May is usually vacation time, but here at the Institute we have seen a number of exciting events. From the FDP conference cum reunion to the FT rankings, from the inauguration of the 21st General Management Programme at the DIFC, Dubai to Director's meeting with alumni in Dubai, we have seen a lot of activity. One of our esteemed alumni, Mr. Ajaypal Singh Banga, was selected as the President of the World Bank earlier this month, and the digital exhibition, 'Maritime Trade of Gujarat's Princely States: Nawanagar and Porbandar' was launched by the Archives. What was the situation 60 years ago, in May 1963? Please see the attached document that highlights points of interest discussed by the faculty. Note that Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was the Director (Honorary) at that time, and preparations were on for the first PGP that was to be launched in 1964. The collaboration with the Harvard Business School had also been initiated, and there is reference to this in the attached document. Note Dr. Sarabhai's advice regarding a newsletter to facilitate sharing of the happenings at the Institute with Harvard. Also of interest is the list of documents that new faculty members were expected to read.

This special snippet focusses on Mr. Ajaypal Singh Banga (IIMA, PGP 1981), who has been selected as the President of the World Bank on May 3, 2023. He will be starting his tenure of five years from June 2, 2023. He is the first person of Indian origin to hold this prestigious position.

After graduating from IIMA in 1981, he worked with Nestle India for 13 years, then at PepsiCo for 2 years, at Citigroup from 1996 to 2009 and then since 2010 he worked at Mastercard until his retirement in 2021. He then served as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic for 2 years (Source: Financial Express).

Mr. Banga was invited as the Chief Guest at the 50th Convocation at IIMA, which was titled as "Celebrating Yesterday's Dream: The Golden Jubilee Convocation, 2015". In the year 2014-15, he along with his wife, Ms. Ritu Banga (PGP, 1981), set up PGP Scholarships named "Ajay Banga Industry Scholarship" and "Ritu Banga Industry Scholarship" and has been generously contributing since then.

As documents of the month, we present you a photograph from the Student Yearbook 1980-81 and his speech as Chief Guest, IIMA at the 50th Convocation, from 2015.
 

Seventeen years ago, the month of April saw the launch of the PGPX (Post-Graduate Programme in Management for Executives), a one-year full-time programme for executives. On April 2, 2006, the day after the IIMA's 41st Convocation, Mr. Narayana Murthy, the then Chairperson of IIMA's Board of Governors inaugurated the programme in the presence of Prof. Bakul Dholakia, Director, and Prof. G. Raghuram, the first Chairperson of PGPX.

As documents of the month, we present the welcome address by Prof. G. Raghuram, a note on the programme inauguration and delivery, a special report on PGPX from the IIMA Alumnus of June 2006, and the first batch photograph of PGPX, 2007.

Mr. Keshub Mahindra (October 9, 1923- April 12, 2023) who was the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, IIMA from 1974-1984 passed away yesterday at the age of 99. He was renowned for his visionary leadership and philanthropy. He was one of the most influential Indian business leaders in the second half of the twentieth century and steered the Mahindra group from a small firm importing steel and assembling jeeps to one of the flagship business groups of India with a major presence in the automobile and tractor sectors.

He was born on October 9, 1923, in Shimla and was the son of Jagdish Chandra Mahindra, one of the founders of the Mahindra group. He obtained a BSc. in Economics at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, in 1947, and immediately joined Mahindra & Mahindra. He took over as Chairman in 1963, a position he maintained until he retired from the firm in 2012. He sat on the boards of numerous companies in India. He has been the only IIMA Chairperson to have served two terms and his tenure coincided with crucial developments in the political arena which led to various demands on higher educational institutes that the Board had to navigate through. He envisaged the Board to defend academic freedoms and was committed to the idea of complete functional autonomy of the institute. Some aspects of his term at IIMA have been captured by the IIMA Archives Oral History Project interview in 2018 when he was 95 years old and where he fondly recollected his time on the Board of IIMA.We present two video snippets below:

-Keshub Mahindra on joining IIMA's Board [2 minutes]
-Keshub Mahindra's Message to Students [2 minutes]

As a document of the month, we present his speech, as Chairperson, IIMA at 10th IIMA Convocation, 1975, photograph of Mr. Mahindra from IIMA Archives Oral History Project, 2018, and photograph of Shri Keshub Mahindra as Chairperson, with Chief Guest, Shri T. A. Pai, the Minister for Industry and Civil Supplies, and Shri Kasturbhai Lalbhai at 10th IIMA Convocation procession on IIMA Campus on April 19,1975.

This month's archival snippet focuses on Shri N R Narayana Murthy who was Chief Systems Programmer from 1969 to 1971 at IIMA and Chairperson of IIMA from March 11, 2002 to March 10, 2007. During his tenure as Chairperson, he was instrumental in laying the foundations for the institute's financial autonomy and shaping many aspects of the academic culture of the institute. We are proud to have him as our Chief Guest for Convocation 2023.

