K. T. Chandy | |
---|---|
Born | January 13, 1913 |
Died | May 2, 2006 Kottayam, Kerala, India |
(aged 93)
Nationality | Indian |
Occupation | Director, IIM Calcutta Chairman, Food Corporation of India |
Known for | Founder-Director of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta |
K. T. Chandy (January 13, 1913 – May 2, 2006) was an Indian management education administrator and business executive. He was the founder-director of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, the first Indian Institute of Management.
Chandy was born on January 13, 1913. After graduating from the Madras Christian College in 1932, he got a Master's degree in law from London School of Economics and studied for a Bar-at-law at Middle Temple.
In his career in business, Chandy worked in and led various companies. He became a Director of Lever Brothers in 1956 and played an important role in the formation of Hindustan Lever Limited, which was later renamed as Hindustan Unilever. He later became the Chairman of the company.
In 1961, Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, invited Chandy to help set up the first Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta. 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, 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.