IIM Amritsar classes start from August 7

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Amritsar, a latest addition to the club of institutes that offer excellent management education, is all set to start classes from August 7, from a provisional campus, as the construction work on its own building set to start soon at the Manawala site.

The classes, for now, will be convened at the Punjab Institute of Technology, located within the premises of Government Polytechnic College, near Guru Nanak Dev University. The IIM's own campus is proposed to be ready within a couple of years or more time.

A press release from the authorities claimed that the institute got the final go-ahead from the ministry of HRD to start the course this year, after the permanent site for the IIM campus was finalised by a committee in late June.

Since, then the release claimed that the mentor institute for the new institute, IIM IIM Kozhikode, put together all its experience and human resources to organise essential requirements so that the programme could begin within a month.

On Friday, a district administration team led by Amritsar deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat visited the spot to review the site where classes are to be held from August 7.

"The inauguration of the induction programme of the IIM will take place on August 6, while classes will commence a day later. The campus for IIM Amritsar is coming up at 60 acres on the Amritsar-Jalandhar road," the DC said, adding the first batch comprised 65 students, of which only nine were women.

"Stay arrangements for the women have been made inside the campus of the polytechnic, while the men will be put up at the Chief Khalsa Diwan hostel," he added.

"In spite of the fact that we are working on an extremely tight deadline, we will attempt to provide the best learning experience to the students of the Post Graduate Programme in Management at IIM Amritsar," said Anjan Kumar Swain, nodal professor for IIM Amritsar, who is a senior faculty at IIM Kozhikode.

"As the program will be running from a temporary campus at the Punjab Institute of Technology, there will be some challenges that students and faculty may have to face. This is understood when any programme is run from temporary facilities in the initial years."

IIM Kozhikode teachers to take classes

When it comes to learning and curriculum, IIM Kozhikode faculty has agreed to take up the additional responsibility of teaching the group of students at Amritsar. "We have been receiving great support from the IIM Kozhikode faculty and academic groups who are identifying faculty resource for this new institute. IIM Kozhikode will strive to lay a strong foundation of an institute that would make them proud in the years to come," Kulbhushan Balooni, director, IIM Kozhikode and mentor director, IIM Amritsar, said.

He added that the IIM Amritsar Society got registered with nine-member governing body on July 27.
"The admission process to the PG Program is almost complete. Sixty five students are expected to register at IIM Amritsar on August 5.

After the inaugural function on August 6, the students would undergo orientation before classes begin," said Balooni.