Brief History

The Department of Commerce of the University of Burdwan started functioning from the year 1963-64. Three teachers were the founders of the Department. They were: Prof. Satya Saran Chatterjee, Prof. Pranesh Das and Prof. Sitangshu Chakraborty. While Prof. Chatterjee and Prof. Das continued in the university service till their retirement, Prof. Chakraborty left the Department and subsequently joined IIMC. Later Dr. D.S. Ganguly and Prof. Amit Kumar Mallik joined the Department. The Department was fortunate in getting these teachers in its formative years. Dr. Ganguly was the Head of the Department when he joined the Department. He became the President of Indian Commerce Association. When West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education was set up, Dr. Ganguly became its first President on deputation from the university service. Prof. Das was a member of the Executive Council of Burdwan University for a long period of time. Prof. Mallik was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts for several terms and retired after serving as the Vice-Chancellor of the University for two terms. Prof. Chakraborty became an eminent teacher in IIMC specializing on value-oriented management. Another teacher in the early years of the Department was Prof. S.N. Bhattacharyya who later joined the State Bank of India as a probationary officer. Other teachers of the Department whose names could be mentioned were Dr. Swapan Kr. Biswas, Prof. T.C. Saha, Dr. R.N. Banerjee, Prof. R.N. Mukherjee, Dr. J.B. Sarkar, Dr. M.M. Maji, Dr. B.N. Ghosh, Prof. U.K. Mallik among others. They were really assets to the Department.

Many teachers of the Department have written books. Dr. D. Sur and Dr. U.K. Datta have written a text book on Cost Accounting for B.Com. students. The book has been published by the publication department of Burdwan University. Dr. C.R. Sarkar have also written three reference books published by national publishers based in New Delhi. Another teacher, Prof. Jaydeb Sarkhel has written some books on Economics for the students of Higher Secondary, B.A. and B.Com. classes. Books for the Higher Secondary level written by Prof. Sarkhel have been approved by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education as text books. Prof. D. Rakshit authored four books in the area of Corporate Restructuring. Apart from writing books teachers of the Department have also written articles which have been published in national and international journals. One teacher of the Department Dr. Santanu Kumar Ghosh attended six international conferences organized by various institutions within country and abroad. In 2008, he attended an international conference organized jointly by IBS Hyderabad and Bentley College, USA and received the ‘Best Research Paper’ award. In the same year, he attended a Global Conference on “Sustainability and Transparency” organized by Global Reporting Initiative, Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2009, he attended three international conferences abroad. One organized by IN Holand University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, one by UNESCO, Chair held in France and another international seminar (attended as Speaker) organized by Inter-American Development Bank held in Uruguay. An international seminar organized by IBS Hyderabad was also attended by him during the same year.