Bangladeshi Nobel prize laureate, social entrepreneur, banker, economist, civil society leader and the founder of Grameen Bank, Professor Mohd Yunus was at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta recently to deliver the prestigious Arijit Mukherji Memorial Lecture. This is an annual lecture conducted by the institute where distinguished professionals from India and abroad visit the campus to share insights with students and faculty alike on any topic of concern.
Prof. Yunus, who created micro credit, invented social business and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in alleviating poverty, is a trenchant social critic. At the Arijit Mukherji Memorial Lecture, he shared his insights on The World of Three Zeros: Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Carbon Emissions. He shared in his lecture, that it is time to admit that the capitalist engine is broke and that in its current form it inevitably leads to rampant inequality, massive unemployment, and environmental destruction. To save human kind and the planet, he opined that there is a need for a new economic system based on a more realistic vision of human nature; one that recognises altruism and generosity as driving forces that are just as fundamental and powerful as self-interest.
“It is a big reward for IIM Calcutta fraternity to have the opportunity of listening to the subject involving poverty, unemployment, and carbon emission from no other than Prof. Mohd. Yunus,” said Prof. Uttam Kumar Sarkar, dean (New Initiatives & External Relations), IIM Calcutta.
The first Arijit Mukherji Memorial Lecture was held in 2016 where Prof. Kaushik Basu, the then chief economist, World Bank was the speaker. The Arijit Mukherji Memorial Lecture has been incepted in memory of Late Prof. Arijit Mukherji, a distinguished and honoured faculty of Carlson School of Management, University of Minnessota. Prof. Mukherji had a life span of only 38 years that suddenly ended in October 2000 in Minneapolis. The Estate of Late Prasanta Kumar Mukherji donated IIM Calcutta Rs. 54,88,191 in 2015 in line with the wishes of the Late Prasanta Kumar Mukherji. On bequeathing the amount, IIM Calcutta, on the suggestion of Anuradha Mukherji, wife of the Late Prasanta Kumar Mukherji, decided to utilise the fund (accrued interest) to conduct annual lectures in the cherished memory of Late Prof. Mukherji by inviting distinguished professionals from India and abroad to visit the institute campus annually.
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta was up as the first national institute for Post-Graduate studies and Research in Management by the Government of India in November 1961 in collaboration with Alfred P. Sloan School of Management (MIT), the Government of West Bengal, The Ford Foundation and the Indian industry.