Kolkata, Jan 02nd: IMI Kolkata hosted the 19th ISDSI Global Conference from December 26th to December 29th, 2025, bringing together an unprecedented congregation of Directors and senior leaders from India’s leading business schools, global scholars, accreditation bodies, policymakers, CEOs, investors, and startup founders. The four-day conference positioned innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability not merely as academic ideals but as actionable imperatives, placing IMI Kolkata at the centre of national and global discourse on technology-enabled sustainability, the future of management education, and India’s growth journey towards the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
What began as a call for papers evolved into a global movement of ideas, with participation from 26 countries. The conference received 1,218 research papers and 220 business and startup ideas, representing and spanning all 21 IIMs, leading IITs, universities, business schools, and incubators. The scale and diversity of participation reinforced ISDSI’s standing as one of the most significant global management research platforms hosted in India.
The conference featured high-profile panels and plenary sessions with heads of IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Tiruchirappalli, IIM Ranchi, IIM Sambalpur, SPJIMR, FORE School of Management, IMT Ghaziabad, IMT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur (VG-SOM), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, and IILM.
Globally renowned scholars such as Prof. Angappa Gunasekaran (Penn State Harrisburg, USA), Prof. Mahesh Gupta (University of Louisville, USA), Prof. Ramachandran Natarajan (Tennessee Tech University, USA) and Prof. Arun Elias (Victoria University, New Zealand) shared the stage with Indian academic leaders; while International Accreditation bodies were represented by speakers from EFMD, AACSB, and AMBA‑BGA.
Senior policymakers and corporate leaders from Damodar Valley Corporation, MP Birla Group, Ori-Plast and other organisations participated in CEO, ESG and investment sessions, reinforcing the conference’s industry-policy-academia integration.
The inaugural session was addressed by Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIM Ahmedabad, who spoke on “Tech for Net Zero: Digital Solutions for a Sustainable Planet.” He observed, “In the last few decades, waves of technology have transformed the way business is done globally. India must now harness technology for the greater good of society and the nation, aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat.”
The session also featured Prof. Bhimaraya Metri, President, ISDSI-Global & Director, IIM Nagpur, and Prof. Mohua Banerjee, Chief Patron, ISDSI-Global 2025 & Director, IMI Kolkata. Conference context and milestones were shared by Dr. Rohit Singh, Conference Chair, ISDSI-G 2025, and Prof. Ravi Jain, Secretary General, ISDSI-Global & Director, IILM Gurugram.
Two Directors’ Panels emerged as intellectual anchors of the conference. The first panel (Theme: Technology, Digitalization, Business Expectations: Implications for the Future of Indian MBA Education) examined technology, digitalisation, and changing business expectations, featuring Prof. Alok Rai (IIM Calcutta), Prof. M.P. Gupta (IIM Lucknow), Prof. Mahadeo Jaiswal (IIM Sambalpur), Prof. Harivansh Chaturvedi (IILM), Prof. Atish Chattopadhyay (IMT Ghaziabad), and Prof. D.P. Goyal (LM Thapar SOM), moderated by Mr. Amit Agnihotri, Founder, MBAUniverse.com.
The discussion highlighted that while AI will reshape productivity and decision-making, MBA education must prioritise learning agility, judgement, and long-term career resilience.
The second Directors’ Panel (Theme: B-Schools as Engines of India’s Net-Zero Transition: Building Leaders, Knowledge, and Innovation for Viksit Bharat 2047), moderated by Prof. Mohua Banerjee, focused on B-Schools as Engines of India’s Net-Zero Transition, with leaders from IIM Ranchi, SPJIMR, FORE, IIT Kharagpur (VG-SOM), IMT Hyderabad, and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. A clear consensus emerged on embedding sustainability into curriculum, campus operations, research agendas, faculty development, and industry engagement, moving decisively from intent to execution.
Panel Discussion on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS): Management Through Wisdom session featured distinguished speakers including Prof. B. Mahadevan (Ex-Professor, IIM Bangalore), Prof. Vidyanand Jha (Professor, IIM Calcutta), Prof. Manish Singhal (Professor, XLRI), Prof. Ajay Jain (Director, MDI Murshidabad) and was moderated by Prof. Pawan Kumar Singh (Director, IIM Tiruchirappalli). The discourse highlighted IKS as a profound, context-driven framework for modern leadership, emphasizing how ancient wisdom can resolve contemporary organizational challenges and enhance individual well-being.
For the first time, IMI Kolkata introduced the Global Investment Summit under the aegis of IMI Kolkata’s Business Incubator, IKN Innovation Foundation. Over the preceding two months, startups were mentored through structured workshops on product-market fit, fundraising roadmaps, founder readiness, and the strategic use of technologies such as AI.
At the summit, 57 startups pitched to investors. Following due diligence, nine startups secured investment commitments of ₹5.1 crore and will now be accelerated under IMI Kolkata’s incubation ecosystem, translating academic engagement into measurable entrepreneurial outcomes.
A key outcome milestone was the launch of Grameen NEEV, a sustainability accelerator programme, set up as a collaboration between IKN Innovation Foundation and Grameen Foundation for Social Impact. Grameen NEEV focuses on empowering underserved communities by identifying latent capabilities and strengthening them through structured learning, mentoring, and targeted capacity-building, reinforcing the conference’s emphasis on inclusive, action-oriented sustainability.
A keynote address was delivered by Mr. Rajendran Dandapani, founding team member at Zoho Corporation, who underscored the need for organisations to become net-positive contributors to society, drawing from Zoho’s long-standing commitment to responsible growth.
An ESG Masterclass was organized featuring Dr. Rajendra Shende (Founder, Green TERRE Foundation) and Mr. Saket Sah, Group Head – ESG, RPSG Group. The masterclass presented through initiatives such as net-zero campuses and experiential learning towards net-zero practices.
The conference also featured the Doctoral Colloquium and Workshops providing structured mentoring and feedback to early-career researchers from India and abroad, reinforcing ISDSI-Global’s long-standing commitment to building global research capacity and scholarly rigor.
Concluding the conference, Prof. Mohua Banerjee, Director, IMI Kolkata, stated, “Hosting the 19th ISDSI-Global Conference allowed us to strengthen our collaborative ties with a multidisciplinary global community of scholars, practitioners and industry leaders. IMI Kolkata is proud to provide a platform where rigorous research, impactful dialogue and future-oriented solutions converge.”
Offering the final word, Prof. Bhimaraya Metri, President, ISDSI-Global, remarked, “The ISDSI community has consistently fostered research culture worldwide. The 2025 conference at IMI Kolkata marks a landmark success, and we thank the Director and IMI team for delivering a conference of global standing”