Prof Rekha Jain had been the Executive Chair of IIMA-IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence since its inception in 2008 and was faculty, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India from 1985 until her superannuation in December 2019. Her research and teaching interest are in the telecom sector (policy and regulation), e-governance, ICT Strategy and Management,
Impact Assessment, and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). She was a board member of Telecommunication Consultants India Ltd (2015-19) and IIMA (2013-15) and is on the Board of Gujarat Info Petro Limited. She has been a member of several national telecom and IT policy committees, and has consulted with several leading national and international organizations in her areas of interest. She has published more than 50 papers and reports in refereed and high
quality journals and publications.
Besides the private sector, she has worked extensively with the government and the public sector in several projects of national importance. Her areas of work include Economic Value of Unlicensed Bands, Revival and Restructuring of BSNL, Internet Governance Framework for India, Manpower Development for the Software Sector, Strategic Options for Media Lab Asia, Internet Deployment in Rural Areas, Social Impact of Mobile Phones, Impact of Rural
Infrastructure Development Fund on Rural Roads in Gujarat and Monitoring and Evaluation System for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
She has worked with both international and domestic organizations, including the World Bank, DFID, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, IDRC, Department of Telecommunications, NASSCOM, Department of Post, Sixth Pay Commission, Tata Consultancy Services, Department of Electronics and IT, etc.
She has designed, developed and delivered several training programs for senior officers in the private sector and the government including Airtel, Alcatel, Department of Telecommunications, BSNL, Department of Posts, Indian Railways, Andhra Pradesh Government (CIO on e-governance), Gujarat Government, World Bank, and e-governance for political executives. She has developed more than 50 case studies.
She had held several administrative positions in the Institute including Chair, Post Graduate Program, Fellow Program, Placement, and Computer Services.
She had taught a variety of courses, both at the Post Graduate and Doctoral level including in Executive Education programs. These have been in the area of Strategies for the Internet Economy, MIS, Strategic Management of Information Systems, Management of Software Projects and Enterprises, Infrastructure Development and PPPs (co-teach), Managing Telecom Enterprises, E-governance.
She was awarded senior Fulbright Fellowship on Telecom Regulation in 1997-98 and was Visiting Scholar, Fundacao Dom Cabral, Brazil, May 2011 – June 15, 2011.
She has a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, New Delhi (1985), M.Phil. from the Department of Computer Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, NU, New Delhi (1977-79), M.Sc. Physics from Delhi University (1976).