Here are some interesting stories from our Archives. After graduating from IIT Kanpur with a master's, he had three job offers, from TELCO, TISCO and Air India. These jobs offered him a salary of about 1600 rupees per month. He joined IIMA at a salary of 800 rupees per month. Being at IIMA was a positive experience for him, as it allowed him to gain knowledge and experience in the field of computer programming.

During his time at IIMA's computer centre, he and Prof. J. G. Krishnayya embarked on an ambitious project to develop a basic interpreter for the Electronics Corporation of India. For that, they had to develop a simulator of ECIL TDC-312 on the IIMA machine. They took an important step in the development of timesharing operating systems that allowed for more efficient use of computing resources.

As our document of the month, we attach some of his interviews and a report on his Chairperson's address at the 38th convocation, all sourced from IIMA Alumnus: "We need managers, rather than administrators", convocation speech, IIMA Alumnus, Volume 35, Issue 02, June 2003, p.8.; "The Indian manager has to become much more technology savvy", Special Interview, IIMA Alumnus, Volume 31, Issue 01, Jan-Feb 1999, p. 16-18.; "Integrating technology and strategy is the way of business", Special Interview, IIMA Alumnus, Volume 34, Issue 01, February 2002, p. 19.

In 2019, we had the privilege of interviewing him as part of the IIMA Archives Oral History Project. In his interview, he recounted his upbringing, his motivation to join IIMA, various experiences at the IIMA computer centre, and key decisions taken as the chairperson of the board of IIMA such as defending IIMA's autonomy from government interference, designing a five-year financial planning model for the first time at IIMA, appointing alumni on IIMA board, and starting the practice of inviting alumni to deliver the IIMA convocation address. You can see the video snippets on the following link:
Link: https://www.iima.ac.in/node/10959

Did you know that the first film to be shot on campus was the 1974 movie 'PARINAY'? The movie starred Shabana Azmi and Romesh Sharma. It was produced by Samantar Chitra Private Ltd., and directed by Kantilal Rathod.

'PARINAY' was awarded the 'Rajat Kamal Special Award for the best feature film on National Integration' (now known as the 'Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration'). Shabana Azmi and Romesh Sharma received medallions for their performances in the movie. As documents of the month, we present a short clip (Source: YouTube) with a few IIMA locations; the 22nd National Film Festival Citation by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India; and a rather critical review of the movie from the TOI, April 6, 1975: 'Parinay': Abounding in negative virtues.

Renowned architect Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (August 26, 1927 - January 24, 2023), passed away today at the age of 95. The only Indian to have the Pritzker Architecture Award, considered to be the highest honour in the field, he is associated with the designs of many famous structures, including the campuses of IIMA and IIMB.

We interviewed him as part of the IIMA Archives Oral History Project in 2019 and present three video snippets below:

- On Getting Louis Kahn to IIMA [4 minutes]
- On Bricks at IIMA [2 minutes]
- On the significance of the IIMA campus [2 minutes]

As a document of the month, we present a photograph of Louis Kahn and a young B. V. Doshi working at NID on the design of the IIMA campus.

A few days back we released our first monograph on IIMA's architectural history which also mentions the many contributions of Mr. B. V. Doshi. The IIMA Archives exhibit in Dorm-15 also has items that note the many contributions of Mr. B. V. Doshi.

On November 11, 2022 seven-year-old Aakash Chakrabarti, a campus resident, visited 'Not Yet 25', an exhibition of photos of IIMA by the renowned photographer Pranlal Patel. When asked which photo appealed to him the most, he picked one out immediately. That photo, of the models that Louis Kahn got made, is this month's showpiece (see attached photo). The caption had a piece of advice: 'Note the children all over the place!' Perhaps that explains the appeal of this photo. What is the story told by this picture?

Work on the IIMA campus started on September 9, 1964, and over the next few months some preliminary work was carried out on three dorms (3, 9 and 15) and four houses. Louis Kahn, during a visit in December that year, was not happy with the dorm brick work and suggested that the initial work be dismantled. He felt that the work on the houses could be salvaged. The committee in charge of building the campus then decided, on December 17, 1964, that samples of work that followed Kahn's instructions closely would be prepared within a week, for his approval. It also decided that "all the subsequent work carried out by the Contractors [Gannon Dunkerley & Co.] would be done according to the samples duly approved by Prof. Kahn." On December 25, 1964, Kahn approved the samples of arches, wall segments, brick-lining and other brick-related work carried out on this 'demonstration' plot. One more issue needed attention. Kahn had wanted 3/4 inch mortar joints (space between bricks) with the Flemish bond-a pattern of brick-laying in which the 'headers' and 'stretchers', the short and long sides, are placed alternately in each layer, and which dominates the campus. The contractors felt that the additional cement and sand needed, and the higher labour involved in the precision work called for would add significantly to the costs. They were told to prepare samples with half-inch mortar beds immediately. This was done and the next day, December 26, Kahn approved the use of the Flemish bond with half-inch mortar joints. We attach some recent pictures of these features. Do visit these models that served as reference points for the masons working on the rest of Kahn's buildings. They are in a corner of a large lawn, behind faculty houses 310 to 314.

