The new IIMs have come a long way since they first took flight a decade ago, but still struggle to attract quality students and faculty. How does this impact the brand?
IIM-Rohtak has ₹46 crore pending from the ₹333 crore budget, but will require significant additional funds to complete the campus as planned
Image: Madhu Kapparath
It’s as easy as A-B-C. Any management student in India can tell you that.
For generations now, the hierarchy of the coveted Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) has been denoted by the simple strain of the alphabet. By value of prestige, the chain goes: IIM-Ahmedabad or IIM-A; IIM-Bangalore or IIM-B; and IIM-Calcutta or IIM-C. That sequence remains dominant even today, almost six decades after the first IIMs were established in Ahmedabad and Kolkata in 1961, and now when 20 IIMs stand ground.
This is part of the problem.
The IIMs can be categorised into three generations. The first set, referred to as the ‘older IIMs’, are IIM-A, IIM-C (established in 1961), IIM-B (1973), IIM-Lucknow (1984), IIM-Indore (1996) and IIM-Kozhikode (1997). The hierarchy remains largely sequential, in order of establishment.
“ We have completed Phase 1 of construction at the permanent campus, but Phase 2 and 3 remain. I would request the government to reconsider capital funding.”
Dheeraj Sharma, Director, IIM-Rohtak
(This story appears in the 18 January, 2019 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)