Ravi Sharma appointed Chairperson of IIIT Una, Himachal Pradesh

ELE Times reported the appointment of Ravi Sharma, Chairman of the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India, as Chairperson of the Indian Institute of Information Technology at Una in Himachal Pradesh. The appointment was made by the President of India in her capacity as Visitor of the institute — the constitutional role through which the heads of India's institutes of national importance are named.

The association behind the appointee

The report frames the appointment through TEMA's mandate. The association is the oldest Indian industry body devoted to telecommunications, information and communication technology and cyber, with tens of thousands of members and partnership agreements across dozens of countries. Under Sharma's chairmanship it had broadened its remit toward education — proposing, among other initiatives, high-speed connectivity for educational institutions so that the next generation could reach the resources a digital future demands.

An institute worth building

IIIT Una is among the youngest of India's IIITs, established in the public–private partnership model that pairs central and state government with industry partners. Chairing its board places an industry leader with a stated commitment to inclusive education at the head of an institution whose graduates will shape the country's technology sector for decades.

Why it matters to the Institute of Goodness

Read alongside his later appointment as Chairman of IIIT Nagpur and his leadership of the IIT Alumni Council, the Una chairmanship put the founder inside the governance of the very system that the PSR curriculum and the Goodness Index seek to influence. It is one reason the Institute's academic partnerships with IITs, IIITs, IIMs and TISS moved quickly from conversation to co-creation, and one reason PSR has been designed from the outset to fit the structures of Indian higher education rather than sit beside them.