Partha Priya Datta is an Indian professor of operations management, management researcher, and mechanical engineer. A professor at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, he researches manufacturing, operations strategy, supply-chain resilience, product-service systems, innovation, and policy, and has advised Indian government agencies on aerospace and telecommunications manufacturing.
Background
Partha Priya Datta was born in 1973 in Kolkata, India. He achieved academically distinguished results in West Bengal before entering higher education, securing the 32nd position in the state in the Madhyamik Pariksha and receiving a National Scholarship, followed by recognition from the Chief Minister of West Bengal for placing fourth in the state Higher Secondary Examination. His early professional formation combined mechanical engineering practice in Indian industry with subsequent postgraduate study in management and operations.
Education
Datta studied mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, where he completed a Bachelor of Technology with Honours in 1996. He later earned an MBA from Lancaster University Management School in the United Kingdom and a Ph.D. in management from Cranfield University’s School of Management, completing the doctoral degree in 2007. His doctoral work developed into research on supply-chain resilience, uncertainty, complex production and distribution systems, and agent-based simulation. During his doctoral period he received a Society for the Advancement of Management Studies fellowship and in 2007 won the James Cooper Memorial Cup for the best Ph.D. thesis in logistics and supply-chain management from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the United Kingdom.
Career
Datta began his professional career as a graduate engineer trainee with Larsen & Toubro Limited and subsequently worked as a development engineer with Eveready Industries India Ltd. He later served as a mechanical engineer at Haldia Petrochemicals Limited. During his industrial career he contributed to projects involving the development of an integrated heat-treatment and machine shop for Caterpillar excavator undercarriages in Navi Mumbai, the development of a central workshop unit for a major petrochemicals plant in eastern India, and the expansion of a zinc-rolling facility for a leading Indian battery manufacturer.
After completing his doctorate, Datta worked as a research fellow with Cranfield School of Applied Science and Cranfield School of Management from 2007 to 2009. He joined the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 2009 and has served in the Operations Management group as assistant professor, associate professor, and professor. His research addresses performance, strategy, and policy in manufacturing, operations, and supply networks, with particular attention to small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups, and firms undergoing environmentally driven transitions. His work combines empirical research with agent-based simulation and has examined sectors including fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, advanced technology, defence, and aerospace.
Datta has undertaken policy and consulting work for the Government of India. He served as a consultant to the Ministry of Defence on the formulation of India’s aerospace manufacturing policy, participated on an advisory panel for defence-aerospace quality policy, and worked with the Department of Telecommunications in the Ministry of Communications on independent evaluation of the Production Linked Incentive scheme for telecom and networking hardware manufacturing. At IIM Calcutta he has taught production and operations management, operations strategy, manufacturing strategy, world-class operations, and strategic operations management.
Membership
Datta has participated in the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta as a committee member. His professional research and academic activities have also included engagement with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies, the Academy of Management, the Operations Research Society, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, and the Production and Operations Management Society through fellowships, awards, reviewing, conference participation, and research presentations.
