After IIM Calcutta was started next IIM should have been started in Bombay which is Commercial capital of India but why it has been started in Ahmedabad?

The first two IIMs were supposed to be in Mumbai and Calcutta. While the land and approvals for Calcutta came relatively easily, the then-Mumbai state government refused to allot land for an IIM in Mumbai and acted rather casually.

Meanwhile, Vikram Sarabhai, the driving force behind the IIMs concept, was eager to get the IIMs up and running as soon as possible. He was well known for his extensive business and political connections, but his entire industrial and research infrastructure was in Ahmedabad (in the then-newly created state of Gujarat).

Vikram Sarabhai was so eager to get the IIM started in western India (one in the east and one in the west was the initial logic, which was followed by one in the south and one in the north as well) that he pulled all the strings for an IIM in Ahmedabad. For the first few years, IIMA was based in Vikram Sarabhai's personal bungalow in Ahmedabad's Shahi Baug area.

He was also the driving force behind the recruitment of other IIMA legends, including Louis Kahn for the architectural plan, Kastoorbhai Lalbhai of Arvind Mills for the donation of all land for the campus, and the mesmerizing Ravi J. Matthai, the institute's first full-time director.