Anand, the Professor
After retiring from BPCL, Anand first took up position as a Professor in the Vinod Gupta School of Management , IIT Kharagpur and later in 2017 moved to become Professor and Big Data Chair at the Goa Institute of Management. A polymath, he has been a visiting/guest faculty to his alma mater, IIM, Ahmedabad, TISS, faculty for the Ph D programme of BITS Pilani and ITM, as a research guide, Ph D examiner, and Adjunct faculty in Mumbai University in Sociology, Political Science and Economics, and Public Policy in various years.
Prof. Anand was of the view that for any management program to be successful it had to have a heavy interaction with Industry. With this thought in mind he worked meticulously, interacting with industry and signing MOUs with many companies to get industry experts as guest faculty. Prof Anand along with his team went around the country and met industry leaders and created awareness of the program. The hard work and efforts bore fruit with all 59 students of the first batch being placed for summer internships. This was a unique achievement and feat for GIM. The success of the program in its very first year made the institute confident of the program and the team and as a result the capacity of the program was doubled to 120 students in the second year itself. The team repeated the feat of getting the 2nd full batch of 120 students placed for summer internships.
After his stint as Dean of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Anand joined Goa Institute of Management (GIM). His vision for the program was to make the program the best Analytics Program in India, on the lines of tri-institution program Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics (PGDBA) of IIT Kharagpur, ISI and IIM Calcutta, which he was a part of earlier. In a short period of six months he constituted his team, set up the program, drew the curriculum, and prepared for the first term of the PGDM Big Data Analytics program, a first of its kind at GIM. In order to differentiate the program at entry level, he introduced another qualifying test GIM Analytics Admission Test (GAAT) for the students getting admission to PGDM Big Data Analytics program. He realised the qualifying test for the management programs through CAT/XAT were not enough for a skill-based Analytics program. Therefore, GAAT was designed to test students on basic coding skills, data interpretation skills, and awareness of advances in technology.
Everywhere he goes, Prof. Anand is known to his institute colleagues as a very down to earth person despite his achievements. He did not use the appeal of power or his position or his past illustrious background to intimidate his colleagues and get things done. His gentle mannerism and encouraging words made his team deliver more than they could think of. He shunned hierarchical work culture and made sure that all colleagues and staff, irrespective of age, experience, and designation worked as one team to get things done. This is one of the main reasons he is respected and admired by his faculty colleagues and staff.
Prof. Anand was also a great mentor to his students and took care of them like his own children. He was kind and understanding to students' issues and addressed them empathetically. He regularly sought their feedback about the program and listened to their anxieties. This led to building a strong bond of trust, love and respect between him and the students.
