IIM A Raises 35 Crores To Set Up Research Chairs, Boost Quality Of Teaching

IIM Ahmedabad has added three research chairs and propose to add 12 more in various sectors not only aiming to boost research work among faculty peers within the institute but also attract quality talent from outside.

The three chairs are Nabard Chair in Agribusiness, RBI Chair in Finance & Economics and JSW Chair in Innovation & Public Policy. This is for the first time in three years that the Institute is setting up research chairs.

IIM Ahmedabad Director Ashish Nanda says 12 more chairs would be announced in the near future. These chairs will be backed by donors including Infosys, ICICI Bank, Edelweiss, PwC, SAP and Crisil, among others.

The three chairs are Nabard Chair in Agribusiness, RBI Chair in Finance & Economics and JSW Chair in Innovation & Public Policy. This is for the first time in three years that the Institute is setting up research chairs.

The B-school has raised around Rs 35 crore for these research chairs which will be set up in areas such as corporate governance, macroeconomics, societal development, finance and management, among others.

The 12 research chairs include Edelweiss Chair in Finance, Infosys Foundation Chair in Societal Development, PwC Chair in Financial Reporting & Corporate Governance, UTI Chair in Macroeconomics, ATS Chair in Housing & Infrastructure Management, Chandrika Tandon Chair in Leadership, Crisil Chair in Financial Markets, ICICI Chair in Strategic Management, Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Management, Prof. MN Vora Chair in Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Reliance Capital Chair in Marketing and SAP Chair in Social Innovation.

The Institute proposes to find the talent to head these chairs both from within IIM A as well as from outside. It has constituted an external committee to review the nominations and suggest names. The next step would be for an internal committee to look at the shortlists and identify the appropriate person for each chair.

ALSO READ: IIM A’s One Year MBA Ranked No.1 MBA In World For Career Progression: Financial Times 2016 Ranking

Nanda says the chairs are meant to honour faculty who are doing cutting edge work in research, teaching as well as course development besides engaging in matters of practice and policy.

Expressing the hope that these chairs would create a feeling of enthusiasm within the faculty community to reach their potential, he says the chairs would also boost the academic credentials of IIM A.

The Nabard Chair in Agribusiness will be chaired by IIM-A faculty member Vasant Gandhi, the RBI Chair in Finance and Economics by Abhiman Das and the JSW Chair in Innovation and Public Policy by faculty member Rakesh Basant. Basant has identified analysing R&D spend in private organisations as the first task.