Dear Alumni,

Greetings!

Within a very short span we lost three illustrious faculty members of IIMA. Professors Dwijendra Tripathi, VS Vyas and NR Sheth are no more with us. All three of them played significant roles in building IIMA as an institution. Professor Tripathi, the best known business historian of the country, not only contributed to creating this discipline in India during his tenure at IIMA, as Dean he was also responsible for building a variety of systems and cultural norms at the Institute that have withstood the test of time. A well-known agricultural economist, Padma Bhushan Professor Vyas was the Director of the Institute during 1978-82. Among several important positions, he also served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Committee, both for Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. A doyen in the field of Industrial Relations, Professor Sheth served as the Director of the Institute during 1984-91. IIMA owes a lot to these stalwarts and this issue pays a small tribute to all of them. They will always stay with us in spirit and keep reminding us of the core values of WIMWIAN.

Over the years, several IIMA alumni have contributed a great deal to the social sector. Their engagement with the community at large has made significant positive impact. This issue brings to you stories of some alumni from the batch of 1991 for whom community engagement has been part of their life. The 1991 batch is also engaged with the Institute to inspire students on campus to take on roles that can have significant social impact. We hope to bring out more such inspiring stories in the subsequent issues from other batches.

Another edition of The Red Brick Summit (TRBS) was organized on Campus during September 29 and October 2, 2018. The annual flagship management festival of IIMA students attracted large number students from all over the country. Like last year the event brought together a very interest of speakers from various walks of life. This issue provides you a peek into this year’s summit.

As mentioned in the last issue fifteen Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have been created to enhance alumni engagement. The response has been very good but the challenge is to leverage the SIGs to undertake activities that are useful for all stakeholders. In order to expedite this process, I am trying to create a small coordinating team of 4-6 persons for each SIG. This team will consist of alumni and faculty interested in those areas apart from the representatives of the student clubs on campus that can benefit from the SIG. The mandate of this group would be to come up with meaningful activities that can be initiated in the next 3-6 months. So far we have been able to initiate this process for three SIGs – Women, Entrepreneurial Eco-System and Education – but hope to do the same for all others in the next 3-4 weeks. I request you to actively participate in the activities of SIGs. Joining the new interactive portal would also help our efforts in this activity apart from undertaking other activities beneficial to alumni.
The festive season is about to begin. The Navaratri celebrations will start soon and then we will celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights. I take this opportunity to wish you and your family the very best for this festive season.

Warm regards,

Rakesh Basant

Professor of Economics

Dean, Alumni and External Relations