December 31 this year marks the completion of five years of THE INDIAN INSTITUTES OF MANAGEMENT ACT, 2017. The Act was published on the 31st of December, 2017. It aimed to "declare certain Institutes of management to be institutions of national importance with a view to empower these institutions to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research and allied areas of knowledge and to provide for certain other matters connected therewith or incidental thereto." The incorporation of IIMA under this Act ended the IIMA Society's role in running the Institute (1961-2017). Interestingly, the desire to obtain the status of national importance dates back to the Institute's early days. In a letter to the Government of India dated January 20, 1964, the directors of the Indian Institutes of Management at Calcutta and Ahmedabad exhorted the government to "declare the Institutes as Institutes of national importance, authorising them to grant degrees..." This letter, written by Prof. K. T. Chandy of IIMC and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of IIMA, is our document of the month.

When did the Institute launch its first website? We went in for 24x7 online connectivity for our network through VSAT in late February 1996, and our first website that had been developed that month was made available to the outside world. It was built in-house, by Prof. B. H. Jajoo (Computers and Information Systems Group) and a few research assistants. The website was formally inaugurated by the Secretary, Department of Electronics, Government of India, on March 16, 1996. The inauguration was accompanied by a workshop for the faculty. As document of the month, we bring you a mail, courtesy Prof. Jajoo, sent by him to the staff of the Computer Centre giving them the programme for March 16, 1996, and inviting them to a 'terrace party' to celebrate the launch of the website.

This month's snippet takes you back to 1978 when the Institute decided to install artwork on the campus. Haku Shah (1934-2019), the noted artist, was at that time installing folk art in public places such as traffic junctions. Working in collaboration with him, the Institute's architect Anant Raje arranged for some terracotta objects of Indian folk art, specifically tribal art, to be installed on the campus. We present three photos from January 1980 that illustrate these objects. In the first, you will see a collection of terracotta votive figurines from the tribal areas of north Gujarat, placed between the 'Harvard' steps and the library. Look closely, and see if you can spot horned bulls, elephants and horses. The other two photos present a view of the entrance to the Students' Mess with two large terracotta horses on the left, and a close-up of the horses. The Institute also installed some art and craft work in the Library: a set of large applique panels by Saroj Lal (an Ahmedabad-based, mill worker's wife who was supported by Haku Shah); a large Pabuji-ki-Phad painted scroll, depicting the story of the Rajasthani folk deity, Pabuji; and a wheeled dowry chest (wood and metal, western Indian).

On August 17, 2022, IIMA got its own 'Kamla', thanks to Prof. Sanjay Verma's initiative. The cafe, the latest in the 'Kamla' series of cafes run by SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association) Ahmedabad, is named after Prof. Kamla Chowdhry (1920-2006), IIMA's first faculty member.

This month's snippet presents a document, prepared in March 2020 and updated earlier this month, which describes the story behind the name and Prof. Chowdhry's association with Elaben Bhatt (SEWA's Founder) and SEWA. We hope you enjoy learning about Prof. Chowdhry's concern for the development of self-employed women. IIMA Archives released a short film on her birth centenary (December 17, 2020), which you can watch [here];

This month’s archival snippet presents some items related to Dr. Om Prakash Manchanda, PGP 1988-1990, who is at present the Managing Director of Dr Lal PathLabs.

In July 2022, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Lal PathLabs Foundation (the CSR arm of Dr Lal PathLabs) to set up the ‘Dr Lal Pathlabs Chair in Healthcare’. The MoU was signed by Professor Errol D’Souza, Director, IIMA and Dr. Manchanda. The Chair will initially be for a term of three years.

After graduating from IIMA, Dr. Manchanda worked with Hindustan Unilever Limited (1990-1999), Monsanto (1999-2003), and Ranbaxy (2003-2005), and then joined Dr Lal PathLabs.

As a document of the month, we bring you some extracts and photos from the Student Yearbook 1989-1990, the face chart of his PGP-1 classroom, stories from the WIMWIAN, and his recent visit to Brick by Brick, the IIMA Archives Exhibition.

This month's archival snippet brings the focus on Dr. V. Krishnamurthy (1925-2022), Chairman of IIMA from July 29, 1985 - July 28, 1990, who recently passed away, at the age of 97.

Dr. V. Krishnamurthy was known as the 'Father of Public Sector Undertakings' for his successful contributions and engagements with firms such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL, 1972-77), Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL, 1981-90) and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL, 1985-90). An engineer, he held a doctorate in economics from the Soviet Academy of Sciences and was committed to academic causes, serving as the Chairman of IIM Bangalore, IIT Delhi, and numerous other institutes, apart from IIMA. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1973, Padma Bhushan in 1986, and Padma Vibhushan in 2007 for his remarkable contributions in service to the Nation and he was also the recipient of Japan’s highest award- the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Japan in 2009. His autobiography, titled At The Helm, was published in 2014 and is available in our library.

At IIMA, he delivered the Second Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture on February 05, 1977, titled - 'Management of Organizational Change'. The document of the month is a file with photographs, a special report of 'MARTEC: Seminar on Managerial Response to Emerging Technologies' seminar in 1988, and an interview report on 'The Alumni can be a very effective link between the Institute and the outside world - Dr. V. Krishnamurthy' in 1987, both from The Alumnus.

