JAMMU, AUGUST 22: The Lieutenant Governor, Shri Manoj Sinha joined the Board of Governors, faculty, students, alumni and dignitaries today to celebrate 10 years of IIM Jammu. Reflecting on IIM Jammu’s remarkable journey, the Lieutenant Governor said that from a modest beginning to its current standing as one of India’s fastest-emerging business schools, the Institute has scripted a new history while setting out an ambitious roadmap for the decade ahead.

Recalling that IIM Jammu started a decade ago with just 56 students on a temporary campus on Canal Road, the Lieutenant Governor noted that the institute has since grown into a nationally recognised and internationally engaged centre for management education. He observed that IIM Jammu is now the fifth IIM in the country to hold both AMBA and EFMD accreditation, and it has built academic partnerships with institutions across France, Morocco, South Korea, Greece, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Poland, Sweden, Taiwan and, most recently, Brazil. He said the research output at the institute has also expanded sharply, growing from just two published papers in 2017 to close to 350 this year.

The Lieutenant Governor commended the hard work and a decade of consistent effort under the leadership of Director Professor B.S. Sahay, the faculty and the Board of Governors, describing the institute’s trajectory as a model that other business schools are beginning to look to for inspiration.

“I have seen details of one achievement after another, along with several distinctive initiatives that have become an inspiring example, a role model, for other business schools. I am certain that, in the future, people will remember these achievements as a standard and an ideal, and will seek to emulate them,” he said.

The Lieutenant Governor invoked the founding stories of three of the world’s most respected business schools – Harvard, built on the discipline of case-based learning; Stanford, built on connecting the classroom to real-world enterprise through Silicon Valley; and Wharton, built on mastering the complexities of global capital markets. Each, the Lieutenant Governor observed, succeeded not by trying to be everything, but by committing to one distinctive idea and pursuing it with patience over generations.

The Lieutenant Governor said that IIM Jammu now stands at a similar starting point and the decisions it makes over the coming years will shape its identity for decades to come. He emphasised four priorities for the IIM Jammu.

“A distinctive academic identity should be the priority. Rather than relying primarily on case studies drawn from Western business schools, IIM Jammu should build its own tradition of case writing rooted in the realities of Indian enterprise including the logistical and entrepreneurial challenges unique to Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh.

Experiential learning. We need to move education beyond the lecture hall. Every student to undertake a real, tangible project before graduation, whether through the institute’s Entrepreneurship Centre, a policy challenge, or direct engagement with local businesses supported by its Centre for Small Business Development.

Research with a sharp edge should be the focus. Building on the institute’s rapid growth in research output, a deeper focus should be on questions specific to border economies, sustainable development and frontier entrepreneurship, areas where IIM Jammu is uniquely positioned to lead. Placements should be seen as a nation-building exercise. I hope within a decade, IIM Jammu graduates would be recognised for reshaping major companies and founding leading enterprises. Each graduate should be seen as a contributor to India’s goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047,” the Lieutenant Governor said.

He said the real examinations take place in corporate boardrooms, markets and in life itself, where the data is often incomplete, stakeholders have differing opinions and there is no teacher to provide readymade answers.

“IIM Jammu’s growth must now be converted into new discoveries. IIM Jammu must ask itself what can be done in the fields of administration, sustainable development and entrepreneurship in the economies of border areas. I believe that great institutions are great because, when the nation faces difficult questions, it looks to them for answers. If IIM Jammu continues to move forward with complete confidence over the next ten years, I am certain that its name will be spoken across the world with immense pride and respect,” the Lieutenant Governor said.

On the occasion, the Lieutenant Governor released seven coffee-table books of IIM Jammu.

Padma Shri Dr. Milind Pralhad Kamble, Chairman, Board of Governors (BoG), IIM Jammu; Shri Sriram Dandekar, Former Chairman, BoG, IIM; Shri Anand Kripalu, Member, BoG, IIM Jammu; Prof. B.S. Sahay, Director IIM Jammu; Shri S. Shivakumar, Operating Partner, Advent International; Vice Chancellors of various Universities; Head of Departments, Faculty and students of IIM Jammu; prominent citizens and senior officials of Police and Civil Administration were present.