Экс-банкир М. Чандрашекхар построил с нуля новый Индийский институт менеджмента в Висахапатнаме

VISAKHAPATNAM : At 37, M Chandrasekhar had already achieved what most bankers spend an entire career working towards. He had become the youngest deputy general manager in India’s public-sector banking industry — a record that, nearly three decades later, remains unbroken. A meteoric banking career seemed almost inevitable. But Chandrasekhar had other plans. In 2002, he walked away from the conventional path and followed a long-standing passion for teaching. That decision took him from banking boardrooms to classrooms, from training administrators to shaping public policy, and eventually to one of the most demanding assignments in academia — building a new Indian Institute of Management almost from the ground up. An anecdote from Chandrasekhar’s interview at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad, captures the moment his career began to take a decisive turn. The 2002 selection committee was chaired by Maidavolu Narasimham, former governor of Reserve Bank of India and former ASCI chairman. During the interview, Narasimham spotted an apparently minor detail tucked away in a corner of Chandrasekhar’s CV — he had learnt German. At the end of the interview, Narasimham unexpectedly said, “Auf Wiedersehen” — German for “until we meet again”. Momentarily surprised, Chandrasekhar gathered himself, drew on his German and replied with a grin, “Danke schön” (thank you in German). “I knew I was in,” Chandrasekhar, now director of IIM-Visakhapatnam, recalled. The exchange proved to be a fitting prelude to a career that would take an unexpected turn. From banking to public administration Over the next 15 years at ASCI, Chandrasekhar combined teaching with academic leadership and institution-building. He held several senior positions, including dean and director, and led programmes and centres focused on innovation, technology, governance, public policy and institutional performance. He trained thousands of civil servants, administrative officers, public-sector executives and management professionals. His experience in banking and the corporate world became a practical resource in classrooms where he taught leadership, governance and organisational decision-making. But the biggest institution-building challenge of his career was still ahead. Building a young IIM from scratch In March 2017, Chandrasekhar took charge as director of IIM-Visakhapatnam. The institute had begun operations barely two years earlier and was still finding its feet. The task was not to manage an established business school — it was to build one. IIM-Visakhapatnam needed academic programmes, faculty, systems, financial strength, infrastructure and, perhaps most importantly, an institutional identity. It also had to establish itself within a growing network of IIMs, many of which had decades of history behind them. The scale of the transformation over the next nine years is reflected in the numbers. When Chandrasekhar joined in March 2017, IIM-Visakhapatnam had only one academic programme, 90 students, and no full-time faculty of its own. By March 2026, it had seven degree and diploma programmes, around 1,600 students, and 55 full-time faculty members. The number of graduates rose from 47 in 2017 to a cumulative 2,400 by 2026. Income crossed Rs 150 crore, while the balance-sheet size grew to Rs 750 crore, reflecting the institute’s financial growth and management. The executive education portfolio expanded dramatically as well. From having none in 2017, IIM-Visakhapatnam delivered 132 on-campus and hybrid programmes in 2025-26, reaching around 6,200 participants and generating nearly 3.35 lakh participant-hours. The institute also broadened its academic footprint with specialised programmes serving groups beyond the traditional two-year MBA cohort. These included modular and hybrid programmes for defence sector officers and programmes for students and alumni of centrally-funded technical institutions across India. The institute also developed public-procurement programmes for central government and public-sector officers with the support of Central Vigilance Commission. It became the first IIM to receive a Dr Ambedkar Chair Professorship endowed by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Research expanded alongside teaching. By March 2026, IIM-Visakhapatnam faculty had produced 343 research publications, with half classified under industry standards in the top A* and A categories. From numbers to campus, and a culture But the institution-building story cannot be captured by numbers alone. A young IIM needed not just programmes and people, but a permanent home and a culture of its own. The newly-built IIM-Visakhapatnam campus, developed under Chandrasekhar’s leadership, was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024. The campus subsequently received a five-star rating under the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment, placing it among just three IIMs with that distinction. The institute was also certified as a ‘Great Place to Work‘. For Chandrasekhar, the journey has come full circle in an unexpected way. The young banker, who once seemed destined for the highest echelons of public-sector banking, chose instead to become a teacher. The teacher went on to become an academic leader. And the academic leader took on the challenge of building an institution that could outlast his tenure. At IIM-Visakhapatnam, Chandrasekhar’s most enduring contribution may therefore not be any single programme, campus or record. It may be the institution itself — and the foundation he has helped lay for its rise in the decades to come.