Team of 8 to restore Presidency's prestige

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has appointed an eight-member group of globally-known academicians to restore the academic excellence of Presidency College and University.

The group of academicians, which could be expanded to 10 in future, will be headed by Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen as the advisor. Gardiner professor of history at Harvard University will be the head of the advisory committee.

The six other members are — Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia, chairperson of Indian Council for Research on International Relations, Abhijit Banerjee, professor of economics at Ford foundation International, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Swapan Chakraborty, director of National Library, Kolkata, Sukanta Chaudhuri, professor emeritus of English, Jadavpur University, Himadri Pakrasi, Freiburg professor and director at International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability, Washington University, and Ashoke Sen, professor of Physics at Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad.

The group will submit reports to the chief minister with recommendations over the next two years. Keeping in mind that the university would complete 200 years in 2017-18, Mamata would like the restructuring to go on faster.

Of the 15-point agenda the most important would be to restore the college’s excellence, which had once students like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.