IIM Bodh Gaya Director Interview: JIPMAT 2021 a huge success, new campus by 2022

In light of this new sustainable way of living, in light of this very nature-friendly way of living which Bihar is always being very known for, in way of this new information that India can only develop through human resources and buy a skill in youth, we are the one. So, as an IIM we recently we had an event called Bihar ek Parichay.

It was basically done by our students for the first-year students who had joined, and I would love if you can give a link of that in this interview because that is a documentary made by my students about the new perspective of Bihar as they see it.

My students are not cinematographers, neither are they, voice-over artists or singers. But look at the passion with which they've created that video totally in house sitting at home, under lockdown conditions. And that is our introduction of new Bihar to the world.

See why talk only of poverty and where we are not doing well. Naturally, the concentration of humans on every inch of land is the highest in the country. Go and Google, what is the population density of Bihar? It is double or triple rest of the country. So naturally, if there are more mouths to feed this kind of situation may happen. But this is also a possibility.

When I started living here in Bodhgaya. It only has bookstores, nothing else. Coaching centers and bookstores. So, you must see how parents are really working extremely hard for their children so that they do well in education.

Q: How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact IIM Bodh Gaya’s academic and placement strategy?

A: See, the pandemic has been a huge blessing in so many ways, not just for IIM Bodh Gaya but to the entire humanity. And we must acknowledge that part of the pandemic as well. Pandemic has shaken corporates, the pandemic has shaken human beings to the core, asking them that the life that we all were leading, was it sustainable? Having said it, as a campus pandemic ensured that geographies fail.

Sitting here in both, my students are getting best of the teachers from across the globe. In the current semester, there are four international teachers teaching which was not possible otherwise. Sitting here in Bodh Gaya, my faculty is teaching in Germany right now, sitting here in Bodh Gaya, I have corporates reaching out to me from all over the world because HRs now doesn’t think how difficult it is to go to Bodh Gaya. They just have to login to the candidates, to the talent pool we have. So, the fact that geographies have seized to exist is a huge boon to campuses like us.

Q: IIM-Bodh Gaya recently introduced a fully automated e-library. What are the other steps the B-school is taking to facilitate virtual learning?

Even before COVID had started, we were very clear that the library has to be completely virtual. Like the word library for us is actually ‘E-library’. In the first week itself our library was fully automated. Our students can access the library from anywhere. There is an independent website for our library. All the resources are available there virtually. The current generation is growing differently. They need knowledge at their fingertip. So even sitting in hostels they wanted that. So we were pretty much geared up towards it. Just pandemic made it even faster. So we take pride in it that although we have not moved into new campus, our small library is the most advanced, technically superior kind of our knowledge resource center where every information, every journal, every knowledge which is needed for a postgraduate student or for a research scholar is available at the tip of a button.

I again take pride that we were the first campus, last year, which went online before even people like even see because we are young and we are small. So we are agile, simple as that. We were using technology or for the fact that we had difficult geography, so we were using it before answering. Pandemic happened and we immediately moved on. The only thing we are doing is we have been practicing hybrid learning even last year. So I think December last year summer possibilities had already joined. So even while they were on campus, they were not learning from their classrooms or their hostels. They were actually inside the classroom so 15% of our class was learning in flesh and blood and of course those who could not come for various reasons. Whereas so hybrid learning which people are talking about now was from day one. Flip learning which we have people are talking about now has been there for a day.

We were young campers and we were doing online even earlier, so we knew that the effectiveness of online would completely depend on how many activities can be undertaken to make it as physical as possible. Every classroom which happens in IIM Bodh Gaya is assisted by one dedicated resource. So faculty is completely just involved in teaching rest everything else. For a young campus like ours to dedicate one person per class was in itself is a big thing.

Q: What is the institute’s strategy to prepare its students for the industry?

Needless to say that number of credit hours which they are undergoing as a part of their MBA program, we have ensured that 20% of every subject is outsourced to industry. Here industry means hands on practitioners. You can imagine out of thousands of hours that we're teaching 20% of it comes from industry. So which makes us students extremely well versed with the current practices of what's going on in the industry. Every sector, every subject, 20% of it goes to the industry practitioners. Secondly, what we have done is of course with the help of industry input and also academy council input, we have already introduced all the latest that is expected in. whether it is design thinking or whether it is digital or analytics or not just business analytics, even focused areas like marketing, analytics, HR, analytics.

One thing which I as a campus is extremely proud of again is a theme called ‘Mindfulness’. As a value we have chosen for our campus a concept called mindfulness, which is also the legacy of this geography, which is Bodhgaya.

Q: Can you explain how IIM Bodh Gaya works on the concept of ‘Mindfulness’?

A: At IIM Bodh Gaya, the differentiating value between us and others is the word called mindfulness. This is also of course the legacy of this geography. We are not using it as a buzzword. We are integrating it into every course, every elective, every learning which is happening. And again, I would say that COVID has now made world ‘Mindful’. We were actually mindless as a community, as a planet.

All of sudden, COVID has made us mindful. It is in 2018 that we had adopted the word mindfulness for us. Business managers going forward have to be mindful. Like if I can talk in terms of my marketing electives we teach what is known as mindful consumption because consumers cannot mindlessly consume. Industry, businesses, practitioners, everybody has to wake up to the fact that going forward, businesses have to be mindful. I'm very happy at a very young stage we started teaching, not just ourselves, but our students, our faculty, our practitioners, how to be mindful. So this is one of the biggest differentiators that we have. And it is not lip service, it is not a buzzword, it is the philosophy with which we are educating our students.

