Dr. Indu Rao

Dr Indu Rao is Professor and Director, Academic Staff College at VIT University Vellore. She has a unique combination of an international, multidisciplinary, industry and academic experience of 28 years, is credited with design and execution of innovative technology enabled systems in higher education, teaching, research, administration, faculty development and industry-institute collaborations. Dr Rao holds two PhD degrees, one from Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences-University of Twente, Netherlands, and another from Faculty of Management Studies, MLSU, India, Post Doctoral Fellow of IIM-A and ABD (Management and International Business) from College of Business, FlU, USA; MBA, New Delhi and B.E. (Electrical), MNIT, Jaipur. She worked with multinational firms Crompton Greaves Ltd, Mumbai and General Electric before joining academics. She has published books, international journal articles and case studies (research is cited in Business Standard, Business World, the Statesman, ToI, Indian Express and Economic Times). For her pioneering research work in the organization of informal firms of Indian Diamond Industry, Dr Rao has received awards from Surat Diamond Association, GJEPC, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India; Department of Labor and Employment, Government of Gujarat; South Gujarat and Saurashtra Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Atmiya Group of Institutions, Rajkot and Sarvajanik Education Society. She conceptualized and executed the first Hackathon using technology to solve social and rural problems at GTU in 2015 which is being replicated every year at the National level by PMO. In 2017, she received the award for the Visionary Pioneer by Women’ Entrepreneurship Day (WED) Foundation, USA for contribution to entrepreneurship eco-system through research; VIWA Distinguished Woman in Management award in Chennai, Udgam Special Achievement Award in Gandhinagar for an outstanding contribution to academics in 2018; the Bharat Excellence Award, the Best Researcher in Social Science Award, the Leading Educationist of India Award, Best National Educator and Author Award in 2019, Outstanding Senior Faculty and Life-Time Achievement Award in 2020, Top Universities Director Leadership Award and Iconic Leadership in Higher Education, 2021.Recently, she has designed technology based interfacec at VIT to train and develop faculty and successfully crossed faculty 25000 registrations during pandemic.