The Institute

Collection Categories

The IIMA Archives holds a rich collection of documents associated with the history of IIMA and a growing catalogue on the history of business in India. The collection has been digitized and the archive is accessible to the public for research except for a few recent items which are embargoed or require special permission.

The IIMA Archives catalogue and access policy are available at this link.

A brief overview is provided below:

  1. Publications include books, articles and reports on IIMA, case lists, conference proceedings, annual reports, bulletins, institute catalogues, newsletters and magazines, student yearbooks and research related documents such as volumes of the in-house journal Vikalpa, working papers and documents of research centres.

    Some of these documents are accessible through the IIMA Vikram Sarabhai Library’s Institutional Repository webpage at this link.

    All the IIMA Annual Reports since 1962-63 are accessible through this link.

    All the annual reports of the Research & Publications division on the research output of the faculty members since 1967, are available at this link.

    Over 2,000 Working Papers published since 1973 are accessible through this link.

    Almost all the issues of the alumni magazine since the first issue in October 1969 are accessible through this link.

    All the cases of IIMA can be purchased at this link. A catalogue of all the cases can be downloaded as a spreadsheet at this link.
     
  2. Academic documents include programme brochures, review reports, convocation speeches and course outlines. The convocation speeches can also be accessed under each convocation page at this link.
     
  3. Administrative documents include manuals, documents of the Alumni Office and key letters of correspondence between 1961 and 1964 among the different stakeholders of the institute.
     
  4. Oral History preserves the audio-visual recordings and transcripts of interviews conducted for the IIMA Oral History Project. A complete list of interviewees is available in the archives catalogue and snippets from this project can be accessed at this link.
     
  5. Objects of the past, such as those from the computer centre.
     
  6. Photos-Videos include a large collection of photographs since the 1960s and some videos from the 1990s. Some of the photo albums are accessible at this link and videos are accessible at this link. The convocation videos and batch photographs, where available, can be accessed under each convocation page at this link.
     
  7. News-Media stores clips on IIMA published in major media outlets over the years.
     
  8. Special collections include donations to the archives from alumni and others which include memoirs, CV’s and student yearbooks, oral histories of businesses in Ahmedabad and outside, and corporate directories from the early 20th century. Further information is available at this link.

 

The following archives also provide useful information on IIMA’s history:

  • Harvard Business School (HBS) Archives in Boston, USA, contains over thousands of pages of material on IIMA history in the 1960s during the period of the IIMA-HBS partnership. Courtesy HBS Baker Library Special Collections, their IIMA records catalogue can be accessed at this link.
  • Ford Foundation Archives at the Rockefeller Archive Center, outside New York City in USA, contains over thousands of pages of material on IIMA history in the 1960s and 1970s when the Ford Foundation funded several activities of institution building at IIMA. The records include correspondence, grant files, observation reports and a valuable oral history of Douglas Ensminger, the key representative of the Ford Foundation in the Indian subcontinent from 1951 to 1970.
  • Louis Kahn Archives at the University of Pennsylvania in USA holds many drawings of Louis Kahn, the architect of the iconic red brick IIMA campus.

A comprehensive list of archives and resources on Indian business history is available at the following link.

A selected list of readings on the history of IIMA and overviews of Indian business history are provided below. The download links for some of these publications are also provided. This list will be useful for alumni and researchers who wish to learn more about the history of IIMA before visiting the IIMA Archives.

On the history of IIMA,

  • Robbins, George. (1959). Recommendations for an All-India Institute of Management. [Download]
  • Varkey, P.K., Harindran, U.K. and Ganapathy, A. (1980). The Shahibaug Days. IIMA Contact Magazine, January Issue. [Download]
  • Subramaniam, M. K. (1969). The IIMA Campus. IIMA Alumnus, October Issue [Download]
  • IIMA. (1973). IIMA: The First Decade, 1962-72. [Download]
  • Hill, Thomas, Haynes, Warren and Howard Baumgartel. (1973). Management Education in India: A Study of International Collaboration in Institution Building.
  • IIMA. (1987). Kahn's Monastic Vision: Architecture at IIMA. IIMA Alumnus. May Issue. [Download]
  • IIMA. (1993). Institution Building: The IIMA Experience. Vol 1: The Early Years [Download]
  • IIMA. (1994). Institution Building: The IIMA Experience. Vol 2: Subsequent Years [Download]
  • Misra, S. B and Vijaya Sherry Chand (Eds.). (1999). Institution Building: An International Perspective on Management Education. Macmillan.
  • Chand, Vijaya Sherry and T. V. Rao (Eds.). (2011). Nurturing Institutional Excellence: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
  • IIMA. (2010). The Natural World at IIMA.
  • IIMA. (2010). India's Management Athenaeum.
  • Ram Mohan, T. T. (2011). Brick by Red Brick: Ravi Matthai and the making of IIM Ahmedabad. Rupa Publications.
  • Anubhai, Prafull. (2011). The IIMA Story: The DNA of an Institution. Random House India.
  • IIMA (2016). Exploring and Expanding the Frontiers of Knowledge: A Compendium of Dissertation Abstracts of the Fellow Programme in Management. IIMA: Office of the Fellow Programme in Management.
  • IIMA CIIE (2018). Of Experiments and Entrepreneurs. IIMA: Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship.
  • Krishnamurty, Keshav. (2020). "Painting the World Crimson: The Global Spread of Graduate Management Education as Facilitated by Harvard Business School". PhD Dissertation, University of Massachusetts Boston.
  • Vijaya Sherry Chand. (2010). What's in the upper half of our logo?.
  • Vijaya Sherry Chand. (2017). The story of our logo.

