Prabal K Sen at his office in Jamshedpur on Monday

Jamshedpur, July 25: If XLRI students earn stratospheric pay packages, their mentors don’t lag behind in earning top honours.

A Mumbai-based national trust, Higher Education Forum of India, has handpicked Prabal K. Sen — a senior professor of economics and chairperson of Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) at XLRI — for the best teacher award for his contribution in the field of teaching.

The award committee of the prestigious forum adjudged Sen as the best teacher for the year for 2011 for his achievement in the area of entrepreneurship and innovations. The award will be handed over to him at a Teachers’ Day function in Mumbai slated on September 5.

This 59-year-old professor will be the first mentor from Jharkhand to receive this much-coveted award.

Speaking to The Telegraph Sen, ever modest, downplayed his individual achievement and said the award was a recognition of the pioneering work done by the EDC at XLRI, which was successfully fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship and generating a breed of conscientious and persevering wealth creators.

“I am thankful to the XLRI administration that offered me a chance to contribute my talent in disseminating knowledge and development in the area of entrepreneurship and innovations,” he said.

Professor Sen was handpicked for the award after a survey conducted by the forum, which had instituted it a couple of years ago to recognise distinguished teachers in different areas of higher education in the country. The teachers adjudged as the best in the country are from specialised areas of economics, entrepreneurship, marketing, human resources, finance and strategic management.

Those who know Sen personally vouch for the fact that the honour is richly deserved.

He started his career as a member of the faculty in postgraduate department of economics, Burdwan University, in 1976. Two years later, in 1978, he joined a public sector bank in Calcutta as an economist and was acknowledged as one of the most innovative officials in the field of social banking in the country.

Later, he joined the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, where he worked in the capacity of a chair professor for six years. He joined XLRI less than five years ago.

As the chair of EDC at XLRI, Sen took steps to launch a regular full-time six-month postgraduate course, Programme for Certificate in Entrepreneurship Management (PGP-CEM), in March 2010. The programme is aimed at producing graduates who won’t seek jobs for themselves, but create many by embarking on entrepreneurial ventures on their own.

With this programme, the B-school joined the elite club comprising very few premier management institutes across the country and abroad, which operate such an innovative academic exercise, besides conventional business management programmes.