LEARNING ON THE GO
The annual business summit gives students a chance to learn hands-on management and focus on social work
Anirudh Singh Sankhla, 24, didn’t imagine that signing up as the coordinator for Intaglio, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta’s ( IIM-C) oldest international business summit, would mean attending meetings at 2 a.m. But being in the core committee of the 173-member team that organises the summit is perhaps the biggest value addition when it comes to experience outside the classroom.
The summit is held every January and work for the next one begins in February. By June, calls are made to speakers and potential sponsors. But getting sponsors on board is not easy. “The average ratio in terms of converting an individual to sponsor is about one in five,” Sankhla says. Intaglio ’13 landed 24 sponsors, after calling up “roughly 100 firms”, and together they contribued Rs 45 lakh. Volunteers of Intaglio, now in its 26th year, are divided into several verticals: Sponsorship and reverberations, events, logistics, IT and design. From June till October, the speakers’ list is finalised. Registration begins in November.
For Sankhla, who is participating in Intaglio for the second time, the challenges are greater. “We want to scale up our budget and invite many more international business schools,” he says.
In keeping with IIM-C’s tradition of emphasising human values—it had a Management Centre for Human Values long before ethics became a management rage—Intaglio includes events with a focus on corporate social responsibility ( CSR). This year will see five such events, including a day with children of a school sponsored by CRY; Sunehra Kal, a project to sponsor education of poor girls; a panel discussion with social entrepreneurs; and a marathon to promote the right to education.
“Our Management Centre for Human Values focuses on Indian philosophy and value systems that can be used in management practices,” says Ashok Banerjee, dean of New Initiatives and External Relations. Founded in 1961, the B-school continues to add facilities for students. “In the past five years, we have added 500,000 sq ft of physical infrastructure.” The newest is a 200-seat hostel that will open in December—good news for students who want to be part of one of India’s best business schools.