Doors for biggies open

A chance for honchos to go to school as IIMs introduce a course for professionals, writes Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Jan 13, 2006, 17:32:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Here's an opportunity for honchos to go back to school. The Indian Institutes of Management have decided to throw open its door to working professionals with five-year experience. A year-long diploma module has been designed especially for them.

IIM-Kolkata and IIM-Ahmedabad will take the lead from this academic year. While IIM Ahmedabad will take in students from April-May this year, IIM-Kolkata will start the course from December 2006.

This is the first time the IIMs are introducing a long-term diploma course for working professionals. Till now, institutes have been offering short-term courses, including online modules for working professionals. "The course will bring working professionals at par with any IIM graduate when it comes to skilled education. The professionals will get an opportunity to do internship in some top companies of the world," an official said.

IIM-Kolkata director Shehkar Chaudhari told Hindustan Times that the course aims to inculcate leadership qualities in professionals and provide interface between Indian and foreign managers.

The course is part of an initiative by IIM-K and IIM-A to lure foreign students and bulge kitties. "We will charge Rs 8 lakh from each student, which will meet all expenses barring food. The amount is almost half of what B-schools charge," Chaudhuri said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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