector. The sector also saw first timers including NIIF, Indigrid, white Oak Capital Management among others.

Consulting sector attracted the highest number of offers with participation from majors like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, ATK, KPMG, Mastercard, EY. BCG and Accenture Strategy were the largest recruiters hiring 19 and 17 interns respectively.

IIM Calcutta continued its strong presence in Sales & Marketing and General Management domain which covered 35% of the total pie. Students were also offered leadership roles by conglomerates like Mahindra & Mahindra, TAS, ABG, RPG, Godrej, RIL. FMCG majors such as HUL, P&G, Nestle, ITC, Johnson & Johnson, AB InBev, Mondelēz, Coca-Cola, Asian Paints, Dabur, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group also participated in the process. HUL was the largest recruiter in the sector with 12 offers.

Product Management, Operations and the E-commerce sector had 20% of the total intern recruits. This segment saw an exceptional rise in the number of hires from IIM Calcutta. Amazon and Microsoft were the major recruiters with 20 and 12 interns respectively. Other major firms include Adobe, Media.Net, Salesforce, Udaan, Cloudtail, Flipkart, Uber, Ola and Oyo.

Several new firms were added across the spectrum to cater to a larger batch size and provide multiple options to the students. The number of participating firms grew by 13.33% which include first timers like Puma, Emami, Cochlear, Atha Group, Valuelabs, Apparel Group.

PGDBA – 4th Batch Summer Internship

The 4th batch (2018-2020) has successfully concluded its summer internship placement process with various organizations across industries participating with fervor for handpicking candidates suitable for both data-driven and business driven analyst roles, within half a day placing all 57 students. In line with prior trends, this year's internship remunerations witnessed substantial growth. The average monthly stipend rose to INR 1,31,087.00, registering a growth of 15.4% as compared to last year. The median monthly stipend surpassed last year's figure by 12.5% and reached INR 1,25,000.00. The highest monthly stipend was recorded at INR 1,72,000.00. Top firms focusing on analytics turned out to be the most preferred recruiters. The major recruiters were namely DE Shaw & Co, MasterCard, Amazon, PwC DIAC, Mondelez, McKinsey, Airtel and Play Games.

According to Professor Prashant Mishra, Dean (New Initiatives & External relations), “The significance of IIM Calcutta's PGDBA Summer Internship 2019 is the presence of major recruiters in the Business Analytics domain, which essentially underlines our commitment to the industry in providing right candidates in the analytics domain. Introducing this programme has been an innovative initiative of three internationally reputed institutions of higher education - IIM Calcutta, IIT Kharagpur and ISI, which has delivered high impact learning for the participants.”

“PGDBA has carved its own niche amongst aspirants and recruiters. It bolsters IIMC’s position among top B-schools. We are pleased with the placement results because they vindicate our focus on academic excellence.” remarked Professor Abhishek Goel, Faculty and Placement Convener of the PGDBA program from IIM Calcutta.

DPR student Amit Jain – PDRF at CDI-HSG

Amit Jain is currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Center for Disability and Integration (CDI-HSG) at University of St.Gallen. The work involves spearheading one of the research projects along with other team members and also to provide support to some of the ongoing projects. It has been a learning opportunity for him as he get to know about disability research being conducted in Europe and thus see the cross-cultural effect. It is also providing him an opportunity to interact and work with people from different nationalities. The University also allows him to enhance his academic skills through various trainings and workshops

He got the opportunity to do this fellowship through the Swiss Govt. Excellence Scholarship (ESKAS). Awarded by the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS) of Swiss Confederation. The postdoctoral fellowship was awarded to four students from India after a rigorous selection process based on research proposal, past academic background and recommendation of the host professor.

DPR student Shalini received 'Best Doctoral Student Paper Award'

A paper authored by our DPR student, Ms. Shalini under the guidance of her thesis advisor Prof. Dharmaraju Bathini, has won the 'Best Doctoral Student Paper Award' at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AoM) 2019, Boston, Massachusetts. The paper explores the case of app-based cab companies in India.

