Focus on excellence

■ What are the major achievements of Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP) in the past four years?

CIMP aspires to become the pioneer in creating and moulding a new generation of management professionals. Its vision is to become a nationally and internationally relevant management education and research institution focusing on excellence. CIMP was established as an autonomous institution with support from the government of Bihar. The institution has been established on the lines of Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) but with zero interference from the state government.

■ What are the plans of CIMP in the next five years?

By 2013, we plan to shift to the new campus at Mithapur which is much bigger and spacious than the present transit campus. The new campus is being built in an area of 10 acre. The institute will be fully residential with separate hostels for boys and girl students and residential facilities for teachers and faculty members. As the institute is being developed on the lines of IIMs, we have tied up with several international institutions and in the next five years more exchange programmes will take place. We are also planning to tie up with Isitech Business School, Mauritius, Old Dominican University (USA) and Stockholm School of Economics.

Course to boost agriculture

■ Bihar is an agrarian state with majority of its population dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Is your institute planning to start any programme focusing on agriculture and food processing sectors?

At present, we are running a two-year postgraduate diploma course in business management, approved by AICTE. As Bihar is an agrarian state, our thrust is on starting a postgraduate diploma programme in agri business management so that the vast potential of the people here can be used in development of agriculture and food processing units. Once we shift to the new campus at Mithapur, we would introduce the new course. The litchi of Muzaffarpur and bananas of Hajipur are already famous and if management skills are introduced in the business of litchi and bananas, they can not only be transported to far-off places in the country but abroad too and in the process promote “brand Bihar”.

■ Your institute is four years old and you claim it is performing much better than other institutes established in the same period. Where does it stand in comparison to the IIMs?

CIMP currently has 13 full-time faculties apart from an extensive list of visiting lectures drawn from top business schools and industry. The course syllabus has been designed keeping in mind the market trend and latest developments.

During the first year of the PG programme, students learn basic concepts of business communication, finance and accounting, marketing, organisational behaviour, human resource management, operations and quantitative techniques. Moreover, along with core management subjects, the curriculum also lays emphasis on course and acti- vities that sensitise students to social, environmental and ethical issues.

Transit campus biggest hurdle

■ Your institute started four years ago, still it has not gained much popularity. People in far off places like Purnea, Katihar perhaps have no idea that such an institute exists in the state capital. Do you think more publicity is required?

Our biggest limitation is that we are functioning from a transit campus which is very small. I accept that we are not as recognised as IIMs or other big management schools but our growth rate is much ahead of other newly established business schools. It is our pan-India image that 34 companies from all over the globe, including Deutsche bank, Comfed, CNBC and others, visited our campus for placements of students. As we are a government institute, we can’t go for advertisements like private institutes. But we are planning to visit college campuses with an aim to create awareness about our institute. To create a global character we have organised a series of seminars at metros.

■ Management institutes also run various social schemes. Is your institute involved in any such activity?

LOOKING UP: Chandragupt Institute of Management. Picture by Deepak Kumar

CIMP has started ‘A Beautiful Mind’ -- a project for development of society through spreading literacy among children living in slum areas. The mission is to empower and nurture individuals who in turn would contribute to the development of the state. It is also an effort to mobilise support for education of children from the slums in the city. Also, as part of our social responsibility, we run students’ guidance centre for the uplift of needy students in the state. The objective is to identify bright students from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, aspiring to get admission to IIMs and other institutes of management.

Control needed on biz schools

■ A number of business schools have mushroomed in Patna and many of them are trying to fool students with placement and five-figure salary promises. What do you think about them?

There is no harm in private institutes flourishing in Patna but they should not cheat or misguide students with false promises. There should be a regulatory authority to keep a check on such private institutes.

■ About V Mukunda Das...

Born in a middle-class family in Alleppey district of Kerala in 1952, Das used to travel five kilometres across a river to study in an English-medium school. He graduated from Kerala University in Thiruvananthapuram in 1972. He was the university topper and a gold medallist. Later, he pursued his postgraduation from the same university. Das was appointed in the first batch of faculty members at Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat. After working there for 13 years, he moved to Thiruvananthapuram. When Das was appointed as first director of CIMP in 2008, he was given a free hand in selection of faculty and non-teaching employees.

■ What would you have been had you not been a management guru?

I would have devoted my life to uplift of poor and underprivileged people. It is still my dream to work for social development.

Placement push to morale

■ There was a lot of hue and cry over scarce placement offers for first-batch students of CIMP. However, the scenario has changed completely in the past four years. What brought this turnaround?

Yes, I accept that in the first batch the placement scenario was not good as very few companies visited our campus for hiring students.

Now, things have changed. The institute's placement activities are coordinated by a placement committee comprising a faculty, who acts as coordinator, and elected students' representatives. According to placement statistics, for our second-batch (2009-11), 34 companies visited CIMP and the average salary per annum was recorded at 3.7 lakh per annum.

The highest salary package was Rs 9 lakh per annum. Also the companies offered jobs in New Delhi, Calcutta and other big cities. Most of our students come from middle-class or semi-urban areas unlike the IIIMs and other top business schools. When we manage to place our students in top companies we feel very proud, it's like students from rural background becoming IAS officers.