Education: Bachelor's Degree course in Economics with Mathematics as the minor subject from Baroda University in 1967, Master's Degree in Economics with specialization in Econometrics from Baroda University in 1969, PhD in Economics from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1973.

Biography: Dholakia has 45 years of experience in the education domain including 33 years at IIM Ahmedabad. During his time at IIM Ahmedabad, Dholakia occupied the Reserve Bank of India Chair from 1992 to 1999, served as the Dean from 1998 to 2001 and as the Director of the Institute from 2002 to 2007. He has guided 20 PhD students specializing in Economics, Finance, Business Policy and Public Systems at IIM A. Dholakia had served as the Chairman of the MBA Program and also as the Chairman of Economics Area. Raghuram Rajan, Nachiket Mor and popular commentator Harsha Bhogle are some of his students.

Dholakia was the Dean at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad from April 1998 to June 2001. His tenure as director began in October 2002. Under him, IIM-A went from having 12 partner institutions for student exchange programs to 50 by 2006–07. During his tenure, the one-year program for management executives was started, and students in the very first batch got the highest salaries offered that year. Dholakia was pivotal in ensuring that the image of IIM-A did not suffer when, in November 2003, the Common Admission Test (CAT) papers got leaked for the first time in the 43-year history of the IIMs. Dholakia opposed the then HRD Minister's decision to ask the IIMs to cut their fees, and as a mark of protest, rejected a Rs.100 million (Rs.100 million) grant IIM-A got from the ministry. He subsequently made sure the institute became self-sufficient. Dholakia had been associated with the Adani Group since December 2007. He had been the Director of Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management and Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhuj. He is presently the Director General of International Management Institute, New Delhi.

Dholakia was a board member of the Reserve Bank of India Western Area Board from 1993 to 2001. He was appointed by the Government of India as the Chairman of the National Board of Accreditation for Technical Education in India (2005–2008). He has also served as External Director on the boards of several public and private sector companies, including ONGC, Shipping Commission, Torrent Power, RNRL and Mahanagar Gas. He was also on the board of Arvind, Ashima and L&T Power. Over the last two decades, Dholakia has worked on numerous government committees, the recent ones being the Rangarajan Committee on Pricing and Taxation on Petroleum Products (2006) and the Expert Group on Pension Fund constituted by the Government of India (2009). The Competition Commission of India had appointed Dholakia as a member of the Eminent Persons Advisory Group (EPAG). Dholakia was associated with the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Government of India, where he was one of the three members responsible for the restructuring of the ICSSR. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, Mangalore Stock Exchange, Gujarat Electricity Board, Steel Authority of India Ltd., Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd. etc.