Deep Narayan Singh Regional Co-operative Management Institute. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Come July 14, classes would start at Development Management Institute (DMI), modelled on Gujarat’s Irma.

Set up by the Bihar government on the pattern of Institute of Rural Management Anand (Irma), the institution would run from the building of Deep Narayan Singh Regional Co-operative Management Institute at Shastri Nagar in the city. At the onset, it would offer a two-year full-time course — post-graduate diploma in development management (PGDDM).

Sixty seats would be up for grabs. For the two-year course, students would have to shell out Rs 6 lakh.

“The admission process would be over by June-end. Applications will be invited based on the latest Common Admission Test (CAT) scores. A 50 per cent in graduation (45 per cent for SC/ST candidates) is a must for aspirants. Those appearing for final-year examinations can also apply. The selection process would include screenings based on group discussions, personal interviews, personality and aptitude tests,” rural development minister Nitish Mishra said.

He said before the classes begin on July 14, there would be a national workshop on development management. Also, a formal launch of the DMI in the first week of July is in the offing.

“We are looking for land in Patna where the permanent building for the DMI could be constructed. We would try to construct the building by 2016,” Mishra said. Aspirants are glad that the much-awaited institution would start operation this year. Shubham Singh Chauhan, a second-year student of LN Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change, said: “I would be more than happy to take admission in DMI. I hope it turns out to be better than Irma.”

Set up in 1979 with a view to give the management of organisations working in rural sector a professional touch and create a pool of knowledge in the field of rural management, Irma is considered to be the best in the country when it comes to imparting education in rural management. The DMI initiative was taken by the state’s rural development department, which established a joint core committee of six members for the institution.

The members include Anup Mukerji, the former chief secretary of Bihar, Tushaar Shah, the former director of Irma, two faculty members of Irma K.V. Raju and H.K. Mishra, Amrit Lal Meena, the rural development secretary, and Arvind Kumar Chaudhary, the chief executive officer-cum-state mission director of JEEViKA, a government society that works on rural livelihood. Anup Mukerji has been appointed the chairman of DMI and K.V. Raju would be its first director.