BackSix new IIMs to start classes from this year
New IIMs will conduct classes from temporary campuses, with 140 students each in the postgraduate course
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New Delhi: In what can bring cheer to IIM aspirants, the Union cabinet on Wednesday formally approved setting up of six new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which will start operations from this academic year.
The six new IIMs will be located at Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bodh Gaya (Bihar), Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), Nagpur (Maharashtra), Sambalpur (Odisha) and Amritsar (Punjab), said telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday, after the Union cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“It is intended that these six new IIMs will commence their first academic session from 2015-16," said Prasad.
These IIMs will function from assigned temporary campuses and shift to their permanent campuses once construction is completed, Prasad added.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced proposal to open five new IIMs while presenting the 2014 budget. In addition, an IIM was proposed in Andhra Pradesh.
Though the finance minister announced an IIM in Jammu and Kashmir in his budget speech in February 2015, it did not figure in the list declared by the cabinet on Wednesday.
Each new IIM will start operations with 140 students in the postgraduate programme—the flagship course of the IIMs.
“It is expected that the annual intake will increase to reach a level of 560 students by the end of seven years," a cabinet release stated.
Admission to these institutes will take place via the Common Admission Test conducted by the IIMs. The admission process to the 13 existing IIMs is under way.
The Union cabinet decision addresses two key issues—location of the new IIMs and the year of commencement, as some of the states and Union human resource development ministry are still debating the location of these institutes.
While Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh are ready with their temporary campuses, Bihar, Odisha and Punjab are yet to finalize theirs, leading to differences between the HRD ministry and the states.
The decision on temporary campuses is largely due to the uncertainty related to the location of the IIMs.
For example, in Odisha, there was a lot of political infighting on where the IIM should be located—the relatively developed coastal parts or the backward western region.
Though, initially the state had finalized capital city Bhubaneswar as the location, later it wanted the HRD ministry to establish the IIM at Sambalpur.
The HRD ministry and the Odisha government exchanged several mails, and the ministry was of the opinion that if state fails to make necessary progress, then the IIM may not start operations in 2015.
Odisha’s technical education minister Sanjay Das Burma did not respond to calls or an SMS to his mobile phone, but he told a local news website—Odisha Sun Times—that he is “relieved and wish to thank the Union HRD minister for this announcement. I am also thankful to chief minister Naveen Patnaik for all the lobbying. The Union HRD ministry, after visiting the Sambalpur location, had asked us to make improvements on communication and we had immediately agreed to it".
Though critics have been questioning necessity of setting up more IIMs in the face of a lack of teachers and permanent campuses, IIM Bangalore director Sushil Vachani said that he does not think establishing new IIMs is a bad idea.
In an interview to Mint on Sunday, Vachani said looking at the economic growth of the country, trained managers are an urgent requirement.
He said the number of seats at IIMs have not kept pace with the growth of the economy.
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