IIM-Sambalpur takes off with 49 students

The institute can take up to 60 students, will offer the flagship Post Graduate Programme in Management

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Sambalpur in Odisha, one of the six new IIMs sanctioned by the Centre in 2014, took off on Wednesday with the orientation of 49 students. The classes for these students — 40 boys and 9 girls — will start on Thursday.

IIM-Sambalpur, which can take up to 60 students, will offer the flagship Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP). All other new IIMs — Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bodh Gaya (Bihar), Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), Nagpur (Maharashtra), and Amritsar (Punjab) — have already started their classes.

“The regular faculty of IIM Indore, besides visiting professors, will be taking classes. We’re running late by two months and will make all efforts to complete the session on time,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, director, IIM - Indore, IIM-Sambalpur’s mentor institute.

IIM-Sambalpur’s classes will be held temporarily on the campus of the Silicon Institute of Technology, Sambalpur. IIM Indore officials have expressed satisfaction over the infrastructure facilities available on the temporary campus.

The selection of the site for establishing the IIM had snowballed into a political debate as people from different parts of the state demanded that the institute be set up in their respective areas.

The state government had initially recommended Bhubaneswar as its choice to establish the B-School, but later changed the place to Sambalpur.

On Wednesday, the state government handed over the sanction letter for 200 acres of land to the district collector, on which the permanent campus of the IIM would be set up.

In his Budget speech in July 2014, finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced a proposal for setting up five new IIMs. In addition, an IIM was proposed for Andhra Pradesh in keeping with the AP Re-organisation Act, 2014.