IN FOCUS
Grooming personnel for international business
Manish Kumar Singal

Students of the Fortune Institute of International Business

WITH the globalisation of the economy, more and more companies are coming up in the export sector, giving a boost to the job opportunities for the students of International Business. To meet their manpower needs several institutes are offering professional degrees in this field. The Fortune Institute of International Business (FIIB) is one of the institutes offering Post-Graduate Diploma in International Business.

The institute was started in 1995 as a self-financing organization.

Courses: The institute is offering only one course i.e. Post-Graduate Diploma in International Business. The Director General, FIIB, Dr Reena Ramchandran, says it is easy to introduce a number of courses but it is difficult to sustain them.

R.K Srivastava, founder president of the institute, believes, "The unique selling proposition (USP) of students graduating from the FIIB is depth and intensity, self-discipline, the power of analytical thinking, and the confidence to emerge as business leaders of the millenium."

Infrastructure: Currently, the institute is situated in Bijwasan on the Delhi-Jaipur highway and is shortly shifting to a new building in the Vasant Kunj area of the Capital. It has a library with a collection of nearly 9000 books.

The institute is providing limited hostel accommodation, separate for boys and girls in a Palam Vihar colony.

With a view to ensuring practical exposure for its students, the institute has tied up with some big export promotion councils like the Noida Export Processing Zone, Chamber of Commerce, Land Container Depot, etc.

Besides, the institute has also tied up with customs houses, the Maruti Udyog Limited, foreign exchange dealers, the ITPO, shipping companies, freight forwarders, etc in Delhi and the ports in Mumbai to give its students the best possible practical training in the field.

The institute has a well-equipped computer lab with the latest software.

Placement: The FIIB lays a lot of emphasis on finding both summer and final placements for its students. It has a separate placement group, which deals entirely with providing guidance and assistance to students for summer training project as well as securing suitable placements in companies on completion of their two-year PGDBM programme.

Ramchandran claims that its students are absorbed by several big companies like Air India Ltd., Air Sahara, Apollo International, BPL, Birla International, FICCI etc.

Eligibility: The programme is open to all those possessing a bachelor's degree from an accredited Indian or foreign university. A good command over written and verbal English is also a prerequisite.

Procedure: The admission committee evaluates all the information about the candidate given in the application form, i.e. MAT score, work experience, community activities and participation in extracurricular activities. On the basis of these, the students are shortlisted and are subjected to group discussion and personal interview.

Fee structure: Since the institute is a self-financed, the tuition fee structure is higher than that of a government institution. The tuition fee for two-year PGDBM programme is around Rs 2.4 lakh, to be paid bi-annually. The tuition fee for the sponsored candidates is Rs 3 lakh and for NRI candidates, it is US $ 8000. The fee is payable in four equal installments of Rs 75,000 each.