The origins of a saga – A lesser known story

1993 – Through the collective good will of colleagues, support from the profession and some significant understanding extended by the governance processes of the then MHRD the management teaching unit in IIT Delhi had been upgraded to a statutory status. Among the list of the statutory departments of IIT-D,it carried one of the briefest of names “Department of Management Studies”. This was the first ever such statutory department devoted only to management studies amongst all IITs. It was a major breakthrough in the overall design of the academic structure of IITs. It gave parity to a non-science and technology input in the making of a good engineer. This recognition of multidisciplinary competence in the making of an engineer was a significant move forward. I had a sense of satisfaction in demitting office of ‘the Head of the Department’, in IIT-D, after the Department was announced. In 1994 under growing populist pressure from a significant part of South East India the Government decided to set up a Central Government...