Andhra Pradesh govt woos IIMs for campus in state

The Union minister for Human Resource Development, Arjun Singh, may have spoken of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for Hyderabad, but the Andhra Pradesh government is not leaving anything to chance.

After getting the approval from top-notch private institutes — including BITS Pilani, XLRI and Symbiosis — Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy has spoken to the managements of IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, to set up campuses in Hyderabad. It has also sent a proposal to the HRD ministry in this regard.

Reddy is understood to have spoken to the Chairman of IIM Bangalore’s governing council, Mukesh Ambani, to set up institute’s second campus in Hyderabad. Madireddy Pratap, Additional Secretary to the chief minister visited IIM Bangalore campus early this month and met the institute director Pankaj Chandra. The AP government is learnt to be gifting 100 acres of land towards this end.

“We have already got the approval of several top-ranked institutes in the country and are keen on bringing IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Bangalore in Andhra Pradesh. We have also spoken with the director of IISc Bangalore to set up their second campus here,” Pratap told Business Standard.

When contacted, Director of IIM-Bangalore Pankaj Chandra confirmed that officials from the Andhra Pradesh government had held discussions with him on establishing a campus in Hyderabad. “The Andhra Pradesh government has already sent a proposal for the same to the HRD ministry and is awaiting a response from them,” said Chandra.

Pratap further said the Andhra Pradesh government is working on offering 200 acres of land each to BITS and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), 40 acres to Symbiosis, 65 acres to Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), 90 acres to Narsee Monjee and 30 acres for IMT Ghaziabad to set up campuses in the state. He added the state would contribute in offering land, while the expense of setting up the campus would be borne by the institute.

The proposal assumes significance in the wake of the RC Bhargava committee’s observation that the IIMs should concentrate on expanding their presence within the country rather than abroad. It may be recalled that IIM Bangalore’s proposal to set up a campus in Singapore was shot down by the HRD ministry who asked them to change their Memorandum of Association (MoA). This might prompt IIM Bangalore to look at expanding within the country.

Institutes like IIM require an investment of around Rs 250-300 crore for a full-fledged campus. Similar is the case with private institutes. The BITS campus in Hyderabad, for instance, is being set up in an area of 200 acres and involves an investment of Rs 270 crore. Initially, the Hyderabad campus would induct 600 students but the intake is likely to go up to 2,500 in the next four years.

TIFR is planning to invest Rs 2,500 crore in the next 15 years in its proposed campus, which will come up at University of Hyderabad. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has been granted land in Ranga Reddy district in Andhra Pradesh.