Cambridge University Reporter


Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Indian economy is undergoing an unprecedented period of rapid development. This provides an enormous opportunity to study aspects of business and management in an emerging economy and to carry out research on how management practice, as developed in other parts of the world, applies within the cultural, economic, and socio-political context of India. The University has an increasing number of scholars, students, and executives who call on academic institutions to provide them with the conceptual understanding of management and business in South Asia. A better understanding of the diversity of Indian business is needed and this can be encouraged by including a stronger focus on India in the best international research and training programmes for business.

2. Judge Business School is strengthening its position within the very competitive arena of international business schools. By virtue of its position within the University, it has the comparative advantage of being well placed to carry out interdisciplinary research. While Judge Business School is building strength in core business disciplines including strategy, finance, organizational behaviour, and operations, it is also enhancing its links with other Faculties and Departments and developing the key interdisciplinary themes of globalization, technology, and innovation. Developing the study of Indian business and enterprise would enhance Judge Business School's growing teaching and research in all three themes and increase its understanding of the role of the emergent patterns of globalization evident today, in particular in the fields of outsourcing and partnerships, innovation and technology development, and internationalization of Indian firms.

3. An opportunity to further work in this area has now arisen, as the High Commission of India wishes to endow the establishment of a new Professorship, to be called the Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise, to commemorate the centenary, in 2007, of the matriculation of Jawaharlal Nehru at Trinity College. The High Commission has generously agreed to donate to the University the sum of £3.2m to endow the proposed Professorship. The Council of the School of Technology and the Faculty Board of Business and Management have endorsed the proposal and have recommended that the new Professorship be established and assigned to Judge Business School. It is intended that the Professor will provide leadership for the creation of a dedicated centre at Judge Business School devoted to the study of Indian business. The Professor would also direct a programme of research on the changing nature of business in India, advance the teaching of the subject, promote understanding of contemporary India, and strengthen links with cognate disciplines. The Faculty Board have confirmed that suitable accommodation is available for the new Professor.

4. The General Board are assured that the Professorship can be expected to attract an excellent field of candidates. The Board have agreed that election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that, on this occasion, candidature be open without limitation or preference to all candidates whose work falls within the title of the office.

5. The General Board recommend:

I. That a Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise be established in the University from 1 September 2007, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to Judge Business School.

II. That regulations for the Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise, as set out in the Schedule to this Report, be approved.

8 November 2006 ALISON RICHARD, Vice-ChancellorM. J. DAUNTONROGER PARKER
 JOHN BELLJACOB HEADJ. P. SISSONS
 TOM BLUNDELLD. W. B. MACDONALDI. H. WHITE
 WILLIAM BROWNMELVEENA MCKENDRICK

SCHEDULE

Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise [2007] Judge Business School

1. The sum received from the High Commission of India for the endowment of a Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise shall form a fund called the Jawaharlal Nehru Fund for Indian Business and Enterprise.

2. If and whenever the income of the Fund shall exceed the amount required for the payment of the stipend, national insurance, pension contributions, and associated indirect costs of the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise payable by the University, the excess of the income above that amount may be applied to support the activities of the Professorship and for the study of Indian business and enterprise, in such a manner as shall be approved by the General Board on the recommendation of the Director of Judge Business School.

3. Any unexpended income in any financial year may be accumulated as capital or expended in accordance with Regulation 2 in any one or more subsequent years as shall be determined by the General Board on the recommendation of the Director of Judge Business School.