3 Excellent Courses Taught At IIM Calcutta

I was about to commence this article with the title of “3 best courses at IIM Calcutta”. But the size of my sample space prohibits that. While these 3 may not be the best without doubt, they certainly are 3 wonderful courses that we students at IIM Calcutta are proud of and thoroughly enjoy.

Macroeconomics, Prof Partha Ray
(Course Review done by Piyush Dugar, 2019 Batch)

While the entire first term at IIM Calcutta is hectic and overwhelming-- filled with courses that add value and others that, well, add time, the one course that really stood out for me was in the next term. Boasting of one of the best Economics departments in the country, I was really looking forward to the compulsory course on Macroeconomics-- a subject I absolutely love-- taken by Dr. Partha Ray.

I personally believe it is largely dependent on the instructor to make a good course -- something I have learned from experience albeit from one side of the fence. In that regard Dr. Ray--with his humorous comic strips interspersed in the slides, wry humour amidst the most tedious topics and a profound understanding of what most Indian kids in a B-school want ( something not very profound) -- managed to curate a course that really captured one's imagination.

The one defining moment for me was discussing some topic (possibly market efficiency) with Dr. Ray wherein I had mentioned Nobel laureate Robert Shiller. Partha sir - with his wholesome smile - nonchalantly remarked how Shiller is a close friend of his, and gifted sir his latest book a month earlier.

Apart from being speechless for a few seconds, the entire privilege to be amongst such esteemed company dawned upon me. It also struck me how even outside the confines of the curriculum, the teachers at IIM-Calcutta had just so much to offer. With a few more such incidents wherein sir casually mentions people like Stiglitz or a conversation with Kaushik Basu, the course was both humbling and inspiring.

Very often, sir started off with basic economic models, and drifted towards more contemporary topics to stitch a narrative before realising the class was all at sea - and thus returning back to the models. The balancing act between maintaining the course light enough for our palate but still enriching enough for the students was absolutely brilliant to watch. What that also led to was a preliminary course on Macroeconomics including very new topics like Quantitative Easing or what monetary theories make of demonetisation.

Thus, the real-world implications discussed in the course - while intuitive after some deliberation - was certainly one aspect that didn't only contribute topically but had the potential to fundamentally add a new tiny lens through which one can view the world.

Institutions, Markets and Firms: Growth and Structural Change in China and India, Prof. Mrityunjoy Mohanty
(Course Review done by Kanad Rajwade, Batch 2019)

I found this course, taught by Prof. Mrityunjoy Mohanty, to be very interesting. The course aimed at understanding the journey (in terms of institutional construct, set-up of markets and firm operations) and outcomes of capitalism in the developed countries to model a possible growth path for developing economies of China and India looking at their journey until now.

The course was covered in two parts wherein the first part was dedicated to understanding capitalism while the second part looked at China and India in greater detail. Like many, I knew that capitalism to socialism to communism was a spectrum of ideologies and not punctuated but never knew how.

The first part of the course helped me understand, though examples, how different economies positioned themselves on the spectrum according to the socio-political and economic context.

Building upon the first part, the second part was more interesting since I could see some of the similar trends observed in the already developed world, in the Chinese and Indian growth journey.

Management of Self in Organisations , Professor Leena Chatterjee (Course Review done by Niranjan Jha, Batch 2019)

This course has been seen as one of the best courses here over around 2 decades. Professor Leena has taken it throughout. It is an elective in second year. This course allows students to introspect on their talents and interests, ensuring that they make the right career choices. It combines a series of class activities, personality tests and team sessions along with a bit of theory on the subject.

As the course progresses, one genuinely learns something new about oneself. The course involves writing an autobiography of a decent size, along with an analysis of the same.

I can say with confidence that no student leaves this course without have discovered something new about oneself.

Editor's note - The courses mentioned in this article are as good as the professors who teach them. To ensure that B-school faculty get the recognition they deserve, InsideIIM has come up with the 'Professor of The Year' series, where students from Indian business schools vote for their favourite professors on campus!

The winners of the InsideIIM Professor of The Year from IIM Calcutta can be found here.