On IIMA personalities,

  • Ensminger, Douglas. (1972). The Ford Foundation and Management Education in India. Oral History Account, B-7, Ford Foundation Archives.
  • Basu, Aparna. (2018). As Times Change, the Story of an Ahmedabad Business Family: The Sarabhais, 1823-1975. Ahmedabad: Sarabhai Foundation.
  • Chowdhry, Kamla. (Ed.). (1974). Management for Development: A collection of papers by Vikram Sarabhai. Delhi: Vikas.
  • Joshi, Padmanabh. (Ed.). (1992). Vikram Sarabhai: The Man and the Vision. Mapin Publication.
  • Shah, Amrita. (2016). Vikram Sarabhai: A Life. Penguin.
  • Tripathi, Dwijendra. (1981). The Dynamics of a Tradition: Kasturbhai Lalbhai and his Entrepreneurship. Ahmedabad: Manohar.
  • Tripathi, Dwijendra. (Ed.). (1983). Tribute to Ethics: Remembering Kasturbhai Lalbhai. Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ahmedabad
  • Kahn, L. I., Jhaveri, S., & Ronner, H. (1987). Louis I Kahn: Complete Work 1935-1974. Birkhauser.
  • Lesser, Wendy. (2017). You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Srivastava, Amit. (2009). Encountering Materials in Architectural Production: The Case of Kahn and Brick at IIM. Doctoral thesis at University of Adelaide.
  • Tandon, Prakash. (1980). Return to Punjab: 1961-1975. Vikas Publishing House.
  • Tandon, Prakash. (2011). A Manager's Mind. [Lectures & Notes published posthumously].
  • Paul, Samuel. (2010). A Life and Its Lessons: Memoirs. Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore.
  • Kakar, Sudhir. (2014). A Book of Memory: Confessions and Reflections. Penguin.
  • Rao, T. V. (2014). My Journey with IIMA: An Autobiographical Account. IIMA Working Paper No. 2014-03-14.
  • Pruthi, S.P.S. (2008). Reflections: Events, People, Policies and Practices. Pitambar Publishing.
  • IIMC and ARCH@Srishti. (2012). Citizens and Revolutionaries: An Oral History of IIM Calcutta. Rupa & Co.
  • Bansal, Rashmi. (2008). Stay Hungry Stay Foolish: The inspiring stories of 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose to tread a path of their own making. IIMA CIIE Publications.
  • John, Prashant. (2009). Second Degree: One Crazy Year at IIM-A. Ekalavya Education.

Studies citing IIMA Archives,

Overviews of Indian Business History,

  • Tripathi, Dwijendra. (2004). The Oxford History of Indian Business. Oxford University Press.
  • Tripathi, Dwijendra and Jyoti Jumani. (2007). The Concise Oxford History of Indian Business. Oxford University Press.
  • Tripathi, Dwijendra and Jyoti Jumani. (2013). The Oxford History of Contemporary Indian Business. Oxford University Press.
  • Kudaisya, Medha. (Ed.). (2011). The Oxford India Anthology of Business History. Oxford University Press.
  • Roy, Tirthankar. (2018). A Business History of India: Enterprise and the Emergence of Capitalism from 1700. Cambridge University Press.

The Special Collections of IIMA Archives collects donations to the archives from people formerly associated with IIMA and also material relevant to the business and economic history of India.

  • Louis Kahn Collection: Books, theses and videos on Louis Kahn. The IIMA architecture collection is stored at the Louis Kahn Archives in USA.
  • Ravi Matthai Collection: Written material of Prof. Ravi Matthai including Experiments in Educational Innovation of "The Rural University" and Occasional Speeches and Writings.
  • A. K. Jain Collection: Material donated by Prof. A.K. Jain (Marketing Area), collected over five decades of his association with IIMA, including student project reports and meeting minutes.
  • B. H. Jajoo Collection: Material donated by Prof. B. H. Jajoo regarding IIMA's computer centre and library.
  • Donations to IIMA Archives:
    • On Prof. Warren Haynes (by Douglas Haynes; CV, Bio and Photographs)
    • On Prof. J G Krishnayya (Sourced oral history on the history of computing)
    • Indian management institutes history related documents by Lourens Van Haaften, historian
    • From Alumni
  • Business History Collection
    • Shares Certificate: Material donated by Mr. Vivek Matthai, son of Prof. Ravi J. Matthai.
    • The IIMA library has an outstanding collection of books and reports on the business history of India. A catalogue of all corporate annual reports stored at the IIMA Library is available on this link.
    • Directories: All Joint Stock Companies of India (1921-22), All India Swadeshi Directory (1933), Investor's India Yearbook (1927, 1934, 1943, 1952), Bombay Investor's Yearbook (1940), Calcutta Stock Exchange Yearbook (1938, 1947, 1955), Times of India Bombay Directory of 1940 (4 Vols.)
    • Indian Management Journal, 1961-62 issues; Later issues available at the IIMA Library.
  • Special Collections Oral History
    • Chitra Publicity, Ahmedabad [One of the first outdoor advertisers of India].
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