IIM begins its Amritsar journey from July

GS Paul

Updated At : 06:29 AM May 17, 2015 IST

As the academic session kicks off at Amritsar’s Indian Institute of Management (IIM) on a temporary campus from July 15, a toast to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would be in order. He may have been rejected by the voters in the Lok Sabha election from Amritsar, but he kept his word to develop the city as an education hub.

With 65 students for the only postgraduate degree in business management (PGDBM) course on offer, the maiden two-year batch (2015-17) will operate from the premises of the Punjab Institute of Technology near Guru Nanak Dev University. The other management expertise programmes will follow once the institute resumes full operation from its campus. Candidates, who cracked the Common Admission Test-2014, have already been shortlisted. The IIM, Kozhikode, one of the top institutes of the country, has been assigned the task to mentor the upcoming IIM.

IIM-Kozhikode Director Kulbhushan Baluni would head it for now. Later, the Human Resource Development Ministry would appoint the director. The selection would be made on an all-India level. For the first few years, students would have an opportunity to learn from the experienced faculty of IIM-Kozhikode. Ten faculty members are needed. When it gets its own campus, the faculty would be appointed by the ministry. There is no tradition of state domicile quota, neither for students, nor the faculty.

Proposed sites

Two sites have been shortlisted for the permanent campus — one at Awan in Ajnala subdivision and the other at Sheron Bagha village near Baba Bakala. Both sites are located around 40 km from Amritsar. Awan is a 32-km drive from Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji International Airport, while Baba Bakala is over 45 km away.

The Central team comprising SP Goyal, Joint Secretary, Technical Education Department, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, and IIM-Kozhikode director Baluni had, on April 8, visited the “potential” site at Awan. While no consensus has been arrived at yet, officials believe that the 150-acre chunk of land at Awan could be the likely site for the IIM.

The Baba Bakala site, located near the national highway, caters to the districts of Amritsar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar. The only problem is its proximity to the Beas. Experts say the rise in the river waters during monsoon could be a disturbing factor. Any IIM project is undertaken keeping in view the planning of a minimum 50 years.

It is learnt that the team’s concluding remarks were that the sites were far away from the city area. Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat, who has been appointed nodal officer for the B-school, says the final call from the Central team is awaited. “There is no communication from their side, but it would be too early to say the team has rejected the site. From our side, we have offered them the option that could match their parameters in the best possible way.”

Board and lodging

After the experts zero in on the site, it would take at least three years to set up the campus, with the requisite infrastructure worth Rs 1,000 crore, say officials. Until then, arrangements have been made for the students and faculty on the premises of the newly-constructed Punjab Institute of Technology. A three-storeyed block, with fully equipped classrooms, seminar and conference rooms and a library, has been set aside for the purpose. A separate block would house administration offices.

Girl students would stay at the hostel of the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET), located adjacently. The guesthouse at the old Improvement Trust building at Sheranwala Gate, Ghee Mandi, would house the boys. A resort and another guesthouse at Holy City Enclave find place on the list of the IIM management to accommodate the faculty.

Once fully operational from the permanent site, the IIM would provide hostel and mess facilities on the campus. Private health institutions would be roped in for medical aid.

IIM-Rohtak

MDU doubles as IIM campus

Established in 2009, the IIM-Rohtak is among the fast-progressing institutions of higher learning in the region. Its campus is being developed on nearly 200 acres at Sunaria village in Rohtak district. As of now, it is functioning from the campus of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) in Rohtak. The IIM-Rohtak Director, Prof (Dr) P Rameshan, maintains that they aim to develop the institute as a global leader in management education and research.

The IIM runs a postgraduate programme in management for students as well as executives, apart from a fellow programme in management (FPM), equivalent to PhD. It has a team of 22 faculty members. More than 300 students are enrolled at the institute and the placement is encouraging. — Sunit Dhawan

IIM-Sirmaur

Classes from this session

A site measuring 1,010 bighas has been selected for establishing Himachal’s first IIM at Dhaula Kuan in Paonta Sahib, for which the Ministry of Human Resource Development has given approval in principle. The state was granted the IIM by the UPA-II government in its last budget of 2014. A task force headed by Prof Bharat Bhaskar from IIM-Lucknow will visit Paonta Sahib on May 20 to take charge of the temporary campus that is being set up in a private building. This will pave way for the commencement of the first academic session. He will also inform about the student intake and courses which will begin this session. — Ambika Sharma

Higher education institutes should be located away from the city. The remote environment helps students concentrate better. The satellite campus of IIM-Kozhikode is in Kochi while IIM-Calcutta is 40 km from the city. IIM-Lucknow is around 70 km from the airport. Such specialised institutes are conceptualised for 10 decades of planning and require ample expansion plans. It will be a boon as it will force other educational institutes to raise the bar.

Prof Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice-chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University

The IIM would be a force multiplier for the region. It will provide opportunities for management education to the youth of this border area at their doorstep. It will spawn entrepreneurship in the holy city, which historically, is a family business hub. It will encourage other technical institutes to look at the region as an educational base of excellence.

Gunbir Singh, chairperson, WWF, Punjab

LIST OF IIMs

IIM, Calcutta, located in Joka on the outskirts of Kolkata (1961)
IIM, Ahmedabad (1961)
IIM, Bangalore (1973), located in Bilekahalli
IIM, Lucknow (1984) an additional campus (2007) in Noida.
IIM, Kozhikode (1996)
IIM, Indore (1996) located at Rau
IIM, Shillong, also known as Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management,(2008)
IIM, Rohtak ( 2010)
IIM, Ranchi (2010)
IIM, Raipur (2010)
IIM, Tiruchirappalli (2011)
IIM, Kashipur (2011)
IIM, Udaipur (2011)

Upcoming IIMs

The Government of India in its Union Budget presented in July last year announced setting up of six new IIMs in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
In the Union budget presented in February this year, two more IIMs have been announced to be set up in Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh. The new IIMs are:

IIM Amritsar, Punjab

IIM Jammu, J&K

IIM Gaya, Bihar

IIM Nagpur, Maharashtra

IIM Sirmaur, HP

IIM Sambalpur, Odisha

IIM Vizag, Andhra Pradesh

IIM begins its Amritsar journey from July

GS Paul

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