The NSRCEL organized a Round table on Business and Entrepreneurship History of India on August 28, 2009 at IIMB.
The Round Table was designed to stimulate discussion on three key themes:
- Perspectives on Business and Entrepreneurship History of India
- Business and Entrepreneurship History Research: Themes, Approaches and Challenges
- Embedding Business and Entrepreneurship History in Management Education
In his opening remarks, Professor K Kumar, Chairperson, NSRCEL, said that business history is a very important contributor to management education. In effect, this creates a demand for research studies and case material, with an ongoing need to develop a historical perspective that would provide context to management theory and cases. Yet, the current repository of material for reference on Indian businesses and entrepreneurs is limited, which leads to an opportunity for researchers.
NSRCEL has therefore initiated a study on the history of business and entrepreneurship in India. The focus is the period post Independence, and more specifically, the more recent 'post-liberalisation' period. Another key objective is to introduce business history into the curriculum of management education.
As a first step, the process involved getting a group of business historians and experts in the field to review the state-of-the-art and discuss the challenges in carrying out research in business and entrepreneurship history and suggest ways of bringing business history into the management curriculum.
Participants on the Round Table were:
- Professor Dwijendra Tripathi, who was a professor of Business History at IIM Ahmedabad for almost three decades and has played a pioneering role in promoting the study of business history in India. His book The Oxford History of Indian Business, published in 2004 is the definitive book on the subject
- Dr Raman Mahadevan, a senior economic and business historian currently based in Chennai. He has made significant scholarly contribution to modern South Indian studies, especially in the area of industrial and capitalist development in colonial South India. Through his detailed studies of entrepreneurship on the Nattukottai Chetty community, followed by those relating to Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu, and Travancore, he has brought South India into the major debates on Indian entrepreneurial history
- Dinesh Sharma, currently Science Editor of Mail Today - a joint venture of the India Today Group and Daily Mail of UK. He has reported extensively on science, technology and environment-related issues and his articles have appeared in reputed national and international publications. He has written the book titled The Long Revolution: The Birth and Growth of India's IT Industry published by HarperCollins (2009)
- Dr Surajit Mazumdar is a Professor at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi. His research interests lie in the areas of the Indian corporate sector and the political economy of industrialization
- Harish Damodaran is currently Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu Business Line. He has written a book titled India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business and Industry in a Modern Nation, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2008)
- Mekhala Krishnamurthy is a social anthropologist, currently pursuing a PhD at University College London. During 2003-07, she coordinated the Health Practice at ICICI Bank's Social Initiative Group
The sessions were moderated by Professor K Kumar, Professor Dwijendra Tripathi and Professor Pankaj Chandra, Director IIMB.
Ramachandra Guha, well-known author, historian and Managing Trustee of the New India Foundation actively participated in the programme and contributed significantly to the discussions.
The discussions at this Round Table are being used as inputs to set the agenda for the research project and to draw up the outline of a business history module that could be incorporated into the curriculum in management schools.
For more information on this initiative by IIMB on the Business and Entrepreneurship History of India, contact:
Professor K Kumar
Chairperson, NSRCEL
Email: kumark@iimb.ernet.in
The NSRCEL organized a Round table on Business and Entrepreneurship History of India on August 28, 2009 at IIMB.
The Round Table was designed to stimulate discussion on three key themes:
- Perspectives on Business and Entrepreneurship History of India
- Business and Entrepreneurship History Research: Themes, Approaches and Challenges
- Embedding Business and Entrepreneurship History in Management Education
In his opening remarks, Professor K Kumar, Chairperson, NSRCEL, said that business history is a very important contributor to management education. In effect, this creates a demand for research studies and case material, with an ongoing need to develop a historical perspective that would provide context to management theory and cases. Yet, the current repository of material for reference on Indian businesses and entrepreneurs is limited, which leads to an opportunity for researchers.
NSRCEL has therefore initiated a study on the history of business and entrepreneurship in India. The focus is the period post Independence, and more specifically, the more recent 'post-liberalisation' period. Another key objective is to introduce business history into the curriculum of management education.
As a first step, the process involved getting a group of business historians and experts in the field to review the state-of-the-art and discuss the challenges in carrying out research in business and entrepreneurship history and suggest ways of bringing business history into the management curriculum.
Participants on the Round Table were:
- Professor Dwijendra Tripathi, who was a professor of Business History at IIM Ahmedabad for almost three decades and has played a pioneering role in promoting the study of business history in India. His book The Oxford History of Indian Business, published in 2004 is the definitive book on the subject
- Dr Raman Mahadevan, a senior economic and business historian currently based in Chennai. He has made significant scholarly contribution to modern South Indian studies, especially in the area of industrial and capitalist development in colonial South India. Through his detailed studies of entrepreneurship on the Nattukottai Chetty community, followed by those relating to Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu, and Travancore, he has brought South India into the major debates on Indian entrepreneurial history
- Dinesh Sharma, currently Science Editor of Mail Today - a joint venture of the India Today Group and Daily Mail of UK. He has reported extensively on science, technology and environment-related issues and his articles have appeared in reputed national and international publications. He has written the book titled The Long Revolution: The Birth and Growth of India's IT Industry published by HarperCollins (2009)
- Dr Surajit Mazumdar is a Professor at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi. His research interests lie in the areas of the Indian corporate sector and the political economy of industrialization
- Harish Damodaran is currently Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu Business Line. He has written a book titled India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business and Industry in a Modern Nation, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2008)
- Mekhala Krishnamurthy is a social anthropologist, currently pursuing a PhD at University College London. During 2003-07, she coordinated the Health Practice at ICICI Bank's Social Initiative Group
The sessions were moderated by Professor K Kumar, Professor Dwijendra Tripathi and Professor Pankaj Chandra, Director IIMB.
Ramachandra Guha, well-known author, historian and Managing Trustee of the New India Foundation actively participated in the programme and contributed significantly to the discussions.
The discussions at this Round Table are being used as inputs to set the agenda for the research project and to draw up the outline of a business history module that could be incorporated into the curriculum in management schools.
For more information on this initiative by IIMB on the Business and Entrepreneurship History of India, contact:
Professor K Kumar
Chairperson, NSRCEL
Email: kumark@iimb.ernet.in