In a startling move, the government has sanctioned the opening up of 21 new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the country. Of these, at least seven will become operational from the 2011 academic year.

The cities earmarked for the new IIMs are Nanded, Ernakulum, Itanagar, Vasco-da-gama, Pondicherry, Bhuj, Ootacamund, Jaisalmer, Meerut, Dehradun, Yavatmal, Belagum, Hissar, Jabalpur, Quilon, Ferozpur, Port Blair, Cuttack, Warangal, Jaitapur and Ganganagar.

According to a source in the HRD Ministry who spoke to PaGaLGuY, the reason behind the move has been the continuous decline in the number of students opting for MBA degrees. “This year only a little more than 2 lakh applicants took the CAT. With more IIMs, we expect to inject new vigour into the business education sector. We cannot increase the seats in the present IIMs, so during a high-level meeting with Chief Ministers, it was decided to allocate more IIMs to states that did not have one.”

The source further added that the announcement was slated to be made during the budget in February but the modalities had not been worked out then. The government has earmarked a capital investment of Rs 274 crores for this ambitious expansion in higher education.

Asked why some of the IIMs had been earmarked for places untouched by any corporate whatsoever, the HRD ministry official said that it was meant to give a boost to the towns. “An IIM will automatically not only put the place on the world map but the local industry in the place will get a fillip,” he said.

With the announcement of 21 new IIMs, the total number of IIMs in India will shoot up to 34 (including the ones that are supposed to come up at Udaipur and Kashipur). IIM Trichy is expected to become operational from this academic year. Among the 21 new IIMs, the ones at Bhuj, Dehradun and Jabalpur are also expected to begin conducting admissions in a month.

Additionally, it is learnt that one of the existing government b-schools in Mumbai will be converted into an IIM. As Maharashtra has not had an IIM so far and has hardly ever lobbied for one, the Centre has sanctioned three IIMs for the state. Land has already been earmarked and allocated for the other two Maharashtra IIMs apart from the one that is to be converted in Mumbai.

Incidentally, the Centre has decided to reserve 50 positions in the Indian Administrative Services for graduates of IIMs. “This will allay fears that the government is not doing anything to create job opportunities for the students of the new IIMs.”

The news has come as a shock to directors of the present IIMs. One of them who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “We will protest against this move during the next joint meeting of IIM Directors. As it is there is a shortage of directors, where are we going to find 21 more directors, leave alone faculty?”

Another director said that existing IIMs cannot mentor so many IIMs in the next three years, so the government should review its decision.

Some directors are however happy with the move. One director from one of the older IIMs said that this will mean that many more students will benefit from studying in an IIM and for all their lives speak about this achievement on various online discussion forums.

As the day nears its end, I think it’s about time we tell you that…

We got ya, A-P-R-I-L F-O-O-L-S !!!

We hope you enjoyed being April Fools as much as we did making you ones. Don’t know about you, but we absolutely enjoyed reading some of the comments here. We derived special kicks out of the particularly serious and grandfatherly comments telling us about our duties and responsibilities. Shows how raw the nerves we touched were. We would have loved to see your faces!!

Anyhow, no offences meant. And for the record, all the information in this article is false. We urge you not to desert your admissions to b-schools in the hopes of getting through IIM Yavatmal next year, because none such is going to be set up.

Good night!! (Still laughing)

PS: Lol @ ‘rockinmukul’s comment: “what would happen if a person gets call from all 34 iims. he will be mad”