Media Releases

New Director Appointed at University of Toronto’s India Innovation Institute

October 31, 2016

Toron­to, ON – A new direc­tor has been appoint­ed as direc­tor of the India Inno­va­tion Insti­tute at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. The Insti­tute is a hub for researchers across the uni­ver­si­ty and around the world that aims to bring togeth­er fac­ul­ty and stu­dents who are inter­est­ed in how India is using inno­va­tion to trans­form itself across a vari­ety of spheres, includ­ing inno­va­tion in tech­nol­o­gy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, ser­vices, process­es and gov­ern­ment. Partha Mohan­ram, a pro­fes­sor of account­ing and the CPA Ontario Pro­fes­sor of Finan­cial Account­ing at the Rot­man School, is the new direc­tor of the Insti­tute, a role he assumed ear­li­er this year.

“I see Inno­va­tion as a two-way street,” says Pro­fes­sor Mohan­ram. “There is a lot that India can learn from the west and devel­op­ing economies as it tries to mod­ern­ize itself, lift mil­lions out of pover­ty and man­age growth while deal­ing with the prob­lems of cli­mate change. How­ev­er, there is also a lot that the rest of world can learn from India. For instance, the ongo­ing suc­cess of the AADHAAR uni­ver­sal iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram shows how one can use tech­nol­o­gy to ensure that social ser­vices and gov­ern­ment pro­grams reach those they are intend­ed for. Sim­i­lar­ly, break­throughs like the Nano car or the Mit­ti Cool refrig­er­a­tor demon­strates how one can inno­vate fru­gal­ly.”

The insti­tute plans to be a clear­ing­house for ideas broad­ly relat­ed to Inno­va­tion and India.

Pro­fes­sor Mohan­ram obtained his PhD in Busi­ness Eco­nom­ics from Har­vard. Pri­or to that, he obtained his PGDM (MBA) from IIM-Ahmed­abad, and a B.Tech in Com­put­er Sci­ence from IIT-Madras.

He has pub­lished exten­sive­ly in the top account­ing and man­age­ment jour­nals, with pub­li­ca­tions in The Account­ing Review, Review of Account­ing Stud­ies, Jour­nal of Account­ing Research, Jour­nal of Account­ing and Eco­nom­ics, Con­tem­po­rary Account­ing Research and Man­age­ment Sci­ence. He is con­sid­ered to be one of the lead­ing experts in the area of val­u­a­tion, with many papers on fun­da­men­tal analy­sis and the mea­sure­ment of implied cost of cap­i­tal. His papers are high­ly cit­ed and fea­tured in the busi­ness press.

The Insti­tute held events ear­li­er this month with Hon. Arun Jait­ley, Finance Min­is­ter of India and Pro­fes­sor Arun Sun­darara­jan of New York University’s Stern School of Busi­ness.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Insti­tute is online at www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/ResearchCentres/IndiaInnovation.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges.  For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416.946.3818
E‑mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

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