Harvard Business School Further Deepens its Connection to India

Back in the 1960s, Harvard Business School help set up and design what is now India’s finest graduate management school, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, or IIM-A. About 50 years later, HBS opened up a research center for faculty and students in Mumbai. Earlier this year, HBS appointed an Indian-born dean (Nitin Nohria), who subsequently went to India to deliver a terrific speech on the future of India’s growth story in the global economy. A few weeks ago, Harvard University tapped star HBS professor Tarun Khanna to takeover the school’s South Asia Initiative, which was a great move. This is all part of a larger trend of American schools getting closer and closer with their Indian counterparts, which I’ve tracked here. And, today, Harvard Business School announced that it will receive a US$50M gift from The Tata Group (Chairman Ratan Tata graduated from HBS’ APM program decades ago). There’s not much more to analyze other than that it’s no longer a trend — it’s happening, it’s happening now, and it’s happening fast.