A case titled Mayflower Restaurants: Effective Service Delivery and Customer Engagement, co-authored by Professor Chandrasekaran N, Professor, Operations and Strategy, Area Chair – Strategic Management, and Chairperson – Executive MBA Programme, IFMR GSB, and Nagarani M, Associate Professor, OB & HR, IFMR GSB, has been published on the Ivey Case website.
Bolt 2025 commenced with a spectacular opening ceremony on 28 February 2025, ushering in two weeks of exhilarating competition, camaraderie, and sporting excellence. This year’s edition was larger than ever, featuring participation from students from SIAS and IFMR GSB, along with the introduction of new sports, strategic club collaborations, and an innovative approach to scaling the event. The house system—Athena, Ares, Poseidon, and Persephone—fuelled the competitive spirit, with students proudly representing their teams.
In a significant milestone, Bolt 2025 secured monetary sponsorships for the first time, paving the way for its transformation into an intercollegiate event in the future. The opening ceremony featured inspiring speeches from the core team, acknowledgments for club contributions, and a commitment to elevating Bolt to new heights.
The competition was intense, with each house showcasing its strengths—Athena’s formidable football team, Poseidon’s dominance in tennis, Ares’ all-around resilience, and Persephone’s powerhouse basketball squad. Beyond the matches, Bolt 2025 fostered a strong sense of community, bringing together students from diverse disciplines to cheer, support, and revel in the spirit of sportsmanship. Various clubs played a crucial role in enhancing the experience—Layam’s energetic opening ceremony, Rachana’s innovative merchandise, the Gaming Club’s revival of Esports, and Her Campus’ creative additions, among many others.
The event culminated in a grand closing ceremony on 15 March 2025, where the winning teams were honoured in a celebratory prize distribution. The ceremony not only recognised the champions and unforgettable moments but also celebrated the collective spirit that made Bolt 2025 truly remarkable. With an ambitious vision to expand beyond Krea, this year’s edition was more than just a tournament—it was a movement, laying the groundwork for an even bigger and brighter future.
Report by Shivani Pramod, MBA Cohort of 2024-26
Dr Rangachary Kommanduri, Visiting Assistant Professor, Data Science, SIAS, has been awarded a grant under the MeitY Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) Program for his proposal, ‘Transforming Campus Safety with AI-Powered Anomaly Detection Solutions.’ The program, which supports early-stage entrepreneurs in developing innovative technology solutions, is supported by Gyan Circle Ventures (CIEDI) at IIIT Sri City and funded under the TIDE 2.0 initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The project focuses on developing an AI-powered surveillance system to detect abnormal activities on campus, such as intrusions, unattended objects, and potential security threats like physical altercations. The system will provide real-time alerts, enhancing campus safety through swift intervention.
IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB), Krea University, in partnership with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), hosted an international conference on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in Agriculture: Strategies for Sustainable Development in South Asia. Held from March 17 to 18, 2025, at the Krea University campus, the event brought together leading scholars, researchers, and policymakers to address the challenges of climate change and its impact on agriculture.
The conference opened with an inaugural lecture by Professor K Narayanan, Professor and Head, Economics, IIT Bombay on Understanding the Linkages Between Climate Change and Economic Development: Lessons from India. His address set the stage for in-depth discussions on climate resilience and sustainable agricultural practices.
A key highlight was the plenary session on Climate Change, Food Security, and Gender, led by Professor Sridevi G, University of Hyderabad, which explored the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalised communities and the need for inclusive policy interventions.
The panel discussion on Agriculture and Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in South Asia featured expert insights from Dr Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati, Associate Professor and Head, HSS, IIT Tirupati and Professor Madhuri Saripalle, Professor, Economics and Chairperson, MBA Programme, IFMR GSB. The session examined innovative strategies for sustainable agriculture, drawing on case studies from across South Asia.
Adding to the discourse, Sharon Buteau, Executive Director, LEAD at Krea University delivered a special lecture on Sustainable Livelihoods and Gender, highlighting the role of community-driven initiatives in strengthening climate resilience.
The conference concluded with a valedictory session by Professor Barbara Harriss-White, Senior Research Fellow, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies; Professor Emeritus of Development Studies; Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, on Agriculture and Climate Change. Her address underscored the need for interdisciplinary research and collaborative policymaking to tackle climate-induced agricultural vulnerabilities.
By fostering critical discussions on sustainable agriculture and climate resilience, the conference reinforced IFMR GSB’s commitment to research-driven solutions and policy innovation in sustainable development.
Photo Courtesy – Media Lab
Professor Srinivasan Kalyanasundaram, Professor of Practice, Finance, IFMR GSB, has successfully completed the Fundamentals of Case Teaching course by Harvard Business Publishing.
A group of students from the MBA cohort of 2024-26, IFMR GSB is undertaking a Live Project on pairs trading strategies, a technique widely used by hedge funds. They are exploring various approaches, including statistical, technical, and fundamental analysis. This Live Project is being offered by Paterson Securities Pvt Ltd under the mentorship of Balachandran Venkataraman, a Student Mentor specialising in Derivatives, Risk Management, and Analytics, as well as a Business and Management Consultant.
With a track record of mentoring over 1,000 MBA students, Balachandran has consistently nurtured industry-ready professionals. Through this project, students are applying theoretical concepts to develop and backtest practical strategies.Impressively, their performance in technical analysis has earned them another Live Project on derivatives and market risk management, starting in mid-April.
The participating students are Ritam Sen, Swastik Rao, Viraj Patil, Prathamesh Tavhare, Rishi Raj, Kumar Eklavya, Sanchay Nagar, Kunal Sen, and Harsh Vardhan Mishra.
Dr Chirag Dhara, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS, delivered a talk at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, on 18 March 2025. The talk, titled “Inequality and Climate Destabilisation,” was part of the CESP Seminar Series 2025.
Abstract
How would the world have warmed if each country’s lifestyle had been globally adopted? Our analysis reveals that universalising the lifestyles of most industrialised countries would have warmed the planet by over 1.5°C by 2002. Thus, the current (relative) climate stability is owed to the modest lifestyles of the global majority. Many consequences follow.
Dr Joya John, Assistant Professor, Literature, SIAS, has been selected to attend the Balzan Colloquium at the Institute of World Literature, Harvard University, from 30 June to 24 July 2025. The three-week colloquium brings together participants from five regions of the world: Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and South/Southeast Asia. Each year, the colloquium focuses on a specific topic with implications for world literature. In 2025, the theme will be ‘Literature and Environmental Crisis’. Participants will meet weekly to share and discuss their work on the topic and will be invited to submit their essays for a special issue of the Journal of World Literature, scheduled for publication in the fall of the following year.
Dr Chirag Dhara, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS, along with Dr Soumyajit Bhar, has penned an op-ed in The Hindu titled The dangerous illusion cast by development rankings. The authors articulate a new vision of sustainable development, discussing how the United Nations Development Program has shaped countries’ perceptions of progress for decades. They argue that its conception of development is outdated and incompatible with advances in sustainability science. The piece proposes a new framework for development in the 21st century.
Dr Swayam Sampurna Panigrahi, Assistant Professor, Operations and Area Chair – Operations, IFMR GSB, delivered a guest lecture on Supply Chain Sustainability on 13 March 2025 in a research seminar on ‘Sustainable Manufacturing and Operations: Bridging Academic Insights and Industry Practices,’ organised by the Department of Operations Management, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. The lecture was delivered online.
