NEWSMAKER: Vijaypat Singhania

Standing up for autonomy

Vijaypat Singhania, chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has never been afraid of pushing himself to new heights despite being on terra firma for over 70 years .

His achievements speak for him. He holds the world record for the highest altitude gained while travelling in a hot air balloon at the age of 67.

He also did a solo flight in a microlight from the UK to India in 1998. Singhania has a flight experience of over 5,000 hours.

In 1994, he won the gold medal in the Federation Aeronautique Internationale race, covering a distance of 34,000 km spanning 24 days. To mark this occasion he was conferred the rank of Hon Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force by the then President of India R Venkataraman. In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.

It's evident that the spirit of dare-devilry is very much alive and that he doesn't believe in resting on past laurels. Consider this: Despite the predictable opposition from the human resource ministry (read Arjun Singh), he went ahead and almost trebled the IIM-A fees.

While the fee hike followed other IIM fee hikes, this was the steepest increase in many years, and the highest among all IIMs.

He was blunt about the reasons for the hike. "The IIMs should not be financially supported by anyone. Recently, IIT Bombay had to ask the government for funds, which was a shameful state of affairs. I do not want this to happen to IIM-A. I am not supporting profiteering in educational institutes. But creating surplus is important."

Singhania then met Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh and justified the fee hike, adding they would take steps to ensure that all deserving students get into the prestigious institution.

The renowned aviator and Chairman Emeritus of the Raymond group is no stranger to IIM-A, having been on the board of governors of the institute for five years "" from 1994 to 1999.

Singhania was also appointed chairman IIM-A for a five-year term last March. He replaced NR Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor, Infosys Technologies, whose term expired on March 10, 2007. Earlier, he was also sheriff of Mumbai.

Singhania is also a media-savvy person, having been the publisher of the shortlived Mumbai newspaper The Indian Post. His experience with the paper is perhaps the reason why 'autonomy' is one of his favourite subjects.

"The government (HRD Ministry) needs to give more autonomy to such institutes (the IIMs) that create a great tomorrow. If the government interferes in the institutes' affairs, the basic foundation of the institutes will be shaken," he maintains.

Singhania's sense of humour may be one of the reasons why he can tackle the HRD ministry with ease. For instance, when speaking to a section of the media as he set out to establish a world record-breaking attempt to scale 70,000 feet in a hot air balloon, he joked: "Since I had nothing to do, I decided to embark upon this mission."

Besides IIM-A and aviation, Singhania has been a management professor (teaching post-graduate students at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies) and has also been active in horse racing for three decades, serving as a member of the Royal Western India Turf Club, Mumbai, for several years before retiring as its chairman in 1997.

Photography, too, is one of his interests and so is philanthropy, having initiated numerous projects like the animal husbandry and cattle-breeding programmes.

One wonders how he juggles so many interests. Perhaps, it's by taking up new challenges as he's currently doing with IIM-A. The passion is well summed up in his own words which were quoted in the media: "I got that fire in my gut to prove that something thought as impossible can be done..."