Haryana is hardly known as a management hub, but that could change soon. The Indian Institute of Management-Rohtak (IIM-R), one of the newest IIMs on the block, has managed to acquire 200 acres of land for its new campus and is in the process of taking possession.
Situated in village Sunaria in the National Capital Region, the campus will be virtually in the backyard of Delhi.
“We hope to commence operations within the next two to three years,” says Prof P. Rameshan, Director of the year-old institute.
That will be in record time. The first of the new batch of IIMs to come up, IIM- Kozhikode took six to seven years before moving to its permanent campus, says Prof Rameshan, who was once a part of IIM-K.
Budget
The allocated budget for new IIMs proposed in 2008 was Rs 400- 500 crore but may shoot up to Rs 600 -700 crore as the years go by.
To distinguish itself from the crowd of IIMs, IIM-R plans to promote itself as a socially committed, globally oriented and entrepreneurial institute.
“We were the first to have a tie-up with Kelley School of Business and will continue to ink associations with international schools. It is too early for us to talk about an international campus, but it is definitely on our agenda,” says Prof Rameshan.
The Director is of the opinion that qualified faculty is the biggest asset of an institute. “When faculty members get recognition for good research papers, their institute also gets acclamation.”
Focus
IIM-R will focus on entrepreneurship development with an emphasis on generating awareness in areas of agriculture, rural areas and value addition to the lives of people. It intends to train and support entrepreneurs who can bring about a socio-economic transformation through social activities. Though most of these plans are still on the drawing board, Prof Rameshan insists they would be differentiating factors for the institute.
In order to promote gender equality, the institute gives more weightage to female students.
“At present, less than 10 per cent of students are women here but we want to push that up to 30 per cent going forward,” he says.
Finally, the institute wants to be known as a professional, value-based and ethical one.