An artist?s impression of the NSHM Knowledge Campus, coming up near Tollygunge

Physical and mental well-being through yoga, stress-management techniques and white-water rafting, dance steps and social etiquette. All part of the curriculum, mostly on campus?

A novel B-school being set up in the city promises to develop the ?personality? of its grads alongside management skills. The 160,000-sq-ft NSHM Knowledge Campus, promoted by SPS Group, Multicon and Synergy Group, is coming up on a 2.2-acre plot on BL Saha Road, near Tollygunge.

?Corporate houses are increasingly looking at the overall personality of the candidate, not just the professional skills. Our aim is to prepare students in a more holistic manner, so that they can cope with the demands and stress at work and play,? explains Cecil Antony, chief mentor, NSHM Academy and chairman, Synergy Group.

The first batch of 310 students will start their journey in August at NSHM Business School and NSHM Institute of Media & Communications. The media school, which has already been built, occupies 50,000 sq ft of the campus. The remaining work on the campus will be completed by 2008, the promoters promise.

Lifestyle management and value addition will be the two pillars of the new B-school. ?Today, after Plus II, students are bombarded with so many options that they are often confused and make the wrong choice, which leads to negative stress from the outset,? says Antony.

The NSHM curriculum is designed to ?harness the energy of the students along positive channels?. In association with the Bihar School, the course will offer yoga and meditation lessons, while creative and western dance workshops will be organised in alliance with Padatik.

For white-water rafting, the management has tied up with Himalayan Adventure Sports Association of Uttaranchal. ?It?s extremely important nowadays to give a social face to the student, to improve their body language and physical appearance. We are doubling as a finishing school and teaching students leadership as well as crisis-management techniques,? declares the chief mentor.

The NSHM campus in Durgapur was promoted by the Synergy Group in 1998, after which Multicon and SPS have come on board. The Calcutta B-school will offer degree courses in business administration, computer application, insurance & risk, supply chain, travel & tourism, retail and real estate and hospital management.

The media institute will provide a bachelor?s degree in media science, with postgraduate diplomas in print, radio and TV journalism, advertising management, public relations & corporate communications.

For the ?value-added curriculum? to ?supplement university degrees?, the management has tied up with Oracle for its Workforce Development Programme, and with Apics of the US for supply-chain management.

An arrangement with IATA and with the College of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Cyprus, for travel and tourism management and another alliance with the Indian Institute of Insurance, Mumbai, for insurance and risk management complete the gamut.

?We have also entered into a student-exchange programme with IMI, Switzerland,? says an official on the B-school board. Another alliance, with the Sheffield Hallam University for media students, is ?in the process of being completed?.