Dholakia

Ahmedabad, Oct. 8: Bakul Dholakia, the B-school boss who battled the HRD ministers of two governments, steps down as IIM Ahmedabad director tomorrow after five “fulfilling” years.

He said he was “satisfied” with his term at the helm of India’s top business school, during which he raised the standards of “excellence” but fought a losing battle for autonomy.

Dholakia pioneered the one-year certificate courses and during his term, the institute’s foreign collaborations went up from 12 to 50. “I had taken upon myself the task of improving excellence. The institute was already well-recognised, so having global tie-ups was the obvious thing to do,” he said.

His lone regret is his failure to convince the Centre to approve a note he had prepared in 2005 seeking more autonomy for the institutes. It was over autonomy that he had a bitter row with the NDA’s Murli Manohar Joshi three years ago.

The next battle, with the UPA’s Arjun Singh over the Other Backward Classes quota, was a lost cause. Dholakia, however, was able to prevent the court case on the quota from delaying admissions by unilaterally announcing the date for publication of the general category merit list.

“We should not remember the things that did not happen but what we have achieved. We have certainly achieved global recognition and a remarkable growth in gross income,” he said.

The author of 12 books, who has taught economics and business strategy at the institute for over 30 years, said he would continue teaching there. “I’m not retiring, just stepping down as director.” He will hand over charge to dean Jayant Verma.