IIM-A to set up extended campus in Hyderabad soon

The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the top business school in the country, will set up a campus in Hyderabad soon, a senior official of the Andhra Pradesh government said today.

He said that the idea was originally mooted when Dr Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister. The former CM had invited a team to take a look around the state for finding a suitable place to set up the campus.

"The then government offered around 150 acres of land and interest-free loans to create physical infrastructure," the official told PTI, adding that the idea had taken a backseat owing to the sudden demise of Dr Reddy.

He said that K Rosaiah, the current chief minister, had written a letter to Dr Vijaypat Singhania, chairman of the IIM-A board, to consider the proposal mooted by Dr Reddy.

"The IIM-A board, in a meeting held on June 24, formally agreed to go forward with the idea, and decided to form a taskforce to initiate the formalities," the official said.

Apart from the flagship PGDM course, the Hyderabad campus would offer a slew of new programmes as well as optional ones, sources said.

As the state already has an Indian Institute of Technology, it is not on the list of preferred states for new IIMs that the Central government plans to set up as part of its 11th Five Year Plan.

Accordingly, Dr Reddy had mooted a proposal to IIM-A and IIM-B in 2008, requesting them to set up "extended campuses" in the state.