K. T. Chandy (13 January 1913 – 2 May 2006) was an Indian

management education Business education is a branch of education that involves teaching the skills and operations of the business industry. This field of education occurs at multiple levels, including secondary and higher education Secondary education At secondary l ...

administrator and business executive. He was the founder-director of

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta or IIM-C) is a public business school located in Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was the first Indian Institute of Management to be established, and has been recognized as an Institut ...

, the first

Indian Institute of Management The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busin ...

Early life and education

Chandy was born on 13 January 1913. After graduating from the Madras Christian College in 1932 he got a Batchelor's degree in Law (LLB) from Bombay University and then a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in law (LLM) from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and studied for a

Bar-at-law A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

Career

In his career in business, Chandy worked in and led various companies. He became a Director of

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...

in 1956 and played an important role in the formation of

Hindustan Lever Limited Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is a consumer goods company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a subsidiary of Unilever, a British company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products, water purif ...

, which was later renamed as

Hindustan Unilever Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is a consumer goods company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a subsidiary of Unilever, a British company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products, water puri ...

. He later became the Chairman of the company. In 1961,

Bidhan Chandra Roy Bidhan Chandra Roy (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was an Indian physician, educationist, and statesman who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 until his death in 1962. Roy played a key role in the founding of several institutio ...

, the then

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, invited Chandy to help set up the first Indian Institute of Management at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. He served as the director of the institute, named ''Indian Institute of Management Calcutta'', for five years. K.T. Chandy is considered one of the global pioneers of

social marketing Social marketing is a marketing approach which focuses on influencing behavior with the primary goal of achieving "common good." It utilizes the elements of commercial marketing and applies them to social concepts. However, to see social marke ...

, the practice of applying commercial marketing approaches for behaviour change and social benefit. In 1963, the Central Family Planning Board of the Government of India set up an Evaluation Committee to examine the current national family planning program and make suggestions for improvements to be incorporated into India's Fourth Five Year Plan. A subcommittee on contraceptive materials was organized. This subcommittee requested one of its members, Mr. K. T. Chandy, then Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, to call upon members of private industry in India to consider ways of extending the distribution of contraceptive services, especially the condom, through commercial channels. Chandy was appointed as the Chairman of

Food Corporation of India Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is in ...

in 1967. In 1968, he became the Chairman of Hindustan Steel Limited, which is now a part of

Steel Authority of India Limited Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is a central public sector undertaking based in New Delhi, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Steel, Government of India with an annual turnover of INR 1,03,480 Crore (US$13 billion) for fisc ...

. In 1972, he returned to his home state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and took over as the Chairman of Kerala State Industries Development Corporation (KSIDC), a position in which he served till 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandy, K. T. Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Scholars from Kerala Businesspeople from Kottayam 1913 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Indian educational theorists