6th March, 2025, Bengaluru: To celebrate the generosity of the people and organizations that play a significant role in the continued success of IIM Bangalore through meaningful contributions for various causes at the Institute, the IIMB Development Foundation (IDF) hosted ‘Donor Reception 2025’, earlier today.

 Welcome addresses
Prof. Sourav Mukherji, Dean, Alumni Relations & Development and faculty in the Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management area of IIMB, who chairs the IIMB Development Foundation, delivered the welcome address and offered an overview of the session, followed by an address by Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore.

 Enriching management education and driving innovation
Prof. RT Krishnan shared a glimpse of the Institute’s academic programmes, research, outreach to industry and future plans in its journey of academic excellence. “We will continue to provide the best possible support to our faculty and centres to make greater impact, nationally and globally. In fact, new Centres of Excellence, research programs and entrepreneurship activities are also on the cards. Here, I would like to thank Mathew Cyriac, Executive Chairman, Florintree Advisors Pvt Ltd and alumnus of the PGP Class of 1994. His generous contribution has paved the way to the setting up of a global Centre of Excellence, the Tony James Centre for Private Equity and Venture Capital, at the campus. Our incubation centre NSRCEL, thanks to its alignment with the national goal of driving a start-up culture, continues to receive significant recognition from the government and industry, including support from organizations such as Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Securities, Capgemini, to name a few. In fact, NSRCEL is geared to share its expertise with other incubators through a consulting-cum-product platform.”

 Sustaining high quality is at the core of IIMB’s future agenda, said Prof. RT Krishnan. “Although we have done well in the last 51 years, we need to do a lot more in few areas, such as, internationalization, as well as sustain and maintain the high quality in terms of faculty, research, infrastructure, etc. Our special thanks to organizations like NeSL, TCI, Mizuho Bank and many more – your continued support helps us strengthen our activities and deliver outstanding results. Our future plans include providing more support to faculty and centres, as well as focusing more on new projects like the second campus which will offer UG programmes. We look forward to working more with individual donors and corporate partners. And the IIMB Development Foundation is there to consolidate such efforts.”

  Promoting sustainability: A special address
Chief Guest of the event, Debajyoti Ray Chaudhuri, MD and CEO, National E-Governance Services Ltd (NeSL), delivered a special address on initiatives promoting sustainability. “The least we, as a community, can do is leave the planet the way we got it. We also have to reverse years of deforestation and polluting of lakes and rivers. In such a situation, IIMB’s stand on adopting sustainable practices, such as setting up of EV charging stations, is similar to that of NeSL. If you take an aerial view of the Institute, you will find that the entire rooftop is covered with solar panels. That is one of the reasons why we chose to partner with IIMB as we are happy to promote projects on sustainability. The IIMB campus is like an oasis in the city of Bangalore. The peaceful and tranquil nature is conducive to academic and professional pursuits.” A rooftop solar power plant, an initiative which is supported by NeSL, was inaugurated on the IIM Bangalore campus in April 2024.
“To achieve the Indian government’s aim to become Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need to harness the advantages of the demographic dividend through training and skilling. We need to implement projects within time limits, and IIMB has a crucial role to play in this area.”

 India and Japan – strategic partnership
The event also featured the Guest of Honor – Tatsuhiro Otake, CEO India, Mizuho Bank Ltd. He shared his own career trajectory – he has been with Mizuho Bank all through and in India since 2022, and provided an overview of Mizuho Bank’s CSR activities, significance of Mizuho Bank and MIJSC in promoting India-Japan collaboration, Japanese companies in India and why India is an attractive option for such companies. “India is poised to become the third largest economy by 2027, there is skilled workforce and stable monetary policy, government to government relationship with Japan is close, while Japan is faced with an aging society, decline in population, low economic growth rate and shortage of human resource. Japanese companies seek business opportunities in India as consumption market and product/export base, and aim to secure and diversify supply chains in India. Mizuho Bank has supported MIJSC by way of interacting with delegation of IIMB students, having a lecture called ‘Doing Business in India – Japanese Perspective’, and through contributions.”

 Endowment fund for deserving students
Another highlight was the announcement of the ‘Professor Prakash G. Apte Memorial Endowment Fund’, initiated by Alok Apte, son of Late Professor Apte, and his well-wishers. Recalling his student days, Prof. Sourav Mukherji said that Prof. Prakash G. Apte was a great teacher and mentor with immense respect for the Doctoral programme. Alok Apte said that this endowment fund has been created so that deserving students are not denied of quality education due to lack of funds and to promote academic excellence in research.

 Panel discussion on impact of donating for higher education
A panel discussion on, ‘The Multiplier Effect of Donating to Education’ was moderated by Rohit Jaisingh, CEO, IIMB Development Foundation. The panelists were PS Narayan, Global Head, Wipro; Sunil Khurana, CEO & MD, BPL Medical Technologies Pvt Ltd; Rajkiran Kanagala, President and Chief Business Officer, TCI; Madhu Moses T, Regional Head, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Sandhya Shekhar, alumna of PGP 1984.

 The discussion focused on the rationale of donating for higher education and its impact. Sharing their experiences in collaborating with institutions in their CSR initiatives, the panelists listed robust and transparent policies as the top pick aiding their selection for possible partners. “Choose to partner with enterprises where leadership has its heart in the right place”, said Sandhya Shekhar. While PS Narayan advocated sustainability and bridging gap in the education system, Sunil Khurana recommended civic engagement and contribution to economy as their core objective. Rajkiran Kanagala said his organization believed in giving back to the industry, focusing on rural areas, sustainability and leaving a legacy behind. Madhu Moses advised that we need more scholarships, boost infrastructure and support the social stock exchange. All the panelists agreed that partnering with IIM Bangalore has been a rewarding experience.