IIM Shillong to begin operations next year

The institute will get a grant for non-recurring expenditure of Rs 120 crore over a period of five years.

The seventh Indian Institute of Management (IIM) proposed at Shillong, Meghalaya, will become operational from the academic year 2008-09. The HRD ministry has sent out proposals looking for the director and the chairperson for the IIM.

The new institute will be called the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM), Shillong and will get a grant for non-recurring expenditure of Rs 120 crore over a period of five years and Rs 45 crore for recurring expenditure over a period of six years. The government of Meghalaya has provided 120 acre of land free of cost for setting up the institute.

In the first year, the institute will admit 60 students. The capacity will be increased to 120 students in the third year and 180 students in the sixth year.

Initially, the institute will offer a two-year post graduate programme in management (PGPM) and later it would also offer short-term programmes on subjects of local relevance like tourism, horticulture and hydel power.

RGIIM will be initially run from a temporary campus at Mayurbhanj complex. Mayurbhanj complex campus was occupied by the North Eastern Hill University, which has now vacated the premises. A permanent campus for RGIIM will come in the new Shillong township.

"We already have a board of governors. The infrastructure is all in place and initial work has been done. Only the hiring of the director and faculty is left," said Professor Pramod Tandon, vice-chancellor, North-Eastern Hill University and acting director of RGIIM.

Shillong was supposed to get an IIM this July, but the project got delayed as the finance from the HRD ministry was not released.

The proposal to establish an IIM in the north-eastern belt was mooted almost three years ago. The new IIM will draw students from the north-eastern belt who otherwise flock to metros like Mumbai and Delhi for higher studies.

IIM Shillong will be the seventh IIM in the country with the other six IIMs situated in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode respectively.

The HRD ministry also has plans to set up three new IITs and IIMs and over a dozen Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

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CAT 2007 CANDIDATES TO BE NOTIFIED

A brand new IIM would mean an addition of 60 seats for aspiring management students. However, the HRD ministry is said to have taken seriously""the issue of recent advertisement on the Common Admission Test (CAT) scheduled for November 18, 2007 -""as IIM Shillong's name does not figure on the list of IIMs in the advertisement.

In this light, the CAT group which comprises admissions chairpersons of all the six IIMs would meet and sort out the issue on how to notify interested candidates on the commencement of the new IIM.

"The CAT group was not aware of IIM Shillong's commissioning next academic year. Now we might issue a small advertisement or a press release informing interested parties of this new IIM," said a CAT group member.