Rakesh Basant was a faculty member of the Economics Area at IIMA between 1994 and 2022. He retired as a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad (IIMA) in January, 2022. During his long tenure at IIMA (September, 1994 - January, 2022), he held several key positions including JSW Professor of Innovation and Public Policy (October 2016 – September 2020) and Dean, Alumni and External Relations (October 2016 - February 2020). He was associated with the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE.CO), now IIMA Ventures at IIMA since its inception and was its chairperson for several years.

His teaching focused on the economics of firm strategy, innovation, intellectual property rights (IPRs), entrepreneurial business models, public policy and regulation. At IIMA, he taught courses relating to Economic Environment and Policy in India, Economics of Regulation, Technology Networks and Management, Economics of Strategy, Industrial Organization, Strategic Management of Intellectual Property Rights, Multinationals and the International Economy and Innovation and Technology Policy. During 2010-21, he collaborated with faculty at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad to offer a course entitled New Technology Applications, Design and Business Models. A somewhat similar course combining technology, design and public policy elements was also offered, in collaboration with NID and IIMA faculty during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Among other teaching experiments was a course called Fund Management, which simulated venture capital company scenarios using live deals and active seed funds at CIIE (IIMA Ventures).

His teaching interests have always overlapped with his research interests. Given his diverse research interests, he was an active contributor to the IIMA’s doctoral programme and supervised a large number of PhD students across areas. Broadly, his research focused on capability building processes in industrial clusters, Foreign Direct Investment in R&D, innovation-internationalization linkages, competition policy, inter-organizational linkages for technology development (especially academia-industry relationships), incubation models in higher education institutions, emerging entrepreneurial patterns and eco-system in India, strategic and policy aspects of intellectual property rights, linkages between public policy and technological change, economics of strategy, the small scale sector in India and policy issues in higher education. Sectoral focus of research in the aforementioned areas has been on Pharmaceutical, IT, Electronics and Auto-component industries. He was a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s High-Level Committee (also known as Sachar Committee) that wrote a report on the Social, Economic and Educational Conditions of Muslims in India. In continuation of this work, part of his research focuses on issues relating to Muslims, especially affirmative action in higher education. Widely published in national and international journals, he had an extensive international exposure through several collaborative projects, seminars and conferences and has taught at universities abroad and worked as a consultant to several international organizations. His book ‘The Black Box – Innovation and Public Policy in India’ was published by Penguin in August 2021.

During his tenure at IIMA, he was actively involved with student activities as an advisor and mentor. As the Warden, he was actively involved in starting IIMA’s cultural festival, Chaos, in 1996 and remained associated with it for several years. For more than 15 years, he was also the faculty advisor for IIMACTS, the IIMA Cultural and Theatrical Society and was involved in their productions. Just before superannuation he was involved in setting up of the Emotional Wellness Programme at the Institute for students and other members of the IIMA community.