Located in southern Uttarakhand, Kashipur, with the Himalayan foothills in the background, the Indian Institute of Management Kashipur is a new entrant in the prestigious league of IIMs. The institute was set up in 2011 under the mentorship of IIM Lucknow and offers Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM), a two-year full-time residential programme, Executive PGP (EPGP), a two-year part-time programme, and Executive Fellow Programme in Management (EFPM) equivalent to Doctorate in Management.

IIM Kashipur is striving to become one of India’s top business schools over the next 10 years. Says IIM Kashipur Director Prof Gautam Sinha, “A business school is characterized by its input in terms of students and faculty, the process which is the pedagogy and the output which is research hardware and software. Our attempt is to have all these factors in place, which will help achieve our overall mission.”

With the objective of providing quality management education, the institute’s curriculum lays emphasis on the all-round personality development and inculcates the values of leadership and integrity in students. The pedagogy focuses on the use of case methods, giving a very high weightage on class participation and learning by students on live projects. There are various projects running throughout the year where students are encouraged to work in local industries. It presents an opportunity for students to apply the knowledge they have gained to real life scenarios.

Research is given prime importance at IIM Kashipur. To facilitate and sponsor the same, the institute is in the process of starting four Centres of Excellence (CoE), which will be a driving force for students and faculty. The first one, which is an already operational, is called the Centre of Excellence on Competitiveness and is in collaboration with the Competition Commission of India. The other CoEs will focus on Sustainability, Analytics (as it is an important industry need) and Business Policy.

The faculty at IIM Kashipur, all PhD/Fellow in management, represents a good blend of academicians from other IIMs and IITs. A unique initiative started by the institute is called Mentor Faculty. This involves retired faculty from older IIMs, who have teaching experience of 35 years and more, visiting the institute and mentoring younger faculty. Encouraging interaction with industry veterans, up to 20 per cent of content of a particular subject can be delivered by an industry person depending on the teacher. The institute also has several courses, which run parallel by the industry stalwarts.

To bring in the international dimension, IIM Kashipur has inked MoUs with two French business schools – École de management de Normandie (EM Normandie)and École supérieure pour le développement économique et social (ESDES School of Business and Management) Lyon, both members of the prestigious CGE (Conférence De Grande Écoles) and student/faculty exchange would start in the latter part of 2014.

In an attempt towards providing world class education and incorporating the tradition of case teaching method into its classrooms, some of the faculty at IIM Kashipur is sent every year to Harvard Business School’s The Global Colloquium on Participant-Centered Learning (GloColl). This is a two-part program that seeks to build a global community of faculty members who are committed to participant-centered learning through innovative teaching and course design.

Says Prof. Sinha, “With the IIMs proud legacy of excellence going back 50 years, the older siblings are slowly emerging on the world stage. We have role models to emulate in terms of pedagogy, curriculum and governance. The challenge is to create a niche for ourselves while upholding the hallowed traditions and standards of IIMs. Our core values inspire us to realize our mission, which is to drive academic excellence using innovative teaching methods, promoting research and practice of sustainable leadership.”