DPR Student Varun Jindal’s Research Papers

A paper-based on one of the chapters of the thesis work of our doctoral student, Varun Jindal, and co-authored with one of his joint thesis advisors, Prof. Rama Seth, has been published in the October 2019 issue of the Journal of Corporate Finance – an ABDC A* and ABS 4 journal. The paper titled, "A New Order of Financing Investments: Evidence from Acquisitions by India's Listed Firms", proposes a new order of financing investments based on the considerations of control and financial constraints in markets with business groups, and finds empirical support for the same based on a sample of

acquisitions made by listed firms in India.

Another co-authored work by our doctoral student, Varun Jindal, along with Prof. Raj Aggarwal and Prof. Rama Seth, has been published in the December 2019 issue of International Business Review – an ABDC A and ABS 3 journal. This paper, which is titled “Board Diversity and Firm Performance: The Role of Business Group Affiliation”, brings out business group affiliation as an important contextual/confounding factor in the relation between board diversity and firm performance. This paper emphasizes that the failure to account for any contextual factors, such as the affiliation of a firm with some business group, in the board diversity-performance relationship can lead to ambiguous results.

Movers & Shakers

Jayanta Ghosh on skilling rural youth of West Bengal

Waymark Invincible Foundation, set up by IIM Calcutta alumnus Jayanta Ghosh has partnered with Lakshya Jeevan Jagriti, working on women and youth empowerment to launch a programme “Life skill training and development”. The main objective of the programme is to create a bridge of understanding the need for career awareness and the life skill required towards employability. Rural youth from across West Bengal will be skilled under this programme with special focus on women empowerment.

Wonder Cement appoints Sanjay Joshi as Executive Director

Wonder Cement Ltd, one of the country's leading cement manufacturing unit of R.K Group, appoints Sanjay Joshi as the Executive Director. Joshi is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. Wonder Cement is one of the fastest-growing cement companies in the country today with a world-class manufacturing facility. Currently it has a production capacity of 8.5 Million tons per year and the same will go up by

11 Million Tons per year by the end of 2019. This will be achieved with the commissioning of its upcoming grinding unit in Madhya Pradesh.

Sanjay Gupta becomes country manager at Google India

Google India has appointed IIM Calcutta alumnus, Sanjay Gupta as its new country manager and vice-president of sales and operations for India. Gupta, the former Star and Disney India managing director, will contribute to Google’s efforts to expand the internet ecosystem in the country. He will take on the role early next year, working closely with the teams based in Gurugram, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. He replaces Rajan Anandan, who left Google to join Sequoia Capital India.

Indifi appoints Sangram Singh as its President

Indifi Technologies appoints IIM Calcutta alumnus Sangram Singh as its President. In his role, Sangram will be responsible for spearheading operations and driving business growth to ensure scalability, strengthening and verticalizing deeper in the existing segments, and establishing partnerships and alliances. Moreover, he is tasked with identifying, assessing, and tapping into new sectoral opportunities along with capturing new avenues in product and customer segments. Indifi iss one of India’s leading lending platforms for SME funding, onboarding the Banking and Financial Services.

Executive Education

Upcoming LDPs (November 2019 - March 2020)

Programme Name Programme Directors Programme Duration

Tentative Start Month

Transitioning into Leadership: A Programme for Women Executives (TLPWE)

Prof. Leena Chatterjee, Prof. Pragyan Rath 1 year November, 2019

Senior Management Programme (SMP) Prof. Krishanu rakshit, Prof. Megha Sharma, Prof. Rajesh Bhattacharya 1 year December, 2019

Executive Programme in Business Management - International (EPBM-I)

Prof. Preetam Basu, Prof. Runa Sarkar, Prof. Saptarshi Purkayastha 1 year December, 2019

