CRIBR was established in 1991 with the support of MEA, Govt of India with the mandate to research on issues affecting Bangladesh and Indo-Bangladesh relations. Mr Bimal Pramanik alongwith  academic stalwarts like Prof. Jayanta Kumar Roy, Prof. Amalendu De and many others were associated with CRIBR since its inception.

Since 2000 onwards, Mr. Bimal Pramanik, a combat veteran of Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 and an experienced researcher is the ‘Honorary Director’ of this research institute.

Mr. Bimal Pramanik was born in 1948 in erstwhile East Bengal or East Pakistan. His native district is Rajbari which was part of historic Faridpur district before 1984.

Applied Mathematics is his original academic genre as he did Masters in it from Rajshahi University in 1974. Before completing his higher education, the 1971’s epoch making armed liberation struggle for Bangladesh broke out and as a politically conscious citizen and having aligned with Leftism he took an active role in organizing the war and got inducted in Mujib Bahini as a local commander. It can be mentioned, here, that he was associated with Left-oriented student politics from the late 19560s.

He came to India in 1976 and since then he is settled in Kolkata. He was forced to leave Bangladesh due to political and religious reasons as he had joined BAKSAL system of Sheikh Mujib and became a local office bearer of it.

In the first phase of Kolkata chapter of his life he joined as a Research Associate in CRESSIDA (Centre for Regional, Ecological and Science Studies in Development Alternatives). After the dissolution of it in late 1970s he faced acute financial constraints but did not move away from his his research interests. In the line of this particular propensity he joined newly-founded CRIBR as Senior Research Associate.

He is a man of multitudes. He has wide range of academic and research interests and works. Some of them are bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh, demographic patterns in West Bengal, North East India and Bangladesh, problems of minorities in Bangladesh, religious education in West Bengal and Bangladesh.

His publications are quite huge in volume and diverse in scope. Till date he has published six books (three in Bengali and 3 in English), numerous articles and research papers. Mr. Bimal Pramanik has also completed six research projects funded by various agencies of Govt. of India including ICSSR and ICHR and BFDR of Bangladesh. Apart from these he was also associated in research supervision in two M.Phil programmes under Calcutta University.

He is now 75years old but quite young and youthful to pursue academic endeavours in his capacity as head of CRIBR.