About Indian Institute of Management - IIM Ahmedabad

Dr Vikram Sarabhai and a few other public-spirited industrialists realizing that agriculture, education, health, transportation, population control, energy, and public administration were all vital elements in a growing society and that it was necessary to link these meaningfully with industry. The result was the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1961 as an autonomous body with the active collaboration of the Government of India, Government of Gujarat, and industry. All members of the faculty play an important role in administering the diverse academic and non-academic activities of the Institute. The empowerment of the faculty has been the propelling force behind the high quality of learning experience at IIMA. The Institute had initial collaboration with Harvard Business School. This collaboration greatly influenced the Institute’s approach to education. Gradually it emerged as a confluence of the best of Eastern and Western values. The Louis Kahn Plaza, the main complex named after the architect, is where most major interactions and celebrations take place. The faculty wing, the library, and the classrooms surround it on three sides. The broad, airy corridors, the amphitheatre classrooms, and transition spaces in the complex further enhance interaction among the faculty, students, and visitors. The present campus, spread over 67 acres with a lush green cover, is being extended by a further 39 acres. The extended campus will feature a state-of-the-art international management and convention centre along with further classrooms, dormitories, and ancillary facilities.

Transportation - Ahmedabad is well connected with all the metropolises in India.

1. There are direct flights by Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara both in the morning and the evening from Delhi and Mumbai.
2. Daily six express trains travel between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. IIMA is 45 minutes drive from the airport and 25-30 minutes from the railway station.
3. For reaching IIMA, on landing in the city ask the taxi/auto rickshaw for "Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Vastrapur".

Faculty

• Business Policy
• Centre for Management in Agriculture
• Communications
• Computer and Information Systems Group
• Economics
• Finance and Accounting
• International Management Group
• Marketing
• Organizational Behaviour
• Personnel and Industrial Relations
• Production and Quantitative Methods
• Public Systems Group
• Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation
• Library & Information Science

Facilities

Dormitories - The campus has a wide range of housing facilities. Student housing is divided into 20 dormitories, each capable of accommodating 25-40 students in independent rooms. The dorms are located in close proximity to each other and the classrooms for convenient access and easy interaction. There is plenty of open space in each dorm for the students to interact freely. Each dorm is equipped with a pantry, washing machine, oven, stove - everything students are likely to need for a comfortable stay. For students who are married, a separate housing is available on the campus. The faculty and staff residences are situated just behind the student dormitories.

Vikram Sarabhai Library - The Institute’s library is an invaluable resource with close to 180,000 volumes, 600 current periodicals, 700 CDs and more than 2000 working papers and dissertations. It also provides indexing search services from a number of major databases like ABI/Inform, Econlit and BSP. The library has set up the 3i network or “Information Infrastructure for Institutions” to provide business, industry, environmental, agricultural, and economic information to the users. The entire library database is also available on the Institute’s intranet.

Information Technology Infrastructure - A state-of-the-art network with almost 1600 nodes connects every corner of the Institute. Every student and faculty member has a networked personal computer at his or her disposal. The Institute’s network is linked to the Internet via a dedicated leased line enabling round the clock Internet connectivity on the campus. Every classroom has a computer connected to this network that allows faculty to retrieve relevant information from their desktop or the central database. This connectivity helps both the students and the faculty considerably in their research and projects.

Kasturbhai Lalbhai Management Development Centre - Alongside Dr Vikram Sarabhai nobody did more to ensure the successful establishment of IIMA than the icon of Gujarat industry, Kasturbhai Lalbhai. It is therefore fitting that an important facility within IIMA bears his name. The centre is a completely self-sufficient, stand-alone unit, a short walk from the main buildings. It has 64 well-furnished centrally air-conditioned double rooms, a dining hall, a reading lounge, badminton and table tennis courts, a computer laboratory, classrooms, and seminar rooms all equipped with presentation and teaching aids. The Institute’s management development programmes, as well as seminars and conferences, are held here.

Research - It is at the core of IIMA and provides a major interface with the wider academic and business world. It provides new theoretical frameworks that enable reassessment and refinement of current practices and thinking. Focus areas have included social marketing, productivity, women’s issues, human resource development, optimisation models, organizational learning, institution building, management and leadership excellence, and public sector management. While some research is internally driven, several projects are commissioned and funded by national and international organizations such as the Ford Foundation, UNO, World Bank, NCERT, Planning Commission, Central and State ministries, and industrial agencies.

