Former cricketer Chetan Chauhan takes over as NIFT chairperson

Former cricketer and two-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, Chetan Chauhan, has been named the chairperson of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), according to a report in an English daily.

”This is a Government of India appointment. The names [for the post of chairman] are sent by the ministry of textiles… preference is given to people in the party (BJP),” Chauhan told The Indian Express on Friday. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for his appointment, and said he had held “a few informal meetings” at his new office.

Chauhan already is juggling a number of profiles, as the vice-president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and as a senior BCCI official, in addition to running a cricket academy in Delhi’s Saket Sports Complex. However, the 68-year-old said he will “have time for all my roles”.

How does he plan to balance the multiple roles, including at his company Coral Newsprint? “I will spend 60% of the time in DDCA, 30% at NIFT and 30% in my business,” he said.

The NIFT Act 2006 prescribes that the chairperson of the Board of Governors should to be “an eminent academician, scientist or technologist or professional, to be nominated by the Visitor” of the institute, which is the President. The term of the appointment is three years.

Over a career spanning over a decade, the right-handed batsman played 40 Tests and



has 11,000-plus first-class runs. But he credited his appointment to his experience in cricketing and banking. “They examined many names and ultimately chose me because I am an international sportsman and have experience in banking. I worked with the Bank of Baroda as a Scale-4 officer based in Delhi. For 23 years, I spent quality time in banking,” Chauhan was quoted as saying.

During his cricketing days in the 1970s, Chauhan was not known to be among the team’s flashy dressers. That title was held by the likes of Tiger Pataudi, Farokh Engineer and Salim Durrani. “My fashion sense is not being flamboyant but well-dressed,” he told The Indian Express. “I am not dashing fashion-oriented because I have to go with what suits my age. But I like to dress up smartly and well.”

The appointment of the chairman and non-official members of the Board of Governors of the NIFT — a statutory body under the Ministry of Textiles — is proposed by the Union textiles minister and approved by the President.

The Board of Governors is the apex authority for administrative and financial decisions of the institute, while the implementation of decisions is delegated to three sub-committees. Of these, the Standing Committee on Establishment Matters is directly headed by the chairman.

The chairman is also part of the reviewing authority for a number of senior academic and administrative positions at the institute.