Abhishek Batra

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

“From chasing smugglers and strays to helping boardrooms sleep peacefully through regulation and policy mazes.”

Hometown: Kashipur, Uttarakhand, India

Fun fact about yourself: In 24 hours, I’ve cloned five phones to secure evidence, interrogated a CXO, completed medical checks, produced him in court and had him lodged in Tihar Jail, one of the world’s largest prison complexes.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Delhi-B.Sc. (Hons.) Computer Science

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school?
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence – Intelligence Officer (Commercial Frauds and Narcotics)

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? Not applicable (one-year MBA program). Instead, I worked on an individual research project with my batchmate Kanak under the guidance of a faculty member.

Where will you be working after graduation? Mahindra & Mahindra Group

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

At IIMA, I served as Social Impact Secretary, co‑leading with Dharaniya. We oversaw roughly $42,000 in annual budget, mentored a 19‑member core team and 180+ students across the committee. We crowd-sourced ~ $13,000 for education and institutionalised the Social Impact Grant for 11 students. We also set up animal welfare framework on campus by segregating animal zones, mapping 20+ feeding points and managing around $4,000 a year for ~20 dogs and 15 cats.

Zero dog-bite incidents during our tenure !

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Receiving the entry scholarship at IIM Ahmedabad was a quiet but powerful moment of validation for someone coming from a non-traditional path of law enforcement and social work. It helped silence the imposter syndrome and reminded me that my zigzag journey did belong in these classrooms. On the lighter side, I also walked the ramp for the first time in my life during IIMA’s section wars, a small but symbolic step outside my comfort zone in a campus culture that constantly nudges you to experiment with new versions of yourself.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I was part of the core investigation team on a major electric-vehicle regulatory lapse, where an automaker had been importing almost fully assembled cars while declaring them as semi‑knocked‑down units to claim lower customs duty. By coordinating factory searches, technical examinations and email forensics across locations, we established wilful misdeclaration and recovered over USD 7.7 million in evaded duty, helping protect public revenue and the level playing field for compliant domestic manufacturers. The government later recognised my role with an official monetary reward.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose IIM Ahmedabad because it sits at the intersection of legacy, academic rigour and real career transitions for people like me, who are moving from regulation and social impact into strategic roles around policy and the public sector. In class, the case-method forces you to argue both as the regulator and the firm, and the professors firmly challenge you to see how profits, policy and people can coexist. For someone who once wrote show-cause notices and now advises on navigating regulation, the red bricks felt less like a campus and more like a rehearsal space for the next chapter.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor was Prof. Kirti Sharda, who led Potential to Performance, an off‑campus, one‑week experience so intense that we literally signed an NDA as participants. In that closed‑door setting, she held up a mirror to our communication styles and behavioural patterns, forcing me to confront how I sometimes get in the way of my own potential especially under pressure. The camaraderie built there is going to last for years to come.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favourite course was Firms and Markets by Prof. Vishwanath (Vishy) because it pushed me to see the world from the firm’s side, not just the regulator’s lens I was accustomed. Week-after-week, I had to argue why a business deserved a room to make profits, recover investments and still stay fair to the consumer. It quietly rewired how I think about trade‑offs, and today it shapes how I show up in roles where I have to balance value for the company with genuine responsibility towards our stakeholders.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? T-Nite is peak IIMA energy: section wars, brutal deadlines and end term exams, all colliding over several days. As part of my section’s fashion contingent, I walked the ramp in accessories and makeup so over-the-top that even my past undercover law-enforcement self wouldn’t have recognised me. In those moments, between the cheers, chaos and costume changes, I felt pure pride and joy. This campus teaches you to show up for your people, even when your grades are screaming for help. 

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? If I could redo one thing, I’d squeeze a lot more juice out of my international immersion in Europe. The EU is the gold standard for regulation. While I did manage a visit to an EU office, I now regret not relentlessly “grilling” the ESADE professors on how Brussels thinks about upcoming regulatory shifts. For someone who has lived inside the Indian regulatory machinery, that would have been the perfect chance to cross-question and truly decode how the world’s most influential regulator is evolving.

What is the biggest myth about your school? “IIMA is all work and no life”. The same people who crack case comps by day are out hosting prom nights, pulling off some of the country’s biggest cultural and sports fests and then disappearing at 2 a.m. to rush an injured dog or cat to the vet. It’s a chaos of grades, garba, LKP night outs and dorm parties.

What movie or television show (e.g. The Big Short, The Founder, Mad Men, House of Lies) best reflects the realities of business and what did you learn from it? Suits comes closest to how business really feels to me. It shows that behind all the sharp suits and power walks, most days are about negotiation, constant firefighting and backing your team even when the odds look terrible.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? One powerful way IIMA has integrated AI is through the Artificial Intelligence for Business and Society course taught by Prof. Tanmoy Majilla. As part of it, my team built a chatbot that claimed to help users pick the “right” business school based on their profile, and we quietly hard‑wired bias into its recommendations; when we released it, most classmates treated the outputs as neutral until we revealed the trap during our presentation. Alongside this, the newly-established Krishnamurthy Tandon School of Artificial Intelligence, backed by a $11M endowment, signals how seriously the institute is betting on AI-first management education. Together, they taught me that AI is only as fair as the people and institutions funding and training it, and that responsible managers must always ask who the algorithm is really working for.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I most admire my classmate Col. Vineet Tripathi (retired). With 20+ years in the Army behind him, he still introduces himself more as a learner than as a decorated officer. When I was trying to understand how regulation and contracts really work in the defence space, he sat me down, translated the jargon into simple language, and then quietly offered his network so I could speak to people on the ground. I admire that mix of depth and humility: he brings a serious track record to the classroom, but what you notice first is how generously he shows up for everyone else.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1. To become a trusted leader in a large organisation, handling complex, cross-functional problems where regulation, business sense and people issues collide.

2. To lead a team that hits its numbers andsleeps well at night, because we managed to be slightly obsessed with doing the right thing.

What made Abhishek such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“If there’s one person who can go from cracking down on financial fraud to dissecting business strategy without missing a beat, it’s Abhishek Batra.

From high-stakes investigations with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India to the rigorous classroom of the one-year MBA-PGPX at IIM Ahmedabad, Abhishek has carried the same calm focus, sharp judgement, and quiet confidence into every setting.

Before IIMA, Abhishek led a real-life “Bollywood” career as an Intelligence Officer with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, handling complex, high stakes investigations with calm precision and discretion. Beyond enforcement, he co-founded Khwaahish, an NGO that evolved into a recognised, self-sustaining social enterprise impacting 500 children and 3,000 animals—proving that compassion works best when supported with sound business discipline.

His commitment to meaningful action continued on campus. As Secretary for Social Impact in IIMA’s 61st Students’ Executive Council, Abhishek turned ideas into tangible action. He didn’t just advocate change – he executed it.

In the classroom, when discussions revolved around models and metrics, Abhishek brought lived experience. He asked sharp, grounded questions that pushed conversations beyond theory. Across enforcement, social enterprise, and student leadership, he brings structure to decisions while remaining mindful of their human impact.

His journey reflects courage—the willingness to step away from a distinguished public service career and chart a new path in the corporate world. For his composure under pressure, clarity of thought, and steady ability to strengthen both systems and people, Abhishek Batra truly represents the Brightest and Best of the MBA Class of 2026 at IIMA.”

Prof Viswanath Pingali
Chairperson, Placements
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

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