17, Jan 2012

Having completed a year since its inception, Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Tiruchirappalli has many plans for the upcoming academic year. The eleventh in the series of IIMs in India, IIM-T recently marked the completion of an eventful first year with the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, laying the foundation stone.

Functioning from the premises of National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi (NIT-T), the IIM-T, under the chairmanship of former SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran, has successfully laid a strong foundation for the academic and extra-curricular development of its students, thanks to its team of 12 faculty members drawn from other IIMs, IITs, and reputed institutions in the United States and France. The institute plans to expand its faculty team to 20 members, thus making it the largest among the faculties of the newly begun IIMs.

Though the initial plan was to start off with a single batch of 60 students, the response was so overwhelming that they had to eventually take 24 more. The profile of the student community is special. The inaugural batch of 84 students were chosen from various parts of the country based on their over 98.23 percent score in the CAT exam, thus ensuring that the environment was multicultural. Now efforts are on to go multinational — IIM-T’s plans to engage with universities abroad for student and faculty exchange programs and joint research ventures are underway. International placements though are already worked out; offers for summer internships have already been made to the students by reputed companies abroad.

It was on June 15, 2011 that the academic journey of the students began through an exploration of the ample avenues for intellectual pursuits the campus provides. Insight, the guest lecture series, has enabled students to access the expertise of several distinguished achievers in the field of management. By the end of the course, the students would have met 20 personalities representing industry and academia.

In January 2012 IIM-T will inaugurate the Institute Distinguished Lecture series. It will begin with a lecture by C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, to deliberate on matters that have an impact on the current socioeconomic scene in the country.

Though the focus is on academics, the institute also provides the students with opportunities that add to their personality development and overall growth as well-rounded citizens, preparing them to be responsible businesspersons. The in-house clubs dedicated to academic aspects such as marketing, finance, and consultation are as popular as clubs for music, photography, and other interests among the students.

Confluence 2011, the annual management summit hosted by IIM Ahmedabad, was a national-level platform for students of IIM-T to prove their mettle. Mohanraj Ganesan and Abhijit Mishra from the institute bagged the first place in the event Kings of Advertisements and were rewarded with Rs. 35,000. In another event at the same meet, Winners of Sellers, Devulapalli Sharath and Sudhakar Ayyagari won a cash prize of Rs. 15,000.

IIM-T has plans to increase the number of its in-house programme offerings, adding to its Fellowship Programme in Management set to begin this academic year.