IIM-A to take management education to SAARC countries

Updated on: Saturday, July 23, 2011

After introducing management education in Nepal and Bhutan, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad said it would be intensifying efforts to take management education to neighbouring and SAARC nations.

"We are holding the first of its kind two week general management programme in Bhutan. Last year, a programme was organised in Nepal. The whole idea is to take the management education to the SAARC countries," IIM-A Director Samir Barua
told reporters here.

"There are 31 participants from Bhutan and 25 from India, in this programme. The idea was to get a mix of participants so that people in Bhutan come to learn what is happening in India and similarly people from India learn about the opportunities in Bhutan," Barua said.

"The aim was to create a dialogue between the two countries. The Government of India (GoI) is keen that the educational institutions should conduct courses overseas," he said.

"We intend to intensify our approach over the next couple of years and begin offering more such executive education courses overseas," Barua said.

"This programme is similar to the general management Tier I and II programmes being offered on campus here. It will have sessions in marketing, finance, behavioural science, human resource, strategy," he said.

In reply to a query on the possibility of offering management courses in Pakistan, Barua said: "There were some visa-related issues".

He also informed that the papers published by the IIM-A faculty have started getting global attention.

He said the faculty publishes anywhere between 50-60 papers annually mainly focused on emerging markets and India.

Now what is happening is that papers having contextual reference to India are being read internationally as the country has drawn global attention, which was not the case earlier, Baura said.

Meanwhile, IIMs which is seeking more autonomy in its functioning have sent modified a Memorandum of Association (MoA) to the Union Ministry of HRD, which empowers the B-school governing board to select a director of choice.

"We have proposed a new MoA and rules for the approval which provides for selection of chairman and director should be the responsibility of the governing board in the sense that board will recommend the names and then government would choose from it," Barua said.

This is very different from the current practice. The Gujarat government has already approved the MoA, and approval of Union HRD Ministry is awaited, he said.

The governing boards of IIM-A is also proposed to be downsized from the existing 25 to 14, Barua informed adding the downsized board would have at least two representatives each from the state and union government.

IIM-A to take management education to SAARC countries

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