Presenting his second budget in a row on Feb 28, 2015 the Finance Minister of India Mr. Arun Jaitley announced setting up an Indian Institute of Managament (IIM) each in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Andhra Pradesh to spread the quality MBA education across the country. Both the IIMs are proposed to begin functioning from the academic session 2015-16, if everything goes according to the plan.
Delivering the Budget 2015 speech in LokSabha, the Finance Minister said “In the fiscal year 2015-16, I propose to set up All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in J&K, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Assam. Keeping in view the need to augment Medical Sciences in Bihar, I propose to set up another AIIMS like institution in these States. I propose to set up an IIT in Karnataka, and upgrade Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad into a full-fledged IIT. I also propose to set up a Post Graduate Institute of Horticulture Research and Education in Amritsar. IIMs will be setup in J&K and Andhra Pradesh.”
The announcement of setting up an IIM in J&K and finalizing the already under process IIM Andhra Pradesh, proposed to be set up in Visakhapatnam has brought the total IIM tally to 20 now. There are 7 older IIMs namely IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore, Shillong and Kozhikode. 6 new IIMs were established in 2010-11, they are IIM Kashipur, Ranchi, Raipur, Rohtak, Trichy and Udaipur. Proposed IIMs include IIM Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
IIM J&K: The added IIM
In his first budget speech while presenting the budget 2014-15 Mr Jaitley announced the setting up of 5 new IIMs in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, odisha and Maharashtra. In addition to this the 6th IIM in the state of Andhra Pradesh was also proposed later. However, it has been included now in the budget 2015-16. Considering this fact, state of Jammu & Kashmir is the only newly added state which is going to be bestowed with an IIM in 2015 as IIM Andhra Pradesh is already being mentored by IIM Bangalore and getting ready to commence operation from July 2015.
Registration for IIM Andhra with CAT 2014
Common Admission test (CAT) 2014 registration which began in August 2014 also allowed candidates to register for IIM Andhra Pradesh along with other proposed IIMs. CAT 2014 is the mandatory exam for admission to IIMs in 2015. On the basis of CAT 2014 percentile scores IIMs have shortlisted the candidates for next admission round.
Jammu: The Ideal location for IIM
Undoubtedly, Jammu in the state of J&K would be the ideal city for proposed IIM. Jammu is well connected by rail, road and air. The city is the winter capital of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Even during the period of heavy snowfall in winters, heavy land sliding in rainy season when the roads and air services are disrupted to other parts of J&K state, Jammu remains accessible via Rail, Road and air routes. The city has good number of industries and the industrialized area of Punjab is also not much far away.
Admission to IIM Jammu
It is expected that admission to IIM Jammu might be finalized with the ongoing Common Admission Process (CAP) 2015 being coordinated by IIM Udaipur. New IIM Jammu might also commence operation along with other 6 proposed IIMs from academic session 2015 since still 4-5 months are there to start the PGDM batch 2015-17. Then intake at IIM Jammu might be kept very low this year. Alternatively Ministry of HRD might also award the responsibility to some other IIM to impart management education for the selected students of IIM Jammu in the first academic year.
More IIMs: Compromising the quality or nation’s need…
In view of the Finanace Minister country needs a large number of Centres of higher learning which are world class. Varying views on increasing the number of IIMs have been expressed with the apprehension that more IIMs might dilute the quality of MBA education. However many disagree and welcome the move citing the fact that IIMs have only around 1% share of total management seats in India. In this light, this is a good move by government to expand the total number of quality MBA education seats in India.
Ministry of HRD, Government of India has to ensure that adequate quality faculty and infrastructure has been due care for all the 7 New IIMs before they commence functioning from academic session 2015. The process for admission for these IIMs has also to be decided by MHRD and IIM soon as nothing so far has been shared about intake, final admission round for the proposed IIMs.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on New IIMs
