Who Is IIT-Delhi Professor MP Gupta, First IIT Faculty To Lead One Of India’s Premier B-Schools? – News18

Last Updated:April 22, 2025, 15:23 IST

Gupta, currently the head of IIT-Delhi’s Department of Management Studies, is set to head the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Lucknow as the institute’s director starting this April

A man of many firsts, sound scholar, pioneer in e-governance, expert in cloud computing and a thorough academic is how professor Manmohan Prasad Gupta, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi faculty and the first academic from an IIT who is set to head one of India’s premier business schools is known among his fellow academicians and public-sector experts.

Gupta, currently the head of IIT-Delhi’s Department of Management Studies, is set to head the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Lucknow as the institute’s director starting this April, a move that has made news since he is the first IIT faculty to lead an IIM.

A professor of management sciences, Gupta has been working with the department for 28 years at IIT-Delhi in various capacities.

Promoted to professor and an HAG (Higher Administrative Grade) scale since 2017, Gupta currently holds the Modi Foundation Chair Professorship at IIT-Delhi.

Gupta has headed several expert panels for government projects and helped carve out a system for e-governance. He is known to put together the first International Conference on e-governance (ICEG-2003) that brought together the best practices being undertaken in this domain in both India and abroad.

“He has written a number of books and has an excellent research record as well as an international reputation. His contributions in the e-governance domain have far-reaching implications for organisations considering adoption of Information and Computer Technology (ICTs),” a fellow colleague of Gupta at the institute said.

Well-known in the public sector for his work in e-governance as an R&D thrust area in India, Gupta has contributed to formulating several policy measures in the field. He has been involved in several policy-making committees on ICTs in both the Union and state governments in India.

Having earned his PhD from IIT-Delhi itself, Gupta started his academic career with IIT-Roorkee.

Faculty members who worked closely with Gupta said he has a vast administrative experience and an ability to always visualise the big picture. “Besides developing various e-initiatives, he has also developed the concept of National Information Security Index. Also, he has significantly contributed to the domain of e-governance and now m-governance (mobile governance), a sub-domain of e-governance,” said a faculty member, not wishing to be named.

Gupta has been closely following the Union government’s ‘Digital India’ and ‘Smart City’ programmes.

Last week, IIM-Lucknow released a brief press statement announcing the appointment of Prof Gupta as the institute’s director. “IIM-Lucknow is pleased to announce Prof Manmohan Prasad Gupta, currently serving as Professor at IIT-Delhi, shall be taking charge as the institute’s director shortly,” the statement read.

Gupta will succeed Prof Archana Shukla, the current director-in-charge at IIM-Lucknow. She was re-appointed to this role in April 2024, following the completion of her five-year term. The reappointment is to remain in effect till a regular director is appointed. The appointment of director at IIMs is done by the institute’s Board of Governors (BoG).

Recently, several IIMs have reportedly been functioning without full-time directors, including IIM-Calcutta, IIM-Kashipur and IIM-Shillong.

In 2023, the IIMs Act was amended by Parliament, allowing the President to be the Visitor to all 21 IIMs in the country. It empowered the central government with significant oversight in the functioning of the IIMs, including the ability to appoint, remove directors, nominate BoG chairpersons as well as audit the institutes.