In this scorching heat, the trees, gardens and lawns of the campus give us some solace. Building on an earlier snippet on campus greenery, in this month's archival snippet, we bring the spotlight on Mr. Ramratan Pasi, the senior-most gardener of the campus in 1979.

Mr. Pasi joined IIMA in 1965, coming from Uttar Pradesh at the age of 17, determined to earn, save and remit money back to his family. He retired in 2005 after serving 40 years at IIMA. He is one among a number of gardeners that have contributed to the greenery of the campus. As document of the month, we attach a profile of Mr. Pasi, as published in IIMA's Contact magazine in 1979.

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on former IIMA faculty member in the Organizational Behaviour Area, Prof. Ramadhar Singh, who was awarded the Distinguished Alumni award by Purdue University on March 25, 2022.

Born in 1945, Prof. Ramadhar Singh earned his BA Hons. (1965) and MA (1968) degrees in experimental psychology from the University of Bihar at Muzaffarpur, Bihar, and MS (1972) and PhD (1973) degrees in experimental social psychology from Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana in USA. He served as a lecturer in psychology at Patna University (1968-1973), an assistant professor of psychology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur (1973-79), and a professor of organisational behaviour at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad (1979-1988). He moved to Singapore in 1988 and retired as a professor of psychology from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2010. You can find more information on him on his bio page on the IIMA Archives website, as well as in this tribute penned by Prof. Vishal Gupta of the OB Area, on Prof. Ramadhar's Singh wide-ranging scholarship.

As document of the month, we attach a lovely photograph from the 1980s of IIMA faculty in the Organizational Behaviour Area at the Louis Kahn Plaza that also features Prof. Ramadhar Singh.

As the convocation buzz has begun, this month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on the convocation held 50 years ago, on 15th April, 1972.

That year, 123 students graduated with the PG Diploma in Business Administration and 33 from the Programme for Management in Agriculture (PMA). The seventh convocation of IIMA in 1972 had Shri C. Subramaniam, the Minister of Planning, Science and Technology, as the Chief Guest, Dr. Kamla Chowdhry stepping in as Acting Director (as Director Ravi Matthai was not well) and S. L. Kirloskar as the Chairperson.

As document of the month, we attach the Chief Guest's convocation speech in 1972. You can also read the other speeches on this link, and browse through all past convocations on the archives webpage on this link.

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on Rama Bijapurkar (PGP 1977) who just celebrated her 65th birthday this month.

Rama Bijapurkar has been a leading voice in the field of marketing for decades and has served on the boards of numerous companies. At various times, she has been a student, visiting faculty and Board Member of IIMA.

The IIMA Oral History Project interviewed her in February 2020. Based on that, we are delighted to release a 25-minute video titled "Rama Bijapurkar @ IIM Ahmedabad".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRm75C6zrNk

It has 13 parts and there is something in it for everyone:
Being a Rebel | Choosing IIMA in the 1970s | The IIMA Interview | Student Diversity | The First Year at IIMA | On Campus Life | Campus Couples | Faculty and Courses at IIMA | Placement being a Gendered Process | The Support Staff at IIMA | Teaching at IIMA as Visiting Faculty | Being Member of the IIMA Board | What Makes IIMA Special

Since 2012, three of the four Chief Economic Advisors (CEA) of India have had an IIMA connection: Dr. Raghuram Rajan (PGP 1987, Dorm 11), 2012-14, Dr. Arvind Subramanian (PGP 1981, Dorm 15), 2014-18 and Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran (PGP 1985, Dorm 10), who was recently appointed as the CEA.

As document of the month, we present archival snippets on Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran.

A previous IIMA-CEA connection was via I G Patel who was CEA in the 1960s, and much later became Director of IIMA (1982-84).

On December 11, 1961, a document was signed that registered IIMA as a Society under Act XXI of 1860. As document of the month, we attach an extract from that document that lists the signatories to that event.

The Shahibaug office began operations in July 1962, the first PGP batch started in 1964 and activities on the current campus began soon after. The IIMA Exhibition in Dorm-15 showcases many items of interest from that period.

We wish you a Happy Institute Day!

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on Falguni Nayar, IIMA Alumna from the Class of 1985, whose firm Nykaa, just had a blockbuster IPO and already has a market cap of over $10 Billion.

After IIMA, Falguni Nayar worked first as a consultant with A F Ferguson & Co. (1985-1993) and then with the Kotak Mahindra group in various roles, before launching Nykaa (derived from 'Nayaka' as in "actress or one in the spotlight") in 2012 to do something new and exciting in the e-commerce and beauty space.

As document of the month, we have compiled snippets and photographs of Falguni Nayar: A stunning Dorm-1 picture of the women from the Class of 1985, the snippet on "Liz" or Falguni Mehta from the student yearbook, the face-chart of her classroom, a picture by the red bricks with her batchmate (and future husband) and excerpts from the alumni magazines of 1992, 2010, 2018 and 2020 that featured her.