Research Centres - These include:

1. CEG  - The main objectives of Centre for Electronic Governance (CEG) include Identification of e-Governance applications, Developing prototype applications to demonstrate the feasibility of e-Governance in India, Creating knowledge products (best practice cases, frameworks, toolkits), and Training and dissemination of knowledge of e-Governance. While realizing its objectives, CEG has worked with the Central and State governments, as well as international agencies like the World Bank and the Asia Foundation.
2. CIIE - Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) aims at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship development through research, incubation, consultancy and training in hi-tech and mass impact technologies to enhance welfare and competitiveness of the Indian economy. CIIE has formed linkages with other Science & Technology institutions in the country and with various research laboratories in the public & private domains.
3. CTPS - Centre for Telecom Policy Studies (CTPS) aims to support policy formulation and its implementation in the telecom sector in India. It conducts policy studies aimed at critically characterizing and analysing the structure and functioning of the telecommunications sector in India. CTPS currently has a project partnership with the Centre for Regulatory Industries (CSRI), McGill University, Montreal, Canada. CTPS is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
4. NICMAN - The mission of National Information Centre on Management (NICMAN) is to provide timely management and business information for improving decision making by managers in India and for supporting applied management research that leads to improved management practices. The main objective of this Centre is to serve the information needs of management students, teachers, researchers, and managers.
5. CIPR - The Centre for Infrastructure Policy and Regulation (CIPR) hopes to build upon the strong foundation of knowledge in the field of infrastructure development. CIPR draws upon the academic resources of its faculty, students, databases and networks. The objective of CIPR is to promote research, education, training and consultancy in the field of infrastructure development.
6. Indian Public Sector in Transition - It deals with State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) or Public Sector Undertakings or Enterprises (PSUs) and their reforms.
7. CMHS -  The overall objectives of Centre for Management of Health Services (CMHS) are to address the managerial challenges in the delivery of health services to respond to the needs of different segments of our population efficiently and effectively, build institutions of excellence in the health sector, and influence health policies and wider environments.
8. GRC - The Gender Resource Centre (GRC) is a new initiative of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. It seeks to promote effective management of gender concerns with various stakeholders including policy makers, academicians, leaders, managers, entrepreneurs and members of civil society.

Management Development Programme - The Institute is the pioneer of the case study to management education in India, the result of its early collaboration with Harvard. A student-centred methodology entails working in a group and encourages intense participation, as students learn to present their perspectives, defend their stand and think through management problems.

Sports - The excellent sports and fitness facilities on the campus ensure that students can remain fit and healthy to take on the strenuous academic challenges.

Alumni - A vast number of IIMA Alumni have distinguished themselves in almost every aspect of management across the world. The IIMA Alumni Association was formally established in 1967 with a central executive committee and chapters in major cities in India as well as US, Singapore, UK, and Muscat. Membership is open to all who have participated in the Institute’s PGP, FPM and MDPs. They organize educational and social activities like Management Awards and Seminars. The Annual Alumni Reunion has now become a regular feature held in the last week of December.

Placement - The on-campus recruiting program at IIMA, noted for its focus on corporate customer service, provides a convenient way for you to interview our students for permanent employment and summer internships. The process has been designed jointly by the faculty, recruiters and students over the years and tries to optimize the interests of all stakeholders in the placement process. Typically the placement season commences in November with the summer internship placement and ends with the graduate placement in March.

Student Cubs - IIMA has a number of clubs like Beta – the finance club, Consult Club, Niche – the marketing club, the Entre Club for entrepreneurship, Forum for Industry Interaction - which helps students get projects in industry, the Faculty Student Interaction Cell which brings together faculty and students, Genesys - the information technology club, the Literary Symposium Desk - the quiz and debating club, IIMACTS – the theatre society, and Stargazers – the astronomy club.

Chaos - It is an Inter-Institute Cultural Festival which features a gamut of cultural events, ranging from choreographed dances and fashion parades to debates, quizzes, rock competitions, and plays.

Insight - Insight is the annual market research festival of IIMA. Insight is an excellent opportunity to have purposeful market research done by the brightest brains. Insight is a popular annual fair where thousands of people with varied profile play specially designed games to gauge consumer preferences influencing their buying behaviour. As consumers themselves are unaware of the real reasons affecting their buying choice, these games try to bring out the deep latent psychological cause of consumer behaviour.

Achievements

• The Centre for Forecasting & Research ranked IIMA as India's top business school in 2009.
• According to the Economist's survey of global business schools in 2009, IIMA is considered to be the "toughest in the world to get into" as over 600 people compete for every seat.
• It was ranked as the top business school in India according to the Business Today B-School Rankings in 2007-08.
• It was ranked as the top business school in India according to the Economic Times B-school Survey 2007.  
• IIMA’s contributions to the health sector in the last 10 years include 30 completed projects, 25 articles in refereed journals/publications, 24 publications in conference proceedings, 20 working papers/monographs, 12 registered cases, and over 20 workshops/training programmes. At present, we have ongoing collaborative research projects on Maternal Health with Columbia University, USA, and on Hospital Management with the Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds, UK. Other externally funded projects include projects on Safe Motherhood, Social Obligations on Cancer Care, Managing Urban Health, and Building District Health Systems.

Information compiled from : Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Website