World Bank goes to B-School

Indian are used to getting periodic report cards "" most of which fetch a C or lower "" from the World Bank. Now they have a chance to get back.

According to sources, the World Bank will send some of its senior officials, including a few directors, to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to get some dope on India.

After teaching school principals, Indian Administrative Service officers and ministers of the Narendra Modi government, the institute's faculty will have yet another batch of unusual students.

According to the sources, the list of students has been finalised, the course content is ready and IIM-A Dean Indira Parikh is preparing to teach India as a subject to her new batch of students.

While Parikh was tightlipped about the development, other than admitting that IIM-A would teach World Bank officials, the lending agency refused to comment.

Parikh told Business Standard: "I can only say the top officials of the bank, including some of its directors will be attending one-to-one classes at IIM-A to learn more about our country and we are proud of this as IIMA has been given the opportunity by a such big organisation to update its brass on the happenings in India. The classes will kick off shortly and we can not comment any further on this."

Nira Anand, a senior World bank official in New Delhi, and who is reportedly co-ordinating with IIM-A on this project, said: "I am not aware of any such development and there is no other World Bank official who can comment on this."

A source close to IIM-A said that the tutorial was an attempt made by World Bank to apprise its senior officials about the latest development in the country.

Keeping with the stature of the bank, it has requested IIM-A to undertake the training of the high-profile officials. "Interestingly, some of World Bank officials coming for training are IIM-A alumni," the source said.

IIM-A has been successful in building a credible relation with the bank, which is why the agency has found it the best place to teach its officials, the source added.

The institute's director, Bakul Dholakia, could not be reached. He was busy in a meeting at "" no prizes for guessing "" the HRD Ministry.