Dorm-1 of IIMA now has the honour of being named after one of the first woman management educators of the world (Dr. Kamla Chowdhry) and hosting one of the first Indian self-made woman billionaires (Falguni Nayar) as a student-resident in the 1980s.

On that note, let us also remind you to check out our newly inaugurated exhibit galleries in Dorm-15, where among various things, the graduation certificate of the first woman student of IIMA from the Class of 1966 (Dilnavaz Variava, currently the Chairperson of Bharat Floorings) is also on display.

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on Prof. G. R. Kulkarni (1927-2021), faculty member of IIMA from 1965-87, who recently passed away, at the age of 94. As the document of the month, we attach a file with photographs, a note on his retirement in 1987 in The Alumnus and Prof. Shreekant's Sambrani's recent article on him.

A bio-sketch is available on the archives faculty page.

Monsoon is the time to appreciate the greenery of the campus. But the land was near barren, with only a few scattered trees, when it was transferred to the Institute in the early 1960s. Over the years, the Estate Department has been responsible for planting trees and raising nurseries. In the early days, S. S. Ahluwalia of ISRO advised the Institute; P.P. Bhagwat was the gardening advisor for a long time.

In the 1970s, Madhusudan Mehta, a forester, who was the Divisional Forest Officer for Ahmedabad from 1972-76, recommended Neem as a primary choice, and arranged for the supply of thousands of seedlings. The internal team, that included staff like Shelke and Shamrao Joshi, also had a legendary team of four gardeners, Ram Pyare, Ram Dulari, Ram Bihari and Narpat Malla. The work of such people, and many others, over the decades has resulted in the greenery that we see today.

As the document of the month, we attach Mr. Madhusudan's letter in 2019 remembering the efforts carried out in the 1970s, along with some pictures that show the transformation from a barren landscape to a green campus.

This month's archival snippet throws the spotlight on the PGP course listings of the past. As the document of the month, we attach the curriculum of the fifth PGP batch, 1968-69 and 1969-70.

Some courses like WAC have persisted all through. Some have dropped out. Though the first year then had only 10 courses, eight of these were spread over two or three terms. Roman numerals would be suffixed to the course title to indicate the term-wise sequencing; for instance, Finance would have had Finance-I and Finance-II, each taught by one or more faculty members. Sessions ran for 70 minutes then, compared to 75 minutes now but the total classroom contact-hours in the first year was higher back then, than now!

The 10 courses back then were equivalent to 642 70-minute sessions, or to use the current 75-minute yardstick, 599 sessions. Note that the actual number attended then, as now, would have been less since in some courses like the two-term Written Analysis and Communication (WAC), students got credit for 70 sessions, whereas the actual classroom sessions they attended would have been about a fourth of that number. At present, the first-year student load is 476 classroom sessions (23.8 credits, each equivalent to 20 75-minute sessions), with the actual number attended being slightly less than this. The number of classroom sessions may have been larger then, but the examination load was certainly lighter-the concept of a 0.25 or 0.50 credit course was virtually non-existent.

IIMA now offers well over a hundred courses and a wide range of electives. But we started out only with this handful.

This month's archival snippet is on Sports at IIMA, what with the frenzy generated by the Euro Cup, Wimbledon and the Olympics.

The sport that captivated the campus from the 1970s through the 1990s was football. IIMA had a dedicated men's football team consisting of staff and a few students who participated in leading local tournaments such as the 1st Division League Trophy of the Ahmedabad District Football Association and Paulin Cup. Mahindra & Mahindra would host an open football tournament on our campus grounds (in an area now part of the New Campus). In fact, there was a time when some members of our staff were recruited because of their footballing prowess! This football team once included PGP student P. D. Rai who later became a member of the Lok Sabha, from Sikkim. Former staff members such as K C Chandran, Suresh Babu, Siddharthan, Williams, played for the team for many years. Old timers recollect an atmosphere of festivity as the team would huddle in a Tempo and set off for matches, often with faculty supporting them from the stands. The last team-member from those footballing glory days is Mr. Premkumar, current Manager of the Student Activity Office (SAO).

Outside football, there were the usual suspects: cricket, table-tennis, carrom, badminton, tennis and volleyball. Basketball was popular among men and women. Field hockey was rare. Chess was quite popular in the 1970s and 80s. Siddhartha Chib, PGP 1982, and now a globally recognized professor of statistics and Fellow of the American Statistical Association, was a national level player who, as a student, used to take part in simultaneous exhibition chess in the space between D-4 and D-2, playing against many players simultaneously.

For a while, skating was in the air, and for decades, frisbee has haunted the lawns of the Louis Kahn Plaza. Inter-IIM sports tournaments began in the 1970s and is an annual event that students look forward to. Cycling has slowly started gaining traction (Mr. Kirit Gosaliya, staff member, has won state-level cycling tournaments). Swimming never happened on campus (though some have tried on the flooded LKP lawns in the monsoon) and the upcoming pool in the New Campus is keenly awaited. Our archives team member, Himanshu Bhatt, in fact, is an expert swimmer since childhood, who has also saved a life at Kankaria Lake in 1985, and recently swam 5KM in the open sea at Porbandar and Gateway of India, Mumbai, at the age of 57!

