Dr. Upinder Dhar
Dr. Upinder Dhar
Educationist & Institution Builder
Dr. Upinder Dhar is the Chairman & Distinguished Professor, People Development Foundation India. Earlier, he was Chief Mentor & First Vice Chancellor of Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya (Indore); Group Additional Vice Chancellor and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academics), Amity University (Noida); First Vice Chancellor of JK Lakshmipat University (Jaipur); Director – Institute of Management, Dean – Faculty of Management, and Dean – Faculty of Doctoral Studies and Research, Nirma University (Ahmedabad); Director – Prestige Institute of Management and Research (Indore); Professor of Management at NITIE(Now IIM Mumbai). He has conducted 812 management and faculty development programs for the executives of major business houses and faculty members of academic institutions respectively.
He has also been Guest Faculty at IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, IIM Trichy and IIT Roorkee. Besides undertaking consultancy assignments, he has authored/coauthored/edited 894 publications. Forty-Six (46) scholars have been awarded Ph.D. degree under his supervision by various universities.
A Fellow of ISTD and a strong proponent of Case Method, Dr. Dhar was conferred Ravi J Matthai National Fellow Award by the Association of Indian Management Schools in 2018, and AIMA-Kewal Nohria Award for Academic Leadership in Management Education-2022 by the All India Management Association in 2022. He has been on the Panel of Reviewers of number of international journals, such as International Journal of Training and Development, Human Resources International, Journal of Global Business and Technology, and South Asian Journal of Management.
He has also been on the Panel of Experts maintained by the NAAC (Bangalore), NBA (Bangalore); ICSSR (New Delhi); and SAQS (Hyderabad). He was President of Anthropological and Behavioral Sciences Section of the Indian Science Congress Association in 2007-08, Indian Society for Training and Development in 2008- 09 and Association of Indian Management Schools in 2014-15. He has also been Member of the Council of Management of AIMA, Member of ATMA, All India Board of Management Studies of AICTE, Rajasthan State Productivity Council,Governing Board of DELNET, and Member of the Executive Board of AMDISA. Dr. Dhar was awarded Commonwealth Fellowship twice to present his papers at the South Asian Management Forums held at Royal Institute of Management, Bhutan and Lahore University of Management Science, Lahore.
He was invited by the American Society for Engineering Management as resource person for Case Method during its international annual Conference held at Minnesota in 2013. He has also been resource person in the Leadership for Academicians Program (LEAP) sponsored by MHRD and organized by IIT Roorkee in 2018 and BHU Varanasi in 2019. He was invited to deliver keynote address in the International Conference of ITAM at Montpellier Business School, France and University of Cagliari, Italy in July 2024. He had the opportunity to visit. Ivy league institutions like Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Yale University School of Management.
He has also visited 20 countries for professional and academic interest. Dr. Dhar has been on the high powered Expert Committees constituted by MHRD, UGC and AICTE. Hon’ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh had nominated him as Chairman of the Search Committee for the appointment of Vice Chancellor – Awadh University.
He was President of the International Simulation and Gaming Association (2021-22), and a Member of the Standing Committee on Specification of Degrees u/s 22 of the UGC Act, 1956; Expert Group constituted for Implementation of NEP 2020, and Governing Council of the Association of Indian Universities. Currently, he is a member of the Executive Board of AMDISA (2022-24). He is nominee of AICTE as a subject expert on the Board of Governors (BoG) of Xavier Institute of Development and Studies, Jabalpur and Asian Business School, Noida.
He is the Co-Chair of India Case Research Centre (ICRC) of AIMA, New Delhi. Besides his professional engagements, Dr. Dhar has been a dedicated Rotarian since 1997. He was instrumental in setting up three Rotaract Clubs and one Interact Club. He was President of RCI Indore Uptown for the Rotary Year 2023-24, and Rotary District 3040 New Generations Service Exchange Chair in 2024-25. Currently, he is Assistant Governor in the Rotary District 3040 for the year 2025-26.
