As SRCC celebrates 100 years of shaping commerce education in the country, with a legacy of renowned alumni and a focus on innovation, the college is now embracing AI and entrepreneurship as it looks to the future – from its humble beginnings in 1926 to becoming one of Delhi University's top institutions.

Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) on Friday turned a page in history as it marked the beginning of its centenary celebrations with a curtain-raiser ceremony at the North Campus. A hundred years ago, SRCC did not begin with imposing red-brick buildings or packed lecture halls. It started modestly, in a bungalow in Daryaganj, with just 12 students and four teachers. The year was 1926 — a time when commerce education was still an unfamiliar idea in North India, and the colonial curriculum left little room for practical, profession-oriented learning.

The seed, however, had been sown earlier. In 1920, industrialist Sir Shri Ram set up the Commercial Education Trust, driven by a belief that education in trade and economics could play a role in building economic self-reliance. Along with his brother-in-law Lala Sher Singh, his friend Lala Diwan Chand, and other associates, he imagined an institution that would teach commerce not merely as theory, but as a living discipline

Two undergraduate courses: Then and now

From its early years, SRCC focused on a limited set of academic offerings. At the undergraduate level, it has traditionally offered two programmes — BCom (Honours) and BA (Honours) Economics — a structure that continues to this day.

According to the college, the institution — then known as the Commercial College — received affiliation with the University of Delhi in 1926 and was upgraded to a degree college in 1932, when it began awarding the BA (Pass) degree in the Commerce Group. Academic diversification within the same discipline followed in phases. The BA (Hons) (Commerce Group) degree was introduced in 1943.