As document of the month, we attach few pictures and articles on IIMA sports of the past: From a stunning old picture of the current cricket ground (which was then barren and had a basketball court) to an article from 1978 mentioning IIMA winning the 1st Division football league to Raghuram Rajan in his cricketing whites, and a little more. However, IIMA's greatest contribution to the field of Indian sports till date, some would say, came less in the form of playing and more in the form of speaking, by way of Harsha Bhogle's cricket commentary.

This month's archival snippet is on the life of Prof. T. Madhavan (1941-2021), former doctoral student of IIMA (1975-80) and faculty member of IIMA (1980-2003), who passed away on June 21.

Prof. T. Madhavan was known for his sincerity, humility and dedication with which he inspired generations of students and faculty at IIMA. A description of his career has been updated on the archives faculty webpage on this link.

As documents of the month, we attach snippets on his life at IIMA, as well as a collection of tributes to him.

This month's archival snippet brings to you the life of an IIMA graduate who treaded an unconventional career: Shakti Maira (1947-2021), PGP 1968, who passed away at the age of 73 on May 9, after a long battle with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Shakti Maira was an artist, philosopher and writer and he did all this professionally after switching away from his management career in consultancy (A F Ferguson), finance (Citibank) and advertising (Lintas) in his 40s. His elder brother, Arun Maira (1943- ), on the other hand, started with a degree in Physics and ended up heading the Boston Consulting Group in India (2000-08) and becoming a member of the Planning Commission.

Shakti Maira penned a wonderful article called Life is more than a 'career choice' for the upcoming WIMWIAN alumnus magazine just a few days before he passed away and it is attached here as the document of the month. It illustrates the importance of art in our lives and also the motto - "Follow your bliss".

You can see Shakti Maira in his 1968 convocation photograph where Indira Gandhi was the Chief Guest on this link (4th row from bottom, 8th from right) and learn more about him and his art work on https://shaktimaira.com/.

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on Anish Shah (PGP 1992, Dorm-4) who became the CEO and MD of the Mahindra Group on April 2, 2021.

Anish's family has a long standing association with IIMA. His father, Dilip Shah, was a student of the first batch (PGP 1966) and his mother, Smita Dalal, is from the second batch (PGP 1967). This is the first family of IIMA where father, mother and child, all graduated from the PGP program of IIMA. Dilip Shah passed away in 2019 and an article outlining his numerous achievements in the pharmaceutical industry is available on this link.

As the document of the month, we attach a snippet of Anish Shah from the 1992 student yearbook along with a 2018 WIMWIAN article on how his parents met at IIMA.

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on the heritage campus architecture.

Ahmedabad, home to a stunning array of architectural masterpieces built over several centuries, had already attracted international attention in the 1950s when Le Corbusier, a pioneer of modernist architecture designed Sanskar Kendra. Vikram Sarabhai and Kasturbhai Lalbhai wanted something on that level of grandeur and were put in touch with Louis Kahn in 1962 through the National Institute of Design (NID) and B. V. Doshi, then a young architect. Doshi knew Kahn through teaching assignments at the University of Pennsylvania where Kahn was based, was Consultant Architect for the IIMA campus and years later designed the campus of IIM Bangalore in the 1970s and won architecture’s biggest honour, the Pritzker Prize in 2018. You can watch B V Doshi remember his stint with the IIMA project in the 1960s through our oral history project video snippets on this link.

The document of the month is a 1969 article on the ideas behind the architecture, as the campus was being built. Many of the ideas did not eventually work out, for instance a proposed lake between the faculty houses and dorms. Some of the first plans for the Louis Kahn Plaza can be seen in the archival photo album on this link, revealing a boxed-in plaza that was later abandoned. A few photographs on the campus construction phase can be seen on this link.

The word 'placement' figures right from the first PGP batch that started in 1964 and the Placement Committee of IIMA, set up in September 1964, was one of the first of its kind in India. In the initial years, it was tough to convince prospective employers to recruit students as the value-addition of management education was unknown. From the Godrej Archives, we learnt of a particular internal memo in the mid-1960s which described the value-addition of summer interns from IIMA, in doing market surveys (then a novel concept), as follows:

"..put two of IIMA boys to conduct the survey and guided them. They took three-four days. Then I asked them to look at it from this angle and that angle. And it was such a nice report, when Mr. N.P. Godrej read it, he said to send them 2,000 rupees each." For the first graduating batch, the salary range of the final placements lay between Rs. 575 and Rs. 1,200 per month. The first international summer internship was offered to a student from the PGP 1969 batch, based in London.

As a sector, Marketing, dominated recruitment for the first two decades, giving way to Finance in the 1990s and 2000s (with substantial placements outside India), giving way more recently to Consulting. As the document of the month, we attach some placement-related information from the first decade of the placement activities of the institute.

