Dr Ishwar Dayal doyen Management Education Passes away

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
March 24, 2015
Dr Ishwar Dayal, a doyen of Indian management education and founder director of IIM Lucknow, passed away on March 24, 2015
"The approach to management education needs to be Indian in nature" Dr Dayal to MBAUniverse.com (Interview Excerpt)

Dr Ishwar Dayal, a doyen of Indian management education and founder director of IIM Lucknow, passed away on March 24, 2015 in New Delhi after prolonged illness. He was 90 years old. 

Dr Dayal had served on several commissions and committees of Union and State Governments. Dr Dayal was appointed by MHRD to review the performance of IIMs and management education in 2000. The Ishwar Dayal Committee Report was submitted to the Government in the year 2001.

A strong votary of context-specific management education, in an interview to MBAUniverse.com in 2009, Dr Dayal had said, “The approach to management education needs to be Indian in nature. We cannot work on the knowledge that was developed in America or Europe because the context of that knowledge is directly related to their culture and tradition. If the knowledge is acquired within one’s own culture and environment, it is more applicable and produces faster results.”

In addition to being the founding director of IIM L, Dr Dayal also held several positions at leading institutes like IMI New Delhi, IIPA and UNDP/ILO. Dr Dayal was the founder dean of International Management Institute, New Delhi; Leader of UNDP/ILO Project on management development in Nigera; Director, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. He was currently the Chief Mentor of BIMTECH, Greater Noida. Dr Dayal had published 27 books and monographs and over 240 papers in journals and periodicals in India and abroad.

Dr Dayal had the rich learnings from the inception of IIMA & IIMC. In 1963, he first taught at IIMC and later moved to IIMA. Reminiscing his early days, Dr Dayal had told MBAUniverse.com, “I started my journey in IIM Kolkata where they had collaboration with Sloan School of Management of MIT University. The good thing was they did not impose on us what they were teaching at Sloan School. They responded to the problems what Indian industry was having at that point of time. Then I went to IIM Ahmedabad. IIM A was associated with Harvard Business School. Again, HBS never imposed their views on IIMA. They discussed everything with us but finally any decision regarding courses, pedagogy etc. was taken by us. I had experience of working with extremely competent people, like in IIM Kolkata like Prakash Tandon and Vikram Sarabhai.”   

The news of Dr Ishwar Dayal demise has been received with grief in management education and in corporate worlds across the country. Dr Pritam Singh, former director, IIM Lucknow & MDI, Gurgaon; Dr Bakul Dhaloka, Director General, IMI; Dr Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor, NMIMS University, Mumbai; Fr Abraham, Director, XLRI and Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH have condoled his death and paid rich tribute for his illustrious contribution to the Indian management education.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on Dr Ishwar Dayal