Executive Programme in General Management (EPGM) Prof. Palash Deb, Prof. Sudhir Jaiswall 1 year December, 2019

Executive Programme in Global Business Management (EPGBM)

Prof. Ramya Venkateswaran, Prof. V. K. Unni 1 year March, 2020

Executive Programme on Digital & Social Media Marketing Strategy (EPDSMMS)

Prof. Saravana Jaikumar, Prof. Indranil Bose 6 months November, 2019

Executive Programme in Strategic Human Resource Management (EPSHRM)

Prof. Amit Dhiman, Prof. Dharma Raju Bathini 1 year December, 2019

Executive Programme in Communication Strategies for Corporate Leaders (EPCSCL)

Prof. Apoorva Bharadwaj, Prof. Pragyan Rath 6 months January, 2020

Advanced Programme in Fintech and Financial Blockchain (APFFB)

Prof. Ashok Banerjee, Prof. Indranil Bose, Prof. Saibal Chattopadhyay 6 months January, 2020

Executive Programme for Banking and Financial Sector (EPBFS)

Prof. Arpita Ghosh, Prof. Partha Ray, Prof. Rajiv Kumar 1 year December, 2019

Post Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Management (PGCHM)

Prof. Rajesh Bhattacharya, Prof. Devi Vijay 1 year March, 2020

Start-Up Readiness, Growth and Execution (SURGE): An Entrepreneurship Programme

Prof. Suren Sista, Prof. Vidyanand Jha 1 year January, 2020

Executive Programme in Growth Strategies for Business Leaders (EPGSBL)

Prof. Biswatosh Saha, Prof. Kaushik Roy 6 Months February, 2020

Senior Management Programme in Business Analytics (SMPBA)

Prof. Peeyush Mehta, Prof. Uttam Kumar Sarkar 9 Months February 2020

MDPs & CTPs

Upcoming MDPs (November 2019 – March 2020)

Name of the Program Program Directors DatesHealthcare Leadership and Management Programme

Prof. Manish Thakur & Prof. R. Rajesh Babu November 11 - 15, 2019

Internet of Things (IoT) – What every manager needs to know about IoT Prof. Debashis Saha November 18 - 21, 2019

Conflict Resolution, Negotiation and Communication Prof. Shantanu Dey November 18 - 21, 2019

Network Effect and Crowd Dynamics in Organizational Decision Making

Prof. Saibal Chattopadhyay & Prof. Uttam K. Sarkar November 18 - 22, 2019

General Management Programme for Senior & Middle Level Executives Prof. Subrata Mitra November 25 - 29, 2019

Managerial Leadership and Team EffectivenessProf. Leena Chatterjee & Prof. Abhishek Goel November 25 - 29, 2019

Global Political Economy for Business LeadersProf. Biju Paul Abraham & Prof. Partha Ray November 28 - 30, 2019

Leadership and Innovation in the Era of Digital Transformation Prof. Indranil Bose December 02 - 06, 2019

Developing Strategic Decision Making Capability through Simulation

Prof. Saptarshi Purkayastha & Prof. Sumanta Basu December 02 - 06, 2019

Digital And Social Media Marketing For Business Growth

Prof. Prashant Mishra & Prof. Saravana Jaikumar December 02 - 06, 2019

Excellence in Managerial CommunicationProf. Pragyan Rath & Prof. Apoorva Bharadwaj December 09 - 12, 2019

Supply Chain ManagementProf. Balram Avittathur & Prof. Preetam Basu December 09 - 13, 2019

Managing Family Business for GrowthProf. Prashant Mishra & Prof. Sumanta Basu December 09 - 18, 2019

Accelerating Innovation Prof. Nimruji Prasad J December 11 - 13, 2019Business Analytics for Strategic and Tactical Level Decision Making

Prof. Saibal Chattopadhyay & Prof. Uttam K. Sarkar December 16 - 20, 2019

Marketing Applications of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: What can ML and AI do for your Organization?

