IIM Calcutta chief has research in focus

Is the quality of research in the Indian Institutes of Management sliding?

Ajit Balakrishnan, chief executive officer of Rediff and chairman of the Board of directors at IIM Calcutta, admitted that the situation was difficult.

Talking to Business Standard at the sidelines of the Tieger08 organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs, he said he felt researchers at IIMs should strive to get their work published in international business magazines of repute.

Research work would get judged by where it was published.

The net outcome was that the content of research was increasingly getting US-centric and as a result losing relevance in the Indian socio-economic context, Balakrishnan admitted.

On the other hand, as researchers would typically use data collected from the Indian corporates, the research risked the chance of being underrated on grounds of lack of international relevance.

This was essentially a trap that business school research fell into. Researchers, he said, had to belong to the core 'circle' of international academia to get their work recognised.

"It is like trying to win the Academy Awards in the main category, but you end up getting an entry into the foreign films section, and at best could win that", Balakrishnan said metaphorically. When professors move out into Western countries, similar work was lauded and became acceptable, said Balakrishnan. This has led to a wide-spread belief that the Indian institutes were moribund in terms of generating good quality research, he admitted.

IIM Calcutta had increased allocation for research from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 2 crore per year.