Q: Management education is going through a transformation phase what sectors are going to see a surge in demand for management graduates?

A: You're already seeing a lot of boom happening in Edu-tech, fintech. So definitely these are hot areas. But again, if going back with what I was telling to you earlier, all of the sudden business has woken up to the fact that they in their practices they have to be sustainable, mindful, socially responsible. So, the leaders who will have an orientation towards this will be sought after. See, all those are knowledge-based or skill-based, be it edu-tech, fintech. However, now, even within those spaces, businesses will now look for socially responsible mindful leaders.

Q: What are the new courses and programmes that IIM Bodh Gaya is planning to offer in the near future?

A: As a campus, we have launched MBA as our flagship. Last year we had launched the PhD program. This year we have launched IPM integrated program in management, which is a five-year BBA + MBA. Online courses are there on the agenda. So a lot of functional domain-specific online courses are going to come from us.

But going forward, at least for a year or so, we would like to consolidate these three courses. Also, we are going to shift into new campers, so coming two years we are going to consolidate now. But the moment we move into our new campus, that is the time a new expansion will start and we have identified agriculture and healthcare to be our focus. In Bihar, these are the two most sought-after or even why Bihar in India, I would say these are most needed spaces. But there is nothing much to talk about as of now because in the coming two years we are going to consolidate these three courses and move into our new campus.

Q: By when we can expect IIM Bodh Gaya to shift to its new campus?

A: By 2022, next year.

Q: Will there be any increase in the number of seat intakes?

A: As a campus, we already have taken a batch size of 210 this year in our PGDM and 60 in our IPM. The numbers though they help the nation to educate more and more young people. But still, I think for the coming two years till the time we move into our new campus, numbers are going to remain the same.

Q: What type of changes IIM Bodh Gaya Admission Process has witnessed/ is yet to witness amid COVID-19?

A: When we started IPM, we as a school decided that meritocracy must prevail. We must give equal opportunity to every promising student across the length and breadth of the country. That is the reason why we conducted JIPMAT as a joint admission test which was done by India's most trusted testing agency called NTA. Our whole philosophy was that every student across the length and breadth of the country should get an opportunity to do undergraduate in high quality premium institution in business management that too at the least inconvenience and cost. So that is the reason we promoted NTA to conduct the test across the country. We also kept it affordable for every section of society to come and give the test. And we are extremely happy with the outcome because you know, why should a parent suffer by paying multiple fees across multiple campuses? Something as high as Rs 4000 to Rs 5000 for every test. No, it's not desirable. What is needed is that we give equal opportunity and we reduce the hassle for the student as well as a hassle for the parents and make it more accessible. That's the philosophy with which we are working and JIPMAT has been a huge success this year.

Q: Will IIM Bodh Gaya aspirants face any fee hike in the upcoming admission session?

A: We don’t expect more than an inflation adjustment. No, we don't want to escalate the fees beyond the inflation.

Q: Is the institute organizing any special training programmes for faculty in terms of blended teaching?

A: See luckily being a new school we have all young faculty so we do not have that problem of older people adapting to technology. My young faculty is already grown up with technology and that is the reason right from day one they were very comfortable. Still, we had as I said, this one resource per class per lecture is a huge help because then faculty is not bothered about attendance, faculties not about bothered about class participation, quizzes. Everything is taken care of by the person who's attending to that class. So faculty is just doing what they were doing in the physical classroom which is concentrating on teaching.

Q: How is the institution working on improving gender diversity at campus?

A: Last year we had a very high percentage of 33% girls on our campus. This year, I think the number has dipped a little bit but I think, these numbers are very, very encouraging and it is already known across IIMs that IIMs are making all effort to include girls on campus.

Q: IIM Bodh Gaya is a third-generation IIM, how are you planning to it among the top B-schools, specifically, IIM-A, IIM-B, and others?

A: All my sister institutions, especially the name which you took our 60 to 70-year-old so the comparisons are futile. I don't like to make comparisons because we are all sister institutions. I like to see ourselves as sister institutions. It is a legacy that we have to maintain. I see it as a responsibility. See, the younger campuses have this onerous responsibility of keeping up with the tradition and legacy. So, there is absolutely no need for comparisons. There's absolutely no need for competition. What is needed is the word ‘cooperation’ because India with a 1.3 billion population, definitely, is in support of all twenty of us in ways that are very, very progressive and promising. We all work together and together we become the hub of Business School education in the world. I don't see competition amongst ourselves. I want to see India as becoming a study destination for the world. And we all excel in our own capacities in our own ways so that we become best in the world, together.

You will be surprised to know that we are already into accreditation with AACSB, we are aspiring to be at a particular level at NIRF, but I am somehow is a leader who believes that let our work speak for itself. We feel proud that we being a young campus has three programs, i.e. PhD, MBA and IPM with the batch strength of 210, 10 and 60. 60 research scholars, we take every year, 210 MBA we take every year 60 IPM we are taking this year. Only thing is, yes you were asking me the numbers of IPM. We may increase to 120 next year. We have 18 international collaborations, the highest in the new generation IIM.

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