Prof. Saravana Jaikumar December 16 -20, 2019

Leadership and Team Building Prof. Chetan Joshi December 16 -20, 2019Pricing and Sales Management Prof. Saravana Jaikumar January 06 - 10, 2020Financial Technologies (FinTech) for Leadership in the Digital World

Prof. Ashok Banerjee & Prof. Indranil Bose January 06 - 10, 2020

Managerial Leadership and Conflict Resolution Prof. Chetan Joshi January 06 - 11, 2020The Global Economy: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) Prof. Partha Ray January 13 -16, 2020

Project Management Prof. Subrata Mitra January 13 - 17, 2020

Communication and Presentation SkillsProf. Leena Chatterjee & Prof. Vidyanand Jha January 13 - 17 ,2020

Customer Service Strategy: Profiting through Value Creation, Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Relationship

Prof. Prafulla Agnihotri January 20 - 23, 2020

Interpersonal Effectiveness and Leadership Excellence Prof. Chetan Joshi January 20 - 24, 2020

Finance and Accounting for Business Managers Prof. Arpita Ghosh & Prof. Vivek Rajvanshi January 20 - 24, 2020

Advanced Data Science for Practicing Business Analysts

Prof. Saibal Chattopadhyay & Prof. Uttam K. Sarkar January 27 - 31 ,2020

Key Account Management Prof. Prashant Mishra & Prof. Suren Sista January 27 - 31 ,2020

Developing Leadership Potential Prof. Leena Chatterjee & Prof. Abhishek Goel February 03 - 06, 2020

Excellence in Agribusiness Management & Leadership

Prof. Debashis Saha & Prof. Sumanta Basu February 03 - 08, 2020

Contract Management and Arbitration Prof. R.Rajesh Babu & Prof. V.K.Unni February 10 -14, 2020

Marketing Analytics Prof. Prashant Mishra & Prof. Sumanta Basu February 10 -14, 2020

Strategic Cost & Performance Management Prof. Manju Jaiswall February 15 -18, 2020Digital Technology Management for Business Excellence Prof. Debashis Saha February 17 - 20, 2020

Selling and Negotiation Skills Prof. Prashant Mishra & Prof. Suren Sista February 17 - 21, 2020

Personal Growth and Team Building Prof Chetan Joshi February 17 - 21, 2020Managerial Leadership and Team Effectiveness Prof. Leena Chatterjee & Prof.

Abhishek Goel February 24 - 28, 2020

Quality Analytics Prof. Bodhibrata Nag & Prof. Saibal Chattopadhyay February 24 - 28, 2020

Leadership Excellence: An Alternate Approach Prof. Pragyan Rath & Prof. Apoorva Bharadwaj March 02 - 05, 2020

Management of Creativity and Innovation Prof. Vidyanand Jha March 02 - 06, 2020

Chapter News

Bangalore Chapter Event

The event in Bangalore drew a wide participation. The director, Professor Anju Seth spent some time with key alumni where ideas were shared on how to take IIM Calcutta brand globally and also on how to engage better with the alumni community. This was followed by a dinner session where the Director interacted with a larger group. Around 200 alumni were present and interacted directly

with the Director. The Bangalore chapter also felicitated Vijay Lancy. Vijay is a 2006 batch alumni and he just won the BWF World Senior Badminton championship (40+ category). They also had a stand-up comedy to entertain the group.

Indian Institute of Management CalcuttaJoka, Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata 700104Phone: 91-33-24678300 - 04, E-Mail: newsletter@iimcal.ac.in

Editorial Team:Prof. Prashant Mishra, Dean (New Initiatives & External Relations),Aloke Guin, Public Relations Office

Operational Support from:Anjali Sam, Alumni SecretaryAtrayee Bhattacharya, Sr. Administrative Executive (Alumni Relations),Members of Alumni Cell