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The Rediff Business Special: Death of a dream B-school

Japanese management institute in Haryana downs shutters due to government indifference

Vinod Behl in New Delhi

The prestigious Indo-Japan Institute of Management, set up two years back in Gurgaon in Haryana near New Delhi, has closed shop even before becoming fully functional.

IJIM was considered a prestigious venture as nowhere else in India is the Japanese management culture so evident as here in industries like Maruti, Sony and Hero Honda.

The joint venture involved the Haryana government, the Haryana Institute of Public Administration, the Association of Overseas Technical Scholarships, Japan, the Federation of AOTS Alumni Associations of India (FAAAI) and the JMA Management Centre Inc, Japan.

The institute was to offer post-graduate courses in Japanese management practices and provide facilities for training in management and technology. It was also planned to disseminate information on technology, culture and other fields, undertake or assist in research work amongst educational and training institutions for the development of Indian and South Asian industry.

The overall aim was to help increase the employment opportunities for youth by imparting modern management education to the crème de le crème of Indian students. Educational tours to industrial houses in Japan and elsewhere and curriculum tie-ups with foreign institutes like Keio University, Japan, were part of the ambitious plans.

However, the only progress the institute could make was holding of Japanese language classes in 1994 for entrepreneurs and students.

That the much-talked-about institute has proved to be a non-starter assumes significance in the light of the recent withdrawal of a powerful consortium of Japanese multinational companies from the the state-of-the-art industrial model township at Manesar in Gurgaon.

Observers said if two major ventures have fallen through in quick succession in the same state, then it is perhaps time for the state government to sit up and take notice.

While no official reasons have been extended for the institutes closure , it is understood that the Japanese withdrew after getting vexed with the indifference of the Haryana government.

The institute was the result of a initiative by the Haryana government in 1994 when its chief secretary M C Gupta visited Japan and firmed up a collaboration with the island-country.

It is learnt moves are afoot to shift the institute and similar ventures for students to New Okhla Industrial Development Area (near Delhi) in Uttar Pradesh and Bangalore, Karnataka.

Industry sources sought to contrast this with the scene in other states where governments are pulling out all stops to establish business schools. The Andhra Pradesh government recently convinced industry captains to set up the corporate-sponsored, Wharton-supported Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

Specials