Prof. Rajendra Mishra of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

PROFESSOR RAJENDRA MISHRA: A PIONEER OF ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT EDUCATION WHO BROUGHT INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA TOGETHER FROM THE 50s

To honor the great son of Dharbhanga, Bihar, IIT-Kharagpur has recently named its newly established School of Engineering Entrepreneurship as Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship.

For more info check the IIT-KGP link:
http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/departments/home.php?deptcode=RJ

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The Diamond Jubilee of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur celebrates the emergence of a world-class educational enterprise. IIT Kharagpur was founded in 1951 as the first institute of higher learning created by the Parliament of India. Few educationists have impacted the Institute’s evolution more than Professor Rajendra Mishra (1919-1979). Professor Mishra helped establish the Institute’s infrastructure, pioneered the engineering disciplines of Mechanical, Production, and Industrial Engineering, and launched the study of Management Science in India. His contribution was unprecedented when he forged a relationship between industry and academia through collaborative programmes. He brought his rich industrial experience to the educational system of IIT and embraced the best engineering and management practices from the US and Europe to build the foundation for a world-class engineering university over a time span of 27 years.

Upon graduation from the Banaras Hindu University in 1943, Rajendra Mishra joined the Jay Engineering Works Ltd. in Calcutta, a leading enterprise of the Shri Ram Group of industries. He began his career as an apprentice engineer and rose to be a manufacturing manager, occupying the second highest position in the company’s technical management hierarchy. He was instrumental in transforming the batch production of USHA sewing machines, electrical fans and hurricane lanterns to modernized and semi-automated mass production in the light engineering industry. Under the leadership of the General Manager of the company T. R. Gupta, Rajendra Mishra positioned the Company after World War II as a leading and innovative enterprise that redesigned product and production equipment; established manufacturing process engineering, production planning and control, statistical quality control, plant layout design, work study and incentives; and, conducted employee training to ensure harmonious labor relations. During the war he had even assisted an officer of the U.S. Army stationed in Calcutta to build a complex heating system. In 1948-49, during his tenure at the company, he underwent advanced training in British industries for about 18 months in companies like Coventry Gauge and Tools, Alfred Herberts, B.S.A. Tools and Hoover. He also visited industrial concerns in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy to learn modern manufacturing technologies.

After nine years in industry, Rajendra Mishra found his calling when he joined IIT-Kharagpur in August 1952 as a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering and proceeded to establish the Department of Mechanical Engineering with the assistance of Dr. R. A. Kraus, a UNESCO professor. He had a meteoric rise to become assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Production Engineering, and Senior Professor, all in a matter of two years.

Professor Mishra further pioneered the education of Industrial Engineering in India in the mid-50s by teaching Operations Research, Time and Motion Study, Production Planning and Control, Plant Layout and Materials Handling, Industrial Economics, Inventory Control, Job Evaluation, Statistical Quality Control, Wage Theory, and Production System Design. He also leveraged his experience in industry and constructed an educational curriculum in Production Engineering which covered process engineering, design of jigs and fixtures, tools and gauges, applied plasticity and metrology.

On a number of occasions, he conducted and participated in specialized courses of studies offered by industry, professional bodies and National Productivity Council (NPC) organizations. Prof. Mishra was the first Management teacher in the country. Under his leadership the Department of Management Studies was established in 1954 in IIT Kharagpur. He started offering Executive Development Programmes for industry executives with such luminaries as Sir Jahangir Ghandhy, Former President Shri V. V. Giri, Former Minister of Higher Education Dr. Triguna Sen, and Sir Dr. Ramaswamy Mudaliar as members of the faculty. In thirteen such programs focused on Productivity Enhancement, nearly 700 senior executives participated over the decade, thus ushering in modern concepts and techniques of professional management to corporate India.He was also the first person to introduce Postgraduate Programme in Industrial Engineering in the country in 1954. Later the Department of Management Studies merged with the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has been also responsible for the creation of Industrial Management Centre, the first of its kind in IIT system, in 1973.

As a member of the Management Education Study team in 1959, he investigated management education in the USA. He was sent there by the Indian Government’s Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs. The visit to the universities of Berkeley, Cornell Harvard, MIT, Purdue and Stanford enabled him to adapt the best practices and curriculum to the short-term management courses he had launched at IIT.

During his tenure of 27 years, Professor Rajendra Mishra engaged in research in the areas of Production Science, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. He guided the research of teachers and students studying for Master of Technology and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Over ten students received Ph.D.s under his stewardship. He guided over 400 students in the M.Tech programme in Industrial Engineering and Production Engineering. At least 100 master’s theses were written under his direction. He has published and presented over 80 papers in the areas of Statistical Quality Control, Mass Production Methods, Manufacturing Assembly, Metrology, Organizational Design and Industrial Productivity. He served on the editorial Board of the International Journal of Production Research and was a regular contributor.

As head of the department of Mechanical Engineering in late 50s, he led about 450 students of Undergraduate, Master’s and Ph.D. Courses and 110 members of the staff, 50 of them holding academic posts. Masters courses covered eight areas of specialization. He handed over the headship of the department to Professor B.M. Belgaumkar who had joined the academic staff from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI) because he had been Mishra’s teacher at B.H.U. and Mishra’s respect for his teacher superseded all other considerations.

