Fifth India Research Conference 2020


A three-day virtual India Research Conference was jointly organised by the Financial Research and Trading Laboratory, IIM Calcutta and Stern School of Business, New York University during October 9 – 11, 2020.Leading academic and policy experts made an in-depth discussion on India’s financial markets and implications on the international economics at the virtual meet. The series has been organised by Professors Kose John and Maheswaran Durairaj of NYU Stern and Professors Sudhir Jaiswall and Anju Seth of IIM Calcutta.

The conference began on October 9 with a welcome note and introductory speech from Prof Kose John, NYU Stern School Business, followed by presentation and discussion of four research studies in accounting, finance, and economics including one paper presentation by IIMC Finance & Control faculty member, Prof. Manju Jaiswall. Nobel Laureate and Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT, Dr. Esther Duflo delivered the keynote speech on the first day of the Conference, October 9. The keynote address titled “Every child counts: what awaits us in schools after the COVID-19 pandemic” was full of insights drawn from her decade-long research on education system in India and her thoughts on the do’s and don’ts for school education in the post-COVID19 scenario. The day one closed with a concluding remark by Prof. Sudhir S. Jaiswall.

The second day, October 10, featured talks by four distinguished scholars who are IIMC alums. These scholars are faculty members of leading business schools in the US and represent a variety of disciplines: marketing, entrepreneurship, analytics, and operations. In his presentation was titled “Make in Incredible India: Nation Equity and Globalization”, Prof. Maheswaran Durairaj (NYU) talked about national branding. Prof.Venkataraman Sankaran (Virginia) spoke about his journey as a professor in the field of Entrepreneurship. Prof. Anindya Ghose (NYU) discussed monetizing of the mobile economy using AI & Blockchain. Finally, Prof. Ananth Raman (HBS) spoke about research opportunities in retail operations.

October 11 was the concluding day of the conference with several lounge sessions to connect IIMC junior faculty and doctoral students with distinguished scholars who are IIMC alums to foster scholarly research at IIM Calcutta. Prof. Mahesh Durairaj (NYU) and Prof.Murali Mantrala (Kansas) participated in the Marketing lounge session. Prof. Raman Kumar (Virginia Tech) and Simi Kedia (Rutgers) in Accounting & Finance session, Prof. Deepak Somaya (Illinois) in Strategy & Entrepreneurship session, Prof. Anindya Ghosh (NYU) in Analytics session, and Prof. Ananth Raman (HBS) in Operations lounge session.