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Dr K. M. Baharul Islam has been teaching and researching in the areas of Communications, Connectivity, Environmental Impact Assessment, Public Policy, and Governance for more than thirty years. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Institute of Management Technology, Hyderabad. Earlier, he was the Professor & Chairperson of the Centre of Excellence in Public Policy and Government at IIM Kashipur from 2014 to 2024. He also served as the Dean of IIM Kashipur from 2019 to 2021. Starting his career as a faculty member at the National Institute of Technology, Silchar, in 1994, he went on to teach at several universities in India and abroad. Between 2002 and 2012, he served on several international assignments. He was appointed as the Chairman and CEO of the South Asian Regional Gateway under the Development Gateway, established by the World Bank (2007-2012). In 2020, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He has led a major South Asian Regional Capacity Building project, funded by the World Bank, as its Program Director, and piloted a Green MBA programme at IIM Kashipur.

Besides teaching, Dr Islam has also worked extensively with the United Nations, starting as a Consultant for UNESCO in Cambodia in 1998. Later he worked with the UN Commission for Africa (UNECA) during 2003-2006. In 2006-2007, Dr Islam served under UNESCAP in Bangkok, conducting an ICT Access Survey in the Asia-Pacific region. He was working for the African Development Bank as their Mid-Term NICTSP Review Consultant in Mauritius (2010- 11). He prepared a training module on Telecom Infrastructure Sharing for the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development, Incheon, South Korea.

Dr Islam prepared two major reports related to telecom sector – (1) Co-deployment with Transport and Energy Infrastructure commissioned by ITU (2021) and (2) Fibre-Optic Co-Deployment along the Asian Highways and Trans-Asian Railways for E-Resilience: The Cases of India and Bangladesh, commissioned by UNESCAP, Bangkok (2018).

Dr Islam holds three master’s degrees: LLM in Telecom and Information Technology Laws from the University of Strathclyde (UK), MA (English) from AMU, Aligarh, and MBA from IK Gujral Technical University. He did two PhDs: one in English from Tezpur University and another in Transitional Justice from Don Bosco University. He also did his Post-Doctorate from the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok). He has received a D.Litt. degree from Kumaun University (2023) for his research on the Internet and language learning. Additionally, he holds a B.Ed. degree specialising in Educational Planning and Administration. Dr Islam is a recipient of the United Kingdom Telecom Academy Fellowship (2004) at Strathclyde University, the Andrew Towl Endowment scholarship at the Harvard Business School (2013-14) and the IPDET Fellowship at the University of Bern (Switzerland) in 2018.

Prof Islam also serves as a Board Member of the Educators Without Borders International since 2020. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (UK) and the US India Policy Institute in Washington, DC. He has published widely with ten books and several research papers/articles to his credit. He is a public speaker, debater, TV commentator and communication specialist. He participated at the BBC World Debate in 2006. His latest publication includes a book on Business Communication from Wiley (2023).