During the inception of the Institute, Rajendra Mishra proved to be one of the architects of the organizations, systems and procedures required for administration of the Institute. In this regard, he carried out several landmark administrative studies and reforms under the direction of the Board of Governors. These studies related to organization structure and staffing, administrative procedures,  purchase and control, the hostel management system, workshop organization, and systems for handling employees’ grievances and formulating promotion policies. He implemented all this with the support of the Institute’s Director, Dr. Sudhir Ranjan Sengupta.

In 1971 he was called to action by the growing national aspiration to upgrade other institutions of learning. Rajendra Mishra was appointed the Principal of Rourkela Engineering College (REC) where he was responsible to the Board of Governors as Principal, in charge of both the academic and administrative functions. The College had nine teaching departments, offering five under graduate and six post graduate courses in Engineering and three post graduate courses in Science and Mathematics, as well as Ph. D. programmes in all the departments. During his tenure he made sweeping changes to the administrative structures and policies of REC by implementing comprehensive amendments to the rules of the REC Society;  framing bye-laws and formulated Service Rules for employees; preparing medical, CPF-cum-gratuity, disciplines and conduct rules; standardizing water supply improvement scheme for the College Campus and Hostels; and, reorganizing Students’ extra-curricular activities.

As Dean of Faculty and Administration and subsequently as the Deputy Director of Administration in the mid-70s, while he remained head of the department of Mechanical Engineering, he was responsible for a wide range of delegated administrative functions for the Institute. His contributions in firmly establishing Estate Management, Purchasing, Recruitment, Promotion and Personnel Matters, Relations with Staff Associations, Union Interface and Residential Hostel Management, were deemed to be foundational. He excelled as a warden of the R.P. Hall and President of the Technology Students’ Gymkhana in the late 50s and early 60s when he promoted excellence in student affairs, particularly at Inter-IIT Meets and Youth Festivals.

Over the decades, he was an expert advisor to Boards of Governors and Executives Committees of Educational and Research Institutions, and of the IIT Senate, Syndicates, Academic Councils, Boards of Studies of Universities and Technical Institutes, Boards of the All India Council of Technical Education, and adhoc Committees of Government Public Service Commissions. His enormous contribution to the cause of education and industry was recognized when he was honored to become a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India, and Fellow of the Institution of Production Engineers, UK.

Rajendra Mishra had received an M.Sc. in Production Engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1953, under a UNESCO Fellowship. In 1943 he had earned a B.Sc. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University, after completing an I.Sc. from Patna Science College in 1939 and Matriculation in 1937 from Watson High School in Madhubani, Bihar.

To complement his legendary devotion to education, he achieved great balance in life by following other pursuits. His love for playing bridge, reading, reciting poetry, travelling, singing and sports (particularly badminton and soccer) were only matched by his spiritual yearnings. He was an avid gardener and a hunter in his younger days. During his studies at B.H.U. in 1942, Rajendra Mishra was imprisoned for 21 days by the British Rulers of India in Madhubani for obstructing the Government services as a freedom fighter. He was even shot at by the British soldiers during a civil disobedience rally when a friend next to him was wounded. As an eloquent, motivational speaker for over 20 years, he addressed IIT-KGP Alumni Associations across the country and helped build and grow the network. He was recognized as a professor who reached out to the students without any generation gap. For those who knew him, he led brilliantly by following in the manner of Steven Covey, with humility, patience and effective listening. His colleagues found him to be a visionary, highly organized and results-driven individual who believed in planning for successful execution. His mastery over different languages of English, Sanskrit, Bengali and Hindi made him an eloquent speaker with an extraordinary sense of humor and wit. His kindness, integrity, simplicity, serenity and sense of empathy were experienced by those that came in contact. Spiritually-driven, work was worship for him as he drew his strength from the family.

He was born in a poor Maithil family of Pundit Sarvanarayan Mishra and Manchuran Devi in the village of Haripur in the former district of Darbhanga in Bihar. After successfully completing a review of the Pilani Institute of Technology as the Chairman of the Committee, under the auspices of the University Grants Commission, he succumbed to a massive heart attack and passed away on the Pilani campus on November 22, 1977. He left behind his wife, Mrs. Sharda Mishra, who had been his inspiration and bedrock of support throughout his married life with her intrinsic strength and unfailing sense of pragmatism; his brother Dr. Jaymant Mishra, an eminent, national scholar of Sanskrit; and, his sons Devendra Mishra and Amarendra Mishra, both alumni of IIT, Kharagpur, and current residents of the US. Mrs. Sharda Mishra passed away in May 1993.

The life of Rajendra Mishra is a testament and reminder of the realization of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s stated objective for IIT to be “a world-class institution that produces top quality engineers, scientists and managers blending technical competence with ethical sensitivity….Carries out innovative research in frontier areas of technology, science and management with a focus on intellectual capital formation to serve the shared needs of society”. From a humble beginning in a remote village of India, Professor Rajendra Mishra left a legacy that in one or another impacted the lives of students and staff of the first Institute of higher learning.