Dogs on campus have led to animated conversations, articles in student magazines and at least one confirmed job placement. In the IIMA Archives Oral History Project, Dilnavaz Variava, student of the first PGP batch of 1964-66, recollected the connection between her care for the stray dogs on campus and her becoming the Chief Executive of the World Wildlife Fund India, which you can watch on this 2-minute video link.

As the document of the month, please find attached an article from the October 1979 issue of Contact: The Magazine for the IIMA Community called "The Bored Dog" with text and pictures that capture many elements of IIMA's long drawn tryst with dogs. Old timers also recollect a distinct "Stray Cow" issue at one time when the campus walls had not yet come up and the fields were open. The Residence Gate area in particular had very good grass, attracting the cows.

Today, Dec 17th, 2020, is the 100th birth anniversary of Prof. Kamla Chowdhry (1920-2006), the first faculty member of IIMA, pioneering management educationist and institution builder. In her life, she was associated with ATIRA, IIMA, Ford Foundation India, IRMA, CSE, SEWA, and a variety of other institution building efforts. Dorm-1 in IIMA is named after her and do check out the 'Kamala Cafe' in Ahmedabad run by SEWA, also named in her honour!

Over the past two years, the archives team has dug out various documents, pictures, reflections about her life and as part of this month's archival snippet, we are pleased to release a short 8-minute documentary called The First Faculty Member of IIMA, available on this link, and a photo album of her time at IIMA on this link.

We would like to thank Kanchan Jansari and Dipika Makwana of the archives team and Manasi Deo, Hitesh Khatri and Alisha Engraver of the Communications team for their untiring efforts to bring this out.

This month's archival snippet is about the 'Research Associates' or 'Research Assistants' or 'Academic Associates' that have been a part of IIMA's journey since the 1960s as they assist in teaching and research activities. Most famously, one RA went on to become the Director of IIMA- Prof. Jahar Saha. One example of a IIMA PGP turned RA is Prof. G Raghuram (PGP 1978), who later became faculty member at IIMA and was recently the Director of IIM-B.

As the document of the month, we are attaching an article from Contact, an in-house magazine published in the 1980s, called "PGP turns RA" and "RA turns PGP" which brings out many aspects of their lives.

This month's archival snippet brings the spotlight on IIMA alumnus Srikant Datar, who has just been appointed as Dean of the Harvard Business School, succeeding Nitin Nohria, another Indian-origin academic.

Srikant Datar has many connections with IIMA. He was a student of the PGP 1976-78 batch, head of IIMA's student body, Student's Affairs Council (SAC) in 1977-78, won the 'Award for Outstanding Overall Performance', was Board Member of IIMA (2012-18) and also stepped in as the Chairperson during the convocation ceremony of 2018 in the absence of K M Birla. More information on him is available on the IIMA archives website on this link and his convocation speech is available on this link.

The IIMA Archives team also interviewed him as part of the Oral History Project in October 2018. You can watch snippets from that interview: On his experience of getting admitted to IIMA (3 min video), On student life at IIMA in 1976-78 (5 min), On being the SAC coordinator (2 min), On Prof. S K Bhattacharya as a mentor (3 min), On coping with competition at IIMA (2 min), and on What IIMA means to him (2 min).

He was a Dorm-15 resident, incidentally also where the IIMA Archives office is now located. A description of him in the student yearbook of 1978 is attached as the document of the month

Rare among management schools, the agricultural sector has been a focus area of IIMA right from the beginning, since the 1960s. Faculty members like D. K. Desai and V. K. Gupta played an important role in building the agricultural research centre, now known as the Centre for Management in Agriculture (CMA). Since 1970, IIMA began offering a unique programme, now known as the PGP-FABM (Food & Agri-business Management), regularly ranked as the best programme in this category in the world.

Prof. Prakash M Shingi, associated with IIMA and CMA for three decades, and the Officiating Director of IIMA at one time, passed away on Aug 15, 2020. You can learn more about him on this link. A one-page extract from his 2011-article on the founding of CMA is attached as the document of the month.

Incidentally, after IIMA started the Armed Forces Programme in 2006, the slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' rings well for the institute.

The development of its library was one of the first goals that IIMA set for itself. The first librarian, S.K. Seth was sent to the Harvard Business School for training and to identify suitable acquisitions. The Ford Foundation supported the library in its initial years. The library was first housed in the bungalow that the Institute occupied in Shahibagh (1962-65), a picture of which is available on this link. A "hostel library" was also set up when the Institute hired temporary hostels for its students in 1964. When the campus was getting readied, the library moved into some of the houses built for faculty members and then finally into its current location in the mid-1970s. The library was named after Vikram Sarabhai in 1972. The VSL (Vikram Sarabhai Library) has had some illustrious librarians, who along with a strong professional team of library staff have brought it to where it is today. VSL has transformed itself into a hybrid library that offers world class facilities and a conducive learning ambience. It has more than 250,000 physical items and provides access to thousands of journals and eBooks, and hundreds of databases. In keeping with the intention of the architect, Louis Kahn, it is housed in the tallest building on the Heritage Campus.

