IISWBM alumni demands alma mater get university status soon

Kolkata: In a bid to fast track the process of granting deemed university status to the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), the alma mater alumni of the country's oldest B-school has decided to take up the matter with the state government.

IISWBM senior faculty and key alumni member Jhumoor Biswas said: "Getting the deemed university status will help the IISWBM acquire adequate central funds to carry on research on globally important disciplines in which our researchers have been undertaking important works throughout the past decades."

"State Education minister Partha Chatterjee had announced that the institute will get deemed university status but a Bill in this regard has not been passed yet in the state Assembly. We will urge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to look into this. The status will help the institute carry on research activities in different streams like environment management, energy and healthcare, solid waste management etc," said Koushik Pal, a member of the alumni association of the IISWBM on the sidelines of a press meet in the city.

It may be mentioned that Chatterjee himself is the president of the Board of Governors of IISWBM that was set up by the Calcutta University Senate together with the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and the then Bengal Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy and Dijendra Kumar Sanyal in 1953.

The IISWBM is the first business school not just in India but in South-East Asia. "If this becomes a management university, then several management schools and institutes scattered all over the state will come under our aegis," another alumni member pointed out.

They feel that the deemed university status will enable its brightest students and alumni alike to do research on globally important disciplines like transportation and logistics management, supply chain management, environment management etc.

IISWBM will be holding its sixth annual alumni and corporate fest "Fiera Fiesta" on February 1 and 2.