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In the past one month or more, we are witnessing a debate over where the new IIM should be set up. Several cities have been identified and the government has to choose one.
I have analysed the scenario from different angles and feel that Rourkela is the best contender.
Industrial zone
Industry, engineering and management have a natural symbiosis. If we take a look at the tri-state areas of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh, the region is uniquely gifted with mineral wealth, water, forestry and skilled manpower. According to experts, this industrially rich area deserves more. Though institutes such as NITs at Rourkela, Jamshedpur and Raipur, VSSUT (Burla), and universities in Bilaspur, Raipur and Ranchi are there, the area doesn’t have enough institute for management studies.
Barring XLRI Jamshedpur, the new IIM in Ranchi, a small department at NIT Rourkela, a couple of private institutes in Raipur, there is little to boast of. Most of these institutes are located away from the centre of tri-state area and students and faculty look readily outward.
The region certainly needs a couple of major management institutes that integrates with most of the industry located in the area.
To a common man, an engineering or management institute is a place to churn out qualified degree holders, young professionals trained in theory and practice of engineering or management. Had that been true, institutes could be located anywhere, in hill stations, near airports or where land is cheap. In reality, however, superior institutes deliver much more and classroom education being only just one of them.
The essential service provided by an institute of higher learning also includes:
Consultancy services to industry, continuing education with or without degrees, for professionals employed in industry, research on new techniques and approaches, distributed through books and journals that serve both industry and academia and creation of an industry friendly scholastic environment shared by both industrial and academic communities.
The above facts require physical proximity to industry, which will as well enrich the classroom education.
Teaching will further get enriched through vacation training of students, lectures by industry personnel, adjunct faculty and social interaction.
Taking into account these perspectives, the industrial belt of Rourkela - Jharsuguda is the best location for IIM in Odisha.
Unique selling point
For IIM Odisha, there will be lack of exposure to industries such as chemicals, healthcare, stock market, pharmaceuticals, electronics, food, cosmetics and to a great extent IT. And coastal Odisha enjoys limited advantage in areas of tourism, hospitality and IT.
Survival in today's world requires a unique selling point in comparison to competitors where specialisation can be the clinching factor.
In contrast, western Odisha (along with the tri-sate combination) enjoys unique advantage of location in relation to management of heavy industries, infrastructure (heavy construction and transportation), HR, marketing, operations and management of ecology and environment.
A strategic exploitation of these may some day help IIM Odisha to be counted among the best management institutes of India.
Odisha needs a second education hub
Education thrives in concentration of educators and students. For education to be effective and of quality, students, teachers and scholars of many disciplines must live together and discuss in and off the classrooms. To achieve this, colleges and universities of higher learning must be set up as clusters, in a few cities, instead of being distributed thinly across the state. Today our home state offers only one such educational hub that is the Cuttack - Bhubaneswar region.
There is already an education hub in the state and Bhubaneswar is populated beyond its capacity. It is important that a second education hub is allowed to grow in the state. After another five years, time will be ripe for a third one, and so on.
Creating right attitude among IIM students
For students IIMs are synonymous with astronomical salary in MNCs. I agree with the observation and inference. However, we also need even more critically brilliant managers for large domestic industries.
An IIM located in the heart of this industrial belt and a continuous interaction with these industries will sensitise those managers who will love to work for these companies.
Development of communication
Robust communication links are essential for a good institute and temporary absence of an air link does not impede growth of industries and institutions. Rourkela and Jamshedpur are two brightest examples in this regard.
An institute is made for thousand years. An airport will be created within two years, even before the first batch is ready to graduate. With IIM coming up here soon, Rourkela airstrip will be upgraded.
Regional aspirations
Feeling of regional disparity can be assuaged with this single stroke of decision as industry, government offices and educational institutions satisfy many people and inspire them to work towards a unified political entity.
Miscellaneous considerations:
There will be counter arguments that Rourkela as a tier-2 city lacks many facilities. But converting a tier-2 city to tier-1 is a social mandate of the government. Presence of an education hub will accelerate that process, which is a truly desirable phenomenon.
