The International School of Project Management (ISPM) was launched on 13 November 2010 by the social activist Dr. Kiran Bedi. ISPM is a non-profit organisation started to provide sui generis project management courses in India. Up until recently most of the project management education in India has been made by the international certifying bodies the US based Project Management Institute </u> (PMI) and the International Project Management Association </u>(IPMA). Leaders of the industry have recognised the importance of an Indian based production of project management knowledge. A meeting of specialists held in March 2007, including the then Chairman of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation</u> (NHPC), and the then Deputy Head UNDP India, to establish a "Charter" with a mission of setting up an institution to transfer academic knowledge and skills from the West to India, and work out how they could be applied in India. Upendra Giri (Bio), owner of ASTROWIX-ACOE Global (a project management training company) was elected President, and Thomas Bain (Bio) , then Project Manager with the Delegation of the European Union to India was selected to be the Dean. The ISPM was lauched with an executive education programme lead by Professor Georges Haour (Bio) International Institute for Management Development (IMD) Business School, with the catchy title "Leading Effective Innovation Projects".