Vivek Bhandari

Vivek Bhandari is the President of IIHMR University, India's premier knowledge institution committed to research and teaching in the fields of public health, health management systems, rural development, and a variety of fields that impact issues of health and well-being. The University works closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, as well as numerous other institutional partners, and offers a variety of graduate programs.

From 2007 to 2011, Prof. Bhandari served as the 11th Director Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), a pioneering management school located in Gujarat. Prof. Bhandari was one of the youngest business school directors in India when he took over this responsibility. In his tenure, IRMA grew significantly in size and stature, and was able to impact policy at the national level in a variety of fields related to rural development. As a result, the institute also received national and international recognitions under his leadership, most notably from the Canadian agency, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), as well as ministries in the Government of India.

Prof. Bhandari spent his early years in various parts of Rajasthan (India). He then went on to complete his BA Honors in History from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and then a Master’s in Modern History from the University of Delhi. He went on to do a second MA in South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, and proceeded to complete his PhD from the same university.

After completing his education, Prof. Bhandari became a tenured faculty member in the School of Social Science at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, in the USA. In this capacity, he also taught and researched collaboratively at academic institutions in the Five College Consortium (which includes Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst) located in Massachusetts, USA. In 2007, he returned to India as director of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), a position he held until mid-2011.

From 2011 to 2015, Prof. Bhandari served as a consultant to a variety of philanthropic trusts and foundations such as the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, and the Reliance Foundation. Working as an independent researcher, he worked closely with a number of grassroots organizations working on issues of rural development, livelihoods, political reform, and gender equality. He was also associated with the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Program from 2012 to 2014.

In 2010, Prof. Bhandari spent time at the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), University of Pennsylvania as a visiting scholar. In 2013, he was appointed Ratan Tata (Visiting) Chair Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He also served as a founding faculty member of the Young India Fellowship Program in New Delhi.

Over the years, Prof. Bhandari has published in the Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, in edited volumes, and reference works such as the International Encyclopedia for the Social Sciences, the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. and the Encyclopedia of SustainabilityHe is a co-author of the "State of Panchayats Report: An Independent Assessment, 2007-08," which was commissioned by the Government of India and was India’s first macro-study of institutions of local self-governance in India (called Gram Panchayat). The study allowed him to explore his particular interest in the study of social mobilizations and community organizations in India.

A year into his term as director of IRMA in 2008, Prof. Bhandari was included in Business Today magazine's list of India's Top Twenty-Five 'Young Executives Under the Age of 40'.