IIM-Raipur, IIM-Rohtak and IIM-Ranchi - the new campuses of the Indian Institute of Management - are set with big aims for the days to come.
Nestled in government university campuses in Raipur, Rohtak and Ranchi are the new flag bearers of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) system, the eight, ninth and tenth IIMs in the country. The new IIMs are part of the seven new IIMs envisaged in the 11th five year plan.
One of the factors that has aided the new IIMs is the fact that they are being mentored by their older more established predecessors. This has put in place a culture of excellence, while allowing students the luxury of being taught by the best.
“The mentorship programmes have meant that the students at new IIMs got the chance to interact with the best in the country. This has meant not just better exposure but also more credibility for students,” said a professor from the management information system (MIS) department at IIM-C.
IIM-Ranchi has, for example, been mentored by IIM-Calcutta, the oldest institute in the IIM system. This has allowed the students to be taught by what is arguably the country’s best finance faculty.
“While it is correct to state that we are at a disadvantage because 50 per cent of our teachers are visiting faculty, what has worked to our advantage is that the technology has made them available even from a distance,” said Aditya Somani, student, IIM-Ranchi.
For Somani, the decision to choose IIM-Ranchi was difficult. Besides its IIM pedigree, the institute really had nothing more to offer, not even a director that was available full time in June 2010. In fact a small library, a couple of classrooms, albeit well maintained, and a mess in a borrowed building is the available infrastructure at IIM-Ranchi.
Summer placements have surpassed expectations for the institute’s 44 students. Everyone has found paid internship positions, with recruiters from companies like Nokia and ICICI having visited the makeshift campus.
“We have been able to ride the IIM-Calcutta mentorship programme, which, along with my marketing contacts, has helped students get the best of both marketing and finance worlds. Our average summer internship salaries have gone up to Rs 22,500, at times better than the older of the new IIMs,” said MJ Xavier, director, IIM-Ranchi.
IIM-Raipur tenth in the IIM system, is looking at establishing not just its presence as an A-list B-school, but has also taken it upon itself to improve the overall Chhattisgarh ecology, given that the state’s development has been hindered by the Naxal issue.
“Students have scored in summer placements despite the fact that operations started almost six months late from the scheduled date of initiation. The students will increasingly be interacting with the top brass of the Chhattisgarh government aiding involvement of management formulas to the state,” said BS Sahay, director, IIM-Raipur.
For students of IIM-Raipur, mentored by faculty at IIM-Indore, summer placements have been good. The campus was visited by companies across finance, auto, marketing, and fast moving consumer goods sectors.
The story is replicated at IIM-Rohtak where students were able to secure offers from the likes of Ernst & Young and Reliance for paid summer positions. IIM-Rohtak was mentored by IIM-Lucknow. “In a few years, we aim to become a centre of academic excellence. The institute has a locational advantage in that we are the sole IIM in the national capital region (Rohtak is 70 km from Delhi), allowing easy accessibility,” said P Rameshan.
In keeping with its aim to become a centre of academic excellence, IIM-Rohtak is looking at increasing the size of its faculty from the current four to 20 over the next three months. Also both Ranchi and Raipur will increase the size of their faculty adding between five and nine members by June.
Given the fact that even the oldest of the IIMs have not been spared the problems associated with faculty shortages, the new IIMs have arrived at a model of using visiting faculty to the utmost and optimising available resources.
The three institutes along with IIM-Tiruchirapalli have come up with the concept of the smart classroom. Technologically heightened classrooms, each one built at a cost of Rs Rs 50-60 lakh, will connect students across the four institutes giving students the advantage of interacting with high profile visiting faculty.
Also important is diverse paths of growth that is currently being chartered by the three institutions, even as the model of joint conduct of entrances is being hailed as an administrative masterstroke.
IIM-Ranchi is looking at establishing a niche by establishing parallel business management courses in basic analytics, human resource management along with banking and finance verticals. Creation of an educational centre of excellence and a global management institute encouraging research are topmost on the IIM-Rohtak’s agenda.
“We are aiming to become a global institution, and will tailor our intake of students and faculty accordingly. We will invest Rs 125 crore to build infrastructure over the next two-three years on 200 acres that we have received from the government,” Rameshan said.
Sahay’s vision for IIM-Raipur is reflective of the issues before the new IIM system and his mandate now is to build an institute that is a centre for educational excellence that embraces social responsibility. “Research which is comparable to global standards, which is relevant in the modern day scenario of challenges in public and private management, will be the focus at IIM-Raipur. One has to understand that research cannot be a cosmetic add-on for B-schools. This will be our USP,” Sahay said. Of course, many are critical of the kind of infrastructure at the new IIMs — they come nowhere close to the standards set by the now towering IIM-A B and C, (Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore) — it has to be said they are just beginning their journey.
Faculty and directors in the three new entrants to the IIM system are optimistic about the future. As they say, the IIM system is evolving and these institutions will determine the direction of this evolution.
Swati Garg reports from Kolkata.
