Sambalpur: The Indian Institute of Management here will increase its student intake from 60 to 120 in the next academic session.

This was announced by institute director Mahadeo Prasad Jaiswal during a news conference ahead of its second convocation on Sunday. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will address the convocation at the Sambalpur University, where 45 students will get degrees with the best three being conferred with the chairman's gold medal, director's gold medal and the IIM-Sambalpur gold medal from Naveen.

Jaiswal said the placement was excellent with several internally reputable companies visiting the campus for recruitment. Two students - Sibal and Anjana - have refused jobs with plans to set up their own companies, he said.

He also said: "Our motto is to make students owners of companies and not just employees who get salary."

Most students got two offers with salaries offered between Rs 10.03 lakh per annum and Rs 60.07 lakh per annum in the IT, banking finance and marketing.

The institute has also shifted to a new building at the Sambalpur University having temporarily functioned from a private engineering college. Jaiswal said that being located in an isolated place away from the town and lacking proper communication, students did not show much interest in joining the institute. Big companies also refused to come because of that reason. Now, with the new building and better communication, things are changing, he said.

Jaiswal said the institute also plans to offer part-time executive MBA course to officials of local industries on weekends. It will also help executive research work for part-time PhD programmes.