Indian industry giant announces Chair in Entrepreneurship at Delhi alumni event

Leading businessman Sunil Munjal announced a boost for entrepreneurship research at Imperial on 9 January.

At an event for alumni in New Delhi, Sunil Munjal – Joint Managing Director of Hero Motocorp, the world’s largest motorcycle and scooter manufacturer – announced support for a new Chair in the Imperial College Business School to focus on entrepreneurship.

Describing India as a melting pot of cultures and languages, he said, "We must nurture that diversity and turn it into a strength. We need to question the status quo, harnessing the opportunities opened up by new technology."

The new Chair at Imperial will address innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic leadership from the perspective of emerging markets, including India.

Mr Munjal spoke of the friendship between the Hero Group and Imperial, highlighting the mentoring support that the Imperial College Business School will provide to the new BML Munjal University based in Gurgaon, which is philanthropically funded by the $5 billion conglomerate.  He described a key aim of the new university, named after his father, the Hero Group Co-founder and Chairman Brij Mohan Lall Munjal, as being to cultivate the leaders who will shape India’s future.

He said, "India's biggest challenge is developing the right skills through training. If we cannot do this, we have a demographic nightmare. We need to raise the level of debate and discourse by providing quality education."

Professor G. 'Anand' Anandalingam, Dean of the Business School, was among the Imperial delegation hosting the event. Addressing guests, he said, "Imperial is great, not only because of the successful professors at the College. You, our alumni, are doing some amazing things."

He described Mr Munjal as a great supporter of the College and hailed the collaboration: "Education makes the future and Sunil Munjal's family has done just that."

See a slideshow of images from the event or the full set of photographs on flickr.