Kumar Mangalam Birla named new chairman of IIT Delhi Board

Hindustan Times
21 January 2016

Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla is the new chairman of the board of governors (BoG) of IIT Delhi while Rajiv I Modi will head IIT Guwahati, officials said.

Files related to their nomination, which was sent by the HRD ministry to the President have been cleared and they will take their respective oath of office soon, official said.

Officials further said that the move is aimed at strengthening partnership between the industry and the academia. Their tenure is for a period of three years.

Birla is the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group and Modi is the chairman and managing director of Cadila Pharmaceuticals. The ministry has also approached Pankaj Ramanbhai Patel, chairman and managing director of Cadila Healthcare limited, Ahmedabad and Mallika Srinivasan of Tractors and Farm Equipment limited.

President Pranab Mukherjee’s permission was sought as he is the visitor of the institutes. This is not the first time that industrialists have been nominated as the chairman of BoG.

“The move is aimed at strengthening ties between the industry and the engineering institutes,” said a senior official. In the past, RC Bhargava chairman of Maruti Suzuki, was appointed as the chairman of BoG of IIT Kanpur while BVR Mohan Reddy was appointed as the BoG of IIT Hyderabad.