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After nearly two decades of fighting the higher education regulators, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Arindam Chaudhuri has called it quits. "A negative campaign was targeted at us. I have continuously fought AICTE and UGC which have been making false allegations (against us). But now I have decided that there is no point in continuing this venture," says he.
The venture is the 41-year-old Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) which, in its heyday, had over 40,000 students, faculty of about 90 and heavyweight visitors like Stephen Covey and Philip Kotler. IIPM, which was ostensibly set up with the idea of providing an alternative to the Indian Institutes of Management, the most sought after schools for business school aspirants, will wind up its 18 campuses by October this year, after all its old batches finish their courses.
Things have come to such a pass because IIPM was never "recognised" by UGC and AICTE. All institutes of higher learning that hand out a degree or a diploma have to be recognised by either of the two regulators. Universities approved by UGC have the power of granting both, a degree or a diploma. Institutions offering technical education, including engineering, computer application, management, architecture, pharmacy and hotel management, need to seek approval from AICTE, the technical education regulator.
UGC and AICTE have for long alleged that IIPM has been issuing degree certificates, though it is not recognised by them. Chaudhuri, for his part, has maintained that IIPM has always issued diplomas, for which recognition from UGC or AICTE is not mandatory, and that all students are aware of this, so there is no question of misleading them.
New innings
To be sure, IIPM is not the only institute that has chosen to stay clear of both UGC and AICTE: The Indian School of Business, the country's premier business school, too has chosen to do so. ISB offers one-year post-graduate programme in management, and has also figured on the "unapproved" list of AICTE.
When Chaudhuri announced last week that he was shuttering IIPM, the industry was taken by surprise. He had always stoutly defended the reputation of his institute and would file legal cases against anyone who questioned its credentials.
"If you say Arindam Chaudhuri is ugly and has a bad sense of dressing, I will not say anything. But if you say anything to harm my business, then I will sue you," the ponytailed Chaudhuri had said on a television show in 2013. Even when his institute featured amongst those blacklisted by AICTE, Chaudhuri was defiant: he told Business Standard that he "would not" seek any recognition from UGC and AICTE. Chaudhuri even signed on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to host IIPM's annual business quiz for three years.
Chaudhuri, who is the author of Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch and Discover The Diamond In You, which, his website claims, have sold over a million copies each, had in May re-launched IIPM as IIPM 2.0. In its new avatar, IIPM will enter into technical collaboration with other institutions rather than have its own campus.
"Rather than teaching limited students in our 18 campuses, we would like to teach thousands of students across different campuses," says Chaudhuri. This, he claims, will make IIPM like Uber and Radisson, which don't own cabs or hotels but still provide a service.
After a long battle with the regulators, Chaudhuri seems to have realised that tying up with institutes that already have the necessary accreditations is preferable than having one of his own where he has to face regular scrutiny.
"We do not want to get into this degree/diploma puzzle, nor do we want to get into complex processes with AICTE and UGC on accreditation. This is the best way to reach out to many more," he says.
However, shortly after the IIPM 2.0 advertisements in newspapers in May, Delhi Police registered a first information report against Chaudhuri and his father, Malayendra Kisor Chaudhuri, based on UGCs complaint that IIPM was "misleading", "cheating" and "fooling" students by charging a hefty fee from them and that it was not recognised by any regulatory body.
"It's sad that on a day when we launch a new programme promoting entrepreneurship...some sections of the media have decided to pick up a case that is six months old," Chaudhuri had said at that time.
Did the fight with the regulators impact IIPM's reputation amongst recruiters? "People today are well informed. Any institution should follow the norms, or else market forces will decide its future," says Shankar S Mantha, ex-chairman of AICTE.
According to IIPM, each year, more than 1,100 companies come to its campuses to make presentations and interview students. These include ABN Amro, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Asian Paints, among others.
Other interests
Chaudhuri is not new to controversies. After articles were printed, offline as well as online, about IIPM, he decided to fight them out. In February 2013, bloggers and cyber activists woke up to the news that 73 URLs which were critical of IIPM had been ordered to be blocked by the courts. These included the UGC page with guidelines on IIPM.
Though IIPM will shut down in a few months, Chaudhuri is unfazed, possibly because he has other ventures too. His movies venture, Planman Motion Pictures, has made several films like Mithya, Dosor, The Last Lear, Faltu and Do Dooni Chaar. In fact, some of his films and their actors have even received the National Award.
He is the editor-in-chief of The Sunday Indian which his website says is the only news magazine in the world that comes out in 14 languages. Chaudhuri's Planman Media brings out business magazines Business & Economy, 4Ps Business & Marketing , Human Factor, as well as career magazine MYOD (Make Your Own Destiny).
Apart from the two bestsellers, Chaudhuri has authored books like Planning India, The Great Indian Dream and Thorns To Competition. He also runs an NGO, The Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation, started in memory of his brother in 2002, which works in the areas of health, education, employment and environment.
But is a business school still on his radar screen? "Let us see. If, at a later stage, there is a need and we see potential, we may look at re-entering this space," he says.
