IIM Ahmedabad begins 5th edition of IIMA-SRK lecture series

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) will be renewing its IIMA-SRK lecture series after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. This lecture series is a joint effort by IIMA and the Shree Ramkrishna Foundation (SRKF).

The primary objective of the event is to strengthen collaboration between industry and academia to create, nurture and distribute knowledge in the education sector. The lecture series began with a lecture by University of Chicago, service professor of economics, Marianne Bertrand, on "Gender, Stereotypes and Inequality" at the IIMA campus.

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The lecture began with an overview of work from a gender perspective, stereotypes and elaborated on increasing inequality. She further gave cognitive, socio-cultural, and economic factors impacting the participation of women in the workforce. Other main points of the lecture included several aspects of gender inequality such as pay gap, under representation of women in sectors such as STEM and top management, the impact on motherhood on their earnings among others.

Based on the data Bertrand analysed, she further said that such issues have multiple factors and that a multi-dimensional approach that addresses socio-cultural, economic and academic challenges had to be designed. The lecture was attended by SRK Foundation, president, Kamlesh Yagnik and Shree Ram Krishna Exports, chief human capital officer, Nirav Mandir along with faculty and students of IIMA.

Introducing Bertrand to the audience, IIMA, director, Errol D’Souza, said: “We are delighted and thankful to the SRK group for partnering with us to institute this lecture series and helping us support discussions on subjects of global interest every year. For all of us here at the Institute, it is an occasion to commemorate as we have amongst us Professor Marianne Bertrand – an economist so accomplished and recognised - here with us to deliver a lecture on a topic which is of great contemporary interest in India as well as the different parts of the world.”