CoE for India’s nascent retail sector
Professor Narendra Agrawal Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business will spend six weeks at Ahmedabad University serving as an adviser to the university’s vice chancellor, dean of the Amrut Mody School of Management, and key academics at the university.
Prof Agrawal of supply chain management and analytics in the Department of Information Systems & Analytics at Silicon Valley-based Santa Clara has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.
During this fellowship, considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious in the world, Agrawal will help Ahmedabad University design and develop a center of excellence focused on the Indian retail industry that will become a leader through its research, focused teaching programs, and industry leadership engagement.
Agrawal will draw upon his expertise in retail supply chain management and operations developed through three decades of extensive scholarship, academic and executive education, and industry consulting.
Established in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2009, Ahmedabad University is an innovative university that has developed a highly interdisciplinary and experience-based approach to education that seeks to address social challenges and opportunities occurring at the intersection of various axes of influence, defined by disciplines (data, materials, biology, and behavior), nature (air, water, forests, and land), sectors of impact (health, transport, energy, and education) and society (individual and community).
“We are proud to have our very own faculty member, Dr. Naren Agrawal, selected to drive business education and innovation at a new Indian University,” Dean Caryn Beck-Dudley said on 31 Jan 2020.
“At the Leavey School of Business, we collaborate with the most brilliant minds in entrepreneurship, ethics, innovation, and theory. And we do it all from the most prolific business environment on earth, Silicon Valley,” explained Dean Caryn Beck-Dudley. “We are honored to share this creativity globally.”
Agrawal notes that the retail industry in India accounts for over 10% of the country’s GDP, but is nascent in its evolution, with the organized retail sector forming less than 10% of the size of the total retail industry.
Rising incomes, a booming middle class, an explosion in digital connectivity, and a consistent increase in foreign direct investments in the entire supply of goods and services is leading to a dizzying growth in India’s retail market. At the same time, there is a serious paucity of managerial talent needed to operate and lead this incredible transformation, he notes.
“I’m delighted to be able to help Ahmedabad University develop a program focused on the retail industry,” said Agrawal. “I am very excited to be a part of what will be the first university-based center focused on addressing the needs of the retail industry in India.”
The Indo-US agreement on educational exchange, signed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and US Ambassador Loy Henderson on 2 February 1950 in New Delhi, established the United States Educational Foundation in India to administer the Fulbright Program in India.
On 4 July 2008 the Government of India (GOI) and the US Government (USG) signed a new agreement to strengthen educational exchanges between the two countries.
The Foundation was renamed as United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) awarding Fulbright-Nehru Scholarships and Grants. USG and GOI are now equal partners for implementing Fulbright Program in India.
The Fulbright Program is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs whose goal is to improve intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. The program provides 8,000 grants annually.
Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. fiinews.com
