The Rabindranath Tagore Centre was inaugurated on June 1, 2008 by the Hon’ble Minister for External Affairs, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of the Chief  Minister of  West Bengal Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Dr. Karan Singh, President of ICCR.While guests assembled in the front lawns for tea and refreshments, the distinguished visitors descended down the steps of the building showered with rose petals by ICCR students while the Manipur double conch shell was sounded. After unveiling the plaque they went to the atrium where they paid floral homage to the bronze bust of  Rabindranath Tagore sculpted by Ramkinkar Baij, which was ordered specially from Visvabharati University, Shantiniketan. Members of Shantiniketan’s Saptak choir sang a Vedic hymn set to music by Tagore.

The Bengal Gallery was next inaugurated by the Chief Minister, which had an exhibition of the 'Bengal Masters'—including paintings by artistes such as Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy and others and paintings and sculptures by Chintamoni Kar loaned by Charukala Parshad and Bhaskar Bhavan. The distinguished dignitaries visited the Ramkinkar Baij sculpture court, which had assorted sculptures by artistes such as Somenath Hore, Chintamoni Kar, Prodosh Dasgupta, Uma Siddhanta, Niranjan Pradhan, Biman Bihari Das and others. The adjoining Abanindranath Tagore Gallery had the exhibition Bengal Art—‘ Calcutta Group’ and beyond…which displayed works of  acclaimed artistes such as Paritosh Sen, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharya, K.G.Subramanyan, Prakash Karmakar, and others.

The inauguration ceremony was held in the auditorium and speakers included Dr. Bharati Ray, who welcomed guests followed by address by Dr. Karan Singh and Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Shri Pranab Mukherjee gave the keynote address. Shri. Pavan K.Varma gave the vote of thanks.

The programme ended with a brief cultural programme titled Utsav on Tagore’s concept of celebration, which was introduced by Dr. Reba Som and included a dance performance by members of the Bangladesh troupe Sadhona and Manipur Nartanalaya. Tagore songs were sung by members of Visvabharati University’s Saptak.