By Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad
Dr Dharani Dhar Mali, popularly known as Dr DD Mali, was a great academician, visionary, and pioneer in entrepreneurship development in the Northeastern region of India.
He passed away on March 18, 2025, at his residence in Guwahati, Assam, at the age of 86.
He started his career as a college teacher in Shillong, Meghalaya. Later, he joined NISIET in Guwahati.
Regarding NISIET, I would like to mention a few lines because this NISIET was later re-christened as NIMSME.
The National Institute of Small Industry Extension Training (NISIET) was established in 1960 under the Ministry of Small Scale Industries.
The institute is located in Hyderabad and offers postgraduate diplomas in information technology, tourism, fashion design, bioinformatics, digital graphic arts and animation, interiors and landscape design, and embedded systems.
In addition to seminars and conferences, NISIET conducts international programmes. Later on, NISIET was re-christened National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NIMSME).
And NISIET, Guwahati became the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati. It is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
The main aim of the Institute is to provide training, research, and consultancy activities in Small and Micro Enterprises (SME), with special focus on entrepreneurship development.
The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), registered under the Societies Registration Act,1860, was established 1993 in Guwahati by the erstwhile Ministry of Industry (now the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), Government of India.
The Institute began operating in April 1994 with the North East Council (NEC), Governments of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and SIDBI as its other stakeholders. IIE was transferred to the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship on May 22, 2015.
Dr D D Mali worked in various capacities—college teacher, faculty member in NISIET, Hyderabad, Director of NISIET, Guwahati, Director of IIE, Guwahati, and Advisor to IIE.
In addition, he was a consultant to the IFC—South Asia Enterprise Development Facility and the World Bank Group.
He also served as a research guide for Ph.D. scholars. He has 20 books to his credit and has published many research articles in reputed journals.
When I worked as a faculty member at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj INIRD&PR) in Guwahati, I had the opportunity to interact with him on many occasions.
I observed that he was a very amicable and dedicated person, a great human being, and an erudite scholar.
The author is Former Professor & Head, NIRD & PR, Hyderabad.
