It is not the first time that the professor receives an accolade as he has been awarded for his academic work several times. However, it is a different kind of award he received this week as he has been honoured for his support to Asian art.
Indeed, Nirmalya Kumar is also an Art lover who has built up one of the biggest Indian Art collection dedicated to Jamini Roy, one of the most influential modern art names in India. Professor Kumar also gets involved in lectures and his writings on the subject are regularly published.
The London’s School of Oriental and African Studies has awarded professor Kumar of an honorary fellowship for his support to Asian Art not only for his love of Indian Art but also for being an active actor as a co-director of the Aditya Birla India Centre at London Business School. Professor Rao from the School of Oriental and African Studies describes Kumara as a real supporter of Arts who is not only collecting for himself but shares and helps promoting those artists.
In his acceptance speech, professor Kumar told the audience how hard it could be for him to be proud of being Indian in the 70s as he lived in Switzerland then completed an MBA in the United States “it was difficult as a teenager to be truly proud of being Indian. For many educated youth it was a time to escape the perceived constraints of India and go west”. “It is against this personal context that my support for Indian arts should be understood. It is a quest for the meaning of identity in a globalised world.”
Professor Kumar’s recently published material about India’s role as an innovation hub in the future. He was also listed in the ‘Thinkers50’-
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