Prof. Suryakanta Das

Prof. Malay Kumar Mohanty

Prof. Suryakanta Das was one of the finest human beings we have had the privilege of having amidst us. He was a renowned teacher, friend, mentor, all rolled into one, for many of us and we will miss him sorely.
Prof. Suryakanta Das was born on 21st Nov. 1921 in Tigiria, Balikuda, under Cuttack  district (Undivided). He was the second son of late Dinabandbu Das & Late Sundaramani Devi.He completed his early education at Bhawanipatna of Kalahandi district, passing matriculation with 1st division from Brajamohan High School, Bhawanipatana in 1940. He passed his I.A. in first division and B.A. with Hons in Economics standing first with distinction in the newly created Utkal University in 1943. He stood 1st class first in M.A. (Com.) (Gold Medalist) in the year 1946 form Calcutta University. Simultaneously he studied Law and passed B.L. with first class.
Commerce Department was first opened in G.M. College, Sambalpur during the year 1947. Dr. Suryakanta Das was appointed as a lecturer in commerce in this college. He went to America for higher studies in Commerce and Management in the year 1951. After returning in 1956, he joined in G.M. College, Sambalpur. Dr. Suryakanta Das, MBA, DBA (Washington) was the first Professor of Commerce of Utkal University. He functioned from 1962 until end of November 1981. After retirement from Utkal University, he was invited to become Professor at Kohima Campus of North Eastern Hill University. Later he became the Pro Vice Chancellor of NEHU until December, 1986.
During 1951 October to 1956 June, he was the recipient of Foreign Exchange Scholarship at the University of Washington from where he earned the MBA, and DBA Degree. After that World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered a job to Dr. Das. But Dr. Das refused the offer as he wanted to lead his life as a college teacher in his own state.
He was presented with Wall Street Journal Graduate student Achievement Award at the University of Washington in 1953. In 1972, Dr. Suryakanta Das went as a Visiting Scholar to California State University at Fresno City, California.
Prof. Das has published several research papers in professional and academic journal such as Indian Management, Indian Journal of Commerce, Indian Journal of Marketing, Industrial Relations, Finance and Commerce, Lok Udyog etc. He was also the managing director of Indian Journal of Commerce for three consecutive years in the 1970s.
Prof. Das was the recipient of Shriram Award  for 1969 given by the All India Management Association for “outstanding contribution to management thought and practice” through papers published in the journal “Indian Management”.
Prof. Das was listed in the 5th Edition (1981-82) of Who’s Who In The World, published by Marquist Who’s who, 2000 East Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois  60611, USA.
Prof. Das authored various books among which “Alakapuri America” was the first book of economic social and cultural developments in USA during early 1950s, which was published in 1959 by Saraswati Pustak Bhandar, Sambalpur. Among other popular ones were “Gandhiji O’ Bikendrita  Arthaniti”, “Moscow Darshan” and “Naga Raija”. For his literary achievements, Oriya Sahitya academy has bestowed an honour on him in 1989 March.
Prof. Das has been awarded literary prize at Visuva Milan, annual ceremony of Oriya magazine, and received Jhankar Awards in 1950 and 1959. He was a leading writer and columnist of Orissa’s leading newspaper Sambad. “Bepar Banijya and Desha Videsha” were the most notable articles he authored.
Prof. Das traveled extensively visiting USA three times, and went to Cananda, U.K, USSR and Netherlands. Within his country India, he has travelled from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to Kohima, and Gangtok, Sikkim.
Prof. Suryakanta Das was a man with a large heart and always stood for his principles. Prof. Suryakanta Das left us for his heavenly journey on 24th Nov, 2003. It will certainly take ages for someone to match his stature in Commerce teaching and his contribution to the society.

 

Excerpts from first Memorial Lecture of  
Prof. Suryakanta Das

 Dr. Manoj Kumar Fogla

It is a great pleasure to deliver the first Prof. Suryakanta Das, Memorial Lecture. At the outset I express my regards and devotion to the great personality and life of Prof. Suryakanta Das, who was a role model and an ideal teacher in addition to being a great statesman and administrator.
The life of Prof. Suryakanta Das is true inspiration and continues to manifest in many ways in world over. He founded the first commerce department of Odisha and today commerce education is one of the most popular and sought after education all over the world. The alumni of Utkal University Commerce department are spread all over the world in distinct and eminent positions.
His students and colleagues recall the invaluable experiences they had during his time. His values and discipline were exemplary.
As today we shall be briefly reflecting on the changing environment from financial and accounting perspective and the challenges thereof. In the last few decades the world has changed radically and therefore, the accountability system and the financial and legal norms also require corresponding understanding and updation.
There is a Chinese curse which says, “may you live in interesting times.” Perhaps the curse has come true as the contemporary times are indeed interesting.

• Today we need arms to pursue peace.
• Today people starve amidst plenty, as Amartya Sen pointed that during various great famines, food grain was actually exported from such places. “That ‘famines’ had occurred amidst plenty because of lack of purchasing power. So ‘entitlement’ to food security is required to increase ‘capability’ to obtain the ‘primary goods’.”
• Today we talk about cruelty to animals over chicken soup.
• Today water has become costlier than milk.
• Today the world is on the brink of disaster through global warming.

America alone contributes 25% of the world’s pollution and continues to subsidise its polluting oil companies. There has been radical changes in the financial environment the traditional balance sheet which we prepare at times seems to be a redundant and notional statement. For instances :

• The market value of shares of various companies is 100 or even 1000 times more than their face value.
• The astronomical prices of transfer of various companies.
• The book value of various metropolitan properties.
• Non-reflection of human assets etc.,

Once Sri Aurobindo was walking with the King of Baroda, suddenly the King went across the road to help an old woman in lifting a bundle of firewood to her shoulder. The King was visibly pleased with his kindness and expected Sri Aurobindo to appreciate his gesture. Sri Aurobindo remarked that this is how we live, first we take the burden of others and then again put it back on their shoulders. We tend to look for our social magnanimity for either something we ought to have been doing or some incidental/allied services. For instance if the train or flight is on time then we speak very highly of the service provider, because we are so used to delays and inefficiencies. The Government of India regularly advertises appealing to the people to help the country by not evading taxes. Because the tendency to evade taxes is so rampant that the citizens who are voluntarily paying taxes are considered socially responsible without doing anything other than what they should have been doing. An NGO which I evaluated sometimes back did not realise that the cost per beneficiary was one million rupees. In another such instance during field visits it was noticed that crucial field areas could not be visited by the programme co-odinators due to the need of travel allowance of Rs. 200/- per month, but the same NGO had incurred 1.5 million rupees on the travel of board members during the same period. When one comes across such instances there is a distinct feeling of frustration. Something somewhere has gone wrong with our clan, or the governance is not always in the hands of right people. Therefore it becomes imperative to innovate tangible and objective criteria which warrant social accountability.
Few probable reasons of the inadequacies of our financial system as they exist today could be as follows:

• all our accounting norms and financial regulations are general in nature. We do not         have any specialized development sector accounting or financial modes of operations.
• we fail to account for the varying value of money in its downstream journey to the grassroots.
• our existing financial systems fail to account for various enduring aspects of development
• we generally do not follow the principles of fund accounting which are so crucial for NGOs

The commerce education has a great role to play in creating an accountable environment for handling the various changes the world has seen. We need creative leaders like Prof. Suryakanta Das to set foundation for new dimensions of education and financial systems which can take care of the challenges provide by the changing world. If we all work towards a more accountable world where financial systems can comprehend the grass root realities, then we can pay real tribute to Prof. Suryakanta Das.

With regards and best wishes to all