“ISB - A Great Saga of Adventure, Forward Thinking and Enterprise”- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the GLS Summit.

The Global Logistics Summit (GLS), hosted by the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies at the Indian School of Business, was inaugurated by the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh on December 5, 2006.

The Prime Minister’s first visit to the ISB campus coincided with the school’s ongoing Fifth Anniversary Celebrations. “This is my first visit to this magnificent campus, and clearly, such a wonderful effort is due to team work - a fine example of public private partnership,” said the Prime Minister.” The PM went on to say, “It is easier to build facilities than to run an institution. People make institutions, and not the other way round. India has created many top class institutions, but we have not been able to sustain it. I hope ISB grows and continues to renew the institution by investing in people.”

The Prime minister expressed delight that his visit “coincided with the end of five productive years of ISB”, and also because regeneration of rural India was a topic close to his heart. “Management education has come of age in India,” noted the Prime Minister. He, however, urged for institutes like the ISB to define an ‘Indian approach’ to management. “As we learn from the west and the east, we must evolve our own paradigm of management education based on our own social and cultural attributes. We must retain the relevant wisdom of the past, incorporating it into new methodologies of change. We need to develop a new idiom in management,” he advised. “Think global, act local” this was the mantra which the Prime Minister had for every student at the ISB.

Speaking about the GLS Summit, the Prime Minister said, “Rural India requires new and innovative approaches, new tools of analysis and new solutions. This is the challenge for business schools and researchers.” He said that logistics played a key role in integrating rural and urban India, and logistics, above all, was about managing people. “Beyond improving rural logistics, infrastructure and connectivity, the greater challenge is to improve rural life, said the Prime Minister. He cautioned young managers against the “helicopter model” in taking management practices into the rural areas. “Grassroots experience should inform management concepts,” he said. The Prime Minister concluded his inspiring speech by saying, “To invest in the capabilities of people living in rural India, to enable an agrarian transformation which will uplift millions of our citizens from subsistence living into the 21st century - that is a heroic challenge.” It is to meet this challenge that the Prime Minister urged “future leaders, managers, researchers and stakeholders at the ISB” to work in cohesion.

Also present on the occasion were the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, His Excellency Rameshwar Thakur, and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. “The ISB has been a trend setter right from the onset, and within five years, has scaled to being one of the top Business Schools in India,” said the Chief Minister. He was appreciative of the “giant strides” that the school had taken in every facet from the performance quality of its students to its Executive Education Programmes and acceptability among the academia globally. The Chief Minister said that the Rural Business Transformation Strategies, which the GLS summit would deal with, would be of “immense use to the state.”

The Governor congratulated the ISB for completing a commendable five year landmark. “ISB has achieved a milestone which is laudable,” he said, adding that a management institute should promote life-long learning and strategies to improve overall quality of life. He asked all young managers at the ISB to take the onus of building an upwardly moving India.

The inaugural session of the Global Logistics Summit also saw leading industrialists, academicians, and senior government officials come together to share their perspectives. Associate Partner to GLS - Hero Mindmine Institute - was represented by SK Munjal, MD Hero Corporate Service Limited. “Logistics can change the future of a nation. Countries and corporates without effective logistic support for products, people, services etc run out of steam,” said Munjal. He said that we needed more contemporary and experimental tools to be able to connect with rural India.

Rajat Gupta, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company and Chairman of the ISB traced the ISB journey. “Ten years ago, we took a great leap of faith to pursue a dream. But the dream was rooted in reality. It was our innate confidence that today we are one of the top ranked, research driven business schools, globally. In hindsight, I would say that we were wise pioneers,” he said. Gupta promised to the Prime Minister, on behalf of the ISB, that the institute would “walk with you to create modern India.”

The proceedings included the unveiling of a plaque to mark the occasion, and the release of the ISB Commemorative Book to mark the completion of five glorious years. Also released were the research paper on Rural & Global Supply Chain Excellence, and a research study by the Hero Mindmine Institute.

The commemorative plaque, a work of art by renowned artist Sishir Sahana, was unveiled by the PM. The art piece, made of glass, represents a deep rooted tree with five predominant roots, symbolising the five years of the ISB. The art piece also shows five birds to symbolize the five batches of students, with one bird perched right at the top, ready to take flight. This is the artist’s impression of the current batch, which is ready to scale new heights in global skies. The bird’s position on the top allows it a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the global scenario. Sahana, a former student from Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan, specialises in stained glass painting, and has held solo exhibitions all over the world. "I have not used any frame in this piece as I wanted to bring in the feeling of freedom, and the impression of a flow," he said. The artist has used porcelain fired colour, which impart a rare vibrancy to his work. The ISB’s eco-friendly environment, which hosts several species of flora and fauna, led to the idea of using a tree as a symbol to portray the school’s well rooted growth.

The inaugural session concluded with the Dean of the ISB, M Rammohan Rao delivering the Vote of Thanks, and assuring everyone that the ISB’s belief in excellence was “a continuous journey, and not a destination.”