IIM-Calcutta plans to tap funds from corporates

Updated on: Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) plans to tap funds from Indian corporates to complete some of its infrastructures after increased intake of students over the last three years.

"The student intake has gone up. This year the total intake is around 450 students. Earlier, the intake was around 260 students," said IIM-C director Shekhar Chaudhuri.

"We are building around 530,000 sq ft of new facility. Half of the project is over. We have built 14 classrooms out of 19 planned. Two new hostels are under construction. The total project outlay is around Rs.195 crore," he added.

He said the institute has decided to approach corporates for Rs.50 crore to complete the infrastructural projects.

Dean and strategic management professor Sougata Ray said: "We have spent from our internal accruals and our corpus. We would like to have some balance in our corpus built over the years and hence the decision to tap the corporates."

Asked about the response of Indian corporates, Chaudhuri said: "We have not approached any corporate till now to gauge their response."

Institute officials said corporate philanthropy for higher education in India is not popular though some Indian groups have made donations to foreign universities.

"Making donations to foreign business schools by Indian groups may also be a brand building strategy," an official said.

Speaking of finances, Chaudhuri said the institute is self-sufficient in funds generation and has not received any funds from the government since 2003 for day-to-day activities.

"Our revenue is around Rs.100 crore. We are earning good revenue - around Rs.30 crore - from our long duration corporate training programme," Chaudhuri said.

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