Last month, the librarian of IIMA, Dr. H Anil Kumar passed away. We mourn his untimely death and would also like to place on record his tremendous contribution to the IIMA Archives project as a Committee member over the past three years. More information about him can be accessed on the archives website on this link, an album of over 50 photographs covering various aspects of his career since the 1990s on this link, and a 4-minute video tribute to him on this link.

This month's archival snippet is an introduction to the early cases at IIMA and Air India (D): Tariffs, by Prof. Warren Haynes of Harvard Business School (HBS), the first case to be registered in 1963 according to our records. The IIMA Case Centre now has a collection of about 5,000 cases, plus other items such as technical notes and exercises written by IIMA faculty members.

Between 1963 and 1965, Prof. Warren Haynes (1921-1972), faculty of managerial economics, served as the Project Director of the HBS team at IIMA. More information about Prof. Warren Haynes, whose father was a railroad labourer and mother was a teacher, can be found on this link.

Air-India (D) revolves around the stand the airlines should take "on the North Atlantic fares, on fares in other parts of the world, on proposals to restrict capacity, and on the IATA [International Air Transport Association] system in general." A summary of the case is available here as the document of the month.

This month, IIMA Archives brings you a brief snippet on Vikalpa, IIMA's in-house journal.

Vikalpa, a Sanskrit word, "carries a rich repository of meanings: diversity, alternatives, logic, and freedom of choice". Vikalpa, IIMA's in-house journal, was launched in 1976 and since then, it has run uninterrupted, four times a year, with contributions from leading academics and practitioners in the field of management. Often, it has served as the first outlet for disseminating doctoral research. As part of its silver jubilee celebrations in 2000, a special issue was dedicated to reflections by faculty who had served as the journal's editors. We present the contribution of Prof. S. Sreenivas Rao, first managing editor of Vikalpa, as the document of the month.

IIMA is known for its architecture and the imprint of Louis Kahn, but few are aware of other artists' contributions. The bronze head of Vikram Sarabhai that stands prominently in the Vikram Sarabhai Library is one such piece.

It was unveiled on Feb 11, 1976, and was carved by a famous Maharashtrian sculptor- Sadashiv Sathe, known otherwise for making Gandhi statues that he started making since 1952, and the Shivaji statue at the Gateway of India in Mumbai.

The statue was donated by Dr. Kamla Chowdhry and the opening ceremony witnessed P. N. Haksar, then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, delivering the first Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture. A few photographs from that event can be viewed on this link, which also shows the horizon from the LKP stage that could be seen in those days.

A page on that event published in the May 1976 Alumnus magazine is the document of the month.

In these surreal times, the archives team dug out two small events of our past, that showed disturbances to normal life, both induced by wars and blackouts.

Closure of a faculty-run restaurant called 'Ajanta' in 1965 due to Indo-Pak War related Blackouts
Prof. K V Ramanathan told us about this interesting story and wrote about this in his personal memoirs, which he donated to the IIMA Archives. A two-page extract of this is the document of the month.

Campus life during 1971 Indo-Pak War
Ms. Snehalata Mote told us about this interesting incident on campus life as part of the IIMA Oral History project. In her words, "Sometimes, during the war, they used to have blackouts. So those were very horrifying days. That was the 1971 war, I think...When the sirens used to blow, I still remember, I used to go under the steps of that storeroom and sit there along with my daughters; till the sirens stopped. We also had to cover the windows and all with paper, that was quite terrifying; as I was all alone in the house."

March is here and convocation is just around the corner. The Convocations page of IIMA Archives provides a rich history of previous convocations and speeches. From our oral history interviews, several people in the 1960s remarked about the short yet memorable convocation speech by Harry Hansen, Harvard faculty who coordinated the HBS-IIMA partnership in the initial years. Accordingly, we are attaching Harry Hansen's1966 speech at the 1st convocation with students such as C K Prahalad in the audience, as the document of the month.

The photo album of the first convocation of 1966 can be viewed here. Before we started using the LKP as the convocation venue in 1974, the space between the line formed by Dorms 6 to 12 and the 400 series houses (where beautiful lawns exist today) was the convocation venue. The stage was towards the D-6 end and the procession moved to the venue from the three temporary classrooms (which no longer exist) near the current KLMDC. Note that by 1966, D-12 and D-6 and the 400 series houses were ready or getting ready to be occupied; D-3 came up a couple of years later in 1968 and D-9 only in 1975.

In the first week of every month, IIMA Archives will share a snippet about IIMA's history.

This week, we share information about the first location of IIMA in the early 1960s, a bungalow in Shahibaug. Attached is a document that contains reflections on those days, published in IIMA's Contact magazine edition of 1980. Learn about Miyajan, the cook, the first receptionist, the first staff and faculty, how cases were airlifted from USA those days, and so on.

Also attached is a letter addressed to Dr. Vikram Sarabhai that shows the address of IIMA as "310, Camp Road, Shahibaug" on the letterhead. Photographs of the bungalow and first library space can be viewed in this photo album on the IIMA Archives website.

The bungalow no longer exists but the memories do.