The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta was the first in a series of business management institutions to be sponsored by the Government of India in the early 1960’s to enhance the efficiency and transparency of commerce and industry, with an aim to increase the country’s national production capacity. This campus was followed by the institute of management in Ahmedabad designed by Louis Kahn, and a third campus in Bengaluru designed by Balkrishna Doshi and Joseph Allen Stein. All of these institutes are independent of one another and are autonomous.

Located on a marshy site in southern Kolkata, land was created by dredging earth out of seven lakes, creating higher ground levels for construction. Public works engineers set out to build the campus from simple designs that grew through ad hoc additions over the decades, with no clear plan or order. Thus, the key strategy of this design was to gift this center of advanced education an identity and a sense of place.