How India’s young IIMs are steadily carving out their own path

With red buildings at the foothills of the Aravallis in Rajasthan, the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, offers a vibrant view. Its presence has also ensured that the City of Lakes is now buzzing with students from across the country. Set up in 2011, IIM Udaipur has become one of the most sought-after IIMs for research.

“The learnings of older IIMs were available to us,” said Prof Ashok Banerjee, the director. “There is no legacy or baggage. Innovation in an older IIM meets more resistance. For newer IIMs, the resistance to change is less. New IIMs can do many things more innovatively.”

Land was allotted to IIM Udaipur in 2014 and the campus was operational by 2017. However, it has not received government funding since 2018. “After the first five to six years, the government said you are on your own,” said Banerjee. “The corpus for new IIMs could not be built with grants. So we are building corpus through our own income. Any future expansion has to be financed through loans.”

IIM Udaipur’s vaunted research capabilities are driven by specialised centres. “After joining I realised that the work environment at IIM Udaipur is as good as, if not better than, European universities,” said Prof Saurabh Gupta of the Centre for Development and Policy Management, who has taught in England and Germany.

In terms of per capita research output, the institute outperforms even IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore—it has 60 faculty members, compared with more than 120 each at the top two.

Gupta feels older IIMs neglected research. “For 50 years, hardly any research was being conducted,” he said. “Now there is a legacy issue and it is difficult to suddenly motivate your faculty to venture into research. The advantage with being a younger institution is that you can do many things from the grassroots level.”

The institute’s Centre for Healthcare brings together practitioners, academicians and policymakers to solve complex problems. Prof Prakash Satyavageeswaran, co-chair, said: “Most of health care in India is either coming from the public side or standalone hospitals. A large part is government-run. The bulk of the work is managing personnel but they have zero training for that.”

One project on cervical cancer highlighted that less than 2 per cent of Indian women are screened, despite the World Health Organization’s 70 per cent target. “We realised it is a marketing problem, the stigma attached to cervical cancer,” said co-chair Prof Vedha Ponnappan. So, the centre studied messaging strategies across Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. According to the professors, empowering messages help women overcome stigma and fear.

IIM Amritsar, established in 2015, recently shifted to its new facility on the Jalandhar highway. Prof Samir Kumar Srivastava, director, notes the financial challenges faced by the institute. “There was no government support even during initial years,” said Srivastava. “We are repaying the loan now.” He highlights the institute’s progressive approach. “We are open to experimentation. Many of our faculty members are from premier institutes and are willing to experiment.” It has 30 faculty members and is prioritising getting the right people.

One key challenge, apart from its limited corpus, is a young alumni network. But Srivastava sees an upside. “We are nimble-footed,” he said. “India is known for its frugal innovation. Younger IIMs have limited resources yet come up with ways to outperform the older, settled ones.”

IIM Amritsar is starting an integrated programme in management with 60 students. Students will enrol in the five-year programme after Class 12. “First three years will get them a bachelor’s degree in quantitative finance and economics,” said Chetan Chitre, assistant professor (economics). “This is a focused programme for students interested in finance and economy. After graduation, students would automatically be enrolled in the MBA programme, though they will have an option to exit.” He added that it is a math-intensive programme for physics-chemistry-maths students who want to do something other than engineering.

IIM Tiruchirappalli, established in 2011, moved to its 175-acre campus in 2017. It has also carved out a strong identity. “Students enjoy a more personalised and supportive learning environment,” said Abhishek Kumar Totawar, associate professor and chair, placements.

The institute has partnered with corporations like Renault Nissan and Hyundai for executive programmes. It also works with public sector organisations like the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, where it contributes to research through the CARDS (Centre for Applied Research in Data Science) initiative. IIM Trichy aims to achieve net-zero emissions by collaborating with the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). It has signed an MoU with the REC to set up a 2MW solar power plant on campus.

Entrepreneurship interest among students has also been steadily growing. Aditi Shah, a 2020 alumna, started Dedhfoot after experimenting with business ideas on campus. She and her peers created posters and stickers for students to decorate their rooms and sold them at a campus fair. Motivated by this experience, Aditi experimented with more business ideas during her time on campus. Today her venture has grown and has clients including Sudha Murthy.