The IIM-A Alumni Kolkata chapter had the pleasure of hosting Prof. P P Chakrabarti, former director of IIT Kharagpur, and professor extraordinaire, to talk and share his perspectives on the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various areas related to technology, finance, business and management. The event was graciously hosted by Mr. Madan Mohanka, Tega Industries in Kolkata on Friday, 30 Jan, 2026.
We received over 50 registrations and the alumni also enjoyed a wonderful session of networking over tea and snacks. The session started with a speaker introduction by Mr. Madan Mohanka, followed by an excellent presentation by Prof. Chakrabarti, on Artificial Intelligence. He walked us through the mathematical, statistical, algorithmic and connectionist foundations, and from deep learning to large models, and also gave us glimpses of AI/ML in action in microscopy/pathology, machining, space discoveries, cognitive AI systems, and law.
As alumni shared their concerns on how AI was disrupting the existing business and shared their fears of making their jobs redundant, Prof. Chakrabarti shared his ideas on how to stay relevant and focusing on developing our inherent human strengths of thinking and “learning how to learn” – areas where AI is still not as effective as humans today.
The final vote of thanks was made by Mr. Sumant Bhutoria. In keeping with the spirit of the session, IIM-A Kolkata chapter gifted Prof. Chakrabarti a 3D printed statue that was generated by AI from his photograph, and a shawl to express our sincere thanks for sharing his knowledge with us.
