NIIT's banking institute to expand

After launching its latest study centres in Ahmedabad, Pune and Delhi NCR, NIIT's Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance (IFBI) has identified new locations to expand operations.

The cities identified for the first phase are Nagpur, Chandigarh and Bhubaneshwar with Kochi, Coimbatore and Lucknow being considered for the second phase of expansion.

IFBI is an NIIT venture with equity participation from ICICI bank. The institute runs a six month programme called Post Graduate Diploma in Banking Operations (PGDBO) catering to the manpower needs of the banking sector.

Three batches have passed out so far since the programme was launched in November 2006. Nearly a thousand students from the institute have already joined the banking industry and a 1,000 more are currently being trained.

IFBI has a network of 10 centres in the country spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune.

It plans to expand to 20 centres by March 2008. Capital expenditure earmarked for IFBI's expansion programme was around Rs 30 crore till March 2009, of which nearly Rs 15 crore has been utilised so far, a company official said.

NIIT recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ChongQing Information Industry Bureau (CQIIB), a department of the Chinese Government.

As per the terms of the agreement, NIIT will conduct IT training programmes at universities and colleges in ChongQing.

However, even as NIIT expands its international presence, there are no immediate plans to create offshore centres for IFBI.

"What we did in IT through NIIT was based on our knowledge expertise. Similarly, for IFBI we will provide the infrastructure and technological requirements while procuring educational content from experts in the industry. As for international presence, right now we would like to focus on emerging needs within the country itself but will be open to offshore centres at a later point," NIIT's president-Strategic Initiatives Smarajit Dey said.

Meanwhile the company's other initiative in the education space, NIIT Imperia, will now focus on offering more short duration management programmes where industry professionals will be invited to address students.

Dey added that the growth of both its educational initiatives would happen at an even pace since each IFBI centre also doubles up as an Imperia centre.

For IFBI, along with banking, content focus would be on insurance and financial services in the coming months.