In an exclusive interview with PaGaLGuY, Prof Shekhar Chaudhuri, director of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) speaks about the importance of diversity in class, development plans for IIM-C and the affect of foreign universities making an entry into India.

The inclusion of X and XII marks during admissions has not received a very favourable reaction from students?

The effort behind this is that we need more consistency in academic performance. We do not want to have people who by some stroke of luck manage to get in. This is one of the main reasons that in our admissions meeting we have decided to give some weightage to the X and XII marks. If you have a look at the people who join here, there will be a minimal difference (maybe half a mark) between the person who was the last to get a call and the one who missed the call. The differentiating factor is that we have to make sure those who get in are consistently good in their academic record.

Also, coaching institutions prepare students over a period of many months. Some people who are intrinsically not very bright may also get in just because of these coaching classes. We want to reduce this.

What are your views on increasing the level of diversity with regards to gender and discipline?

We would like to have more diversity in our management class. We feel that in the industry there are people from backgrounds including arts, sciences, technology, chartered accountants, cost accountants and so on. So we need to have a wider class scope. But the fact remains that due to their earlier training, engineers do much better in CAT than the others. We need to come out of the pattern. We have been concerned, but really speaking we have not been able to figure out a way to increase diversity. Suppose a person has scored very well in CAT but we refuse the person admission on the grounds that we have a quota, then that is also not correct and would also have legal ramifications.

From the pool, there are two basic forms of diversity to be kept in mind. One is gender diversity and the other is academic diversity. As far as gender diversity is concerned, we would definitely like to have a class that is 50% males and 50% females. But it is not happening and we are not being able to figure out a way to bring that kind of diversity in effect.

Is the pattern of the CAT paper a reason behind the high number of engineers scoring a high percentile and entering the IIMs?

I personally have not had a look at a CAT paper since the time I appeared for one myself. But what I gather is that the IIT entrance test is much more focused on mathematics, physics and chemistry. Data analytics is there but in management you require that much of technical knowledge. The way the system works is that all IIMs have their own admission committees and the CAT committee is comprised of the chairpersons of the admission committees of all the institutes. They are given full freedom to come up with a questions. We discuss the matter with the people setting the paper but never interfere in the matter. In addition, the weightage of CAT in the admission procedure is not that high. The pool of candidates itself is reflected in the ultimate diversity in the class.

According to you, how important is it to have gender diversity in a management class?

In human population, one expects there to be 50% males and 50% females but that does not happen. There may be a number of reasons including the distorted behaviour in the form of female foeticide and so on. However, ideally one expects there to be a perfect balance in nature in this matter. Society essentially reflects what is there in nature, hence there should be 50% females in management classes. But that should happen only out of choice. There may be a time when men stop going into management and more number of women want to become engineers, artists and other disciplines. No one should be forced to enter the field of management. Society and government should encourage and enable those who are interested.

A number of foreign universities have entered the Indian terrain. What would be the impact of this development be on the IIMs?

Personally, I think it is a good thing. That is only if good quality institutes come to the country. I think so because in such a scenario there will be a spill-over effect. If good institutes come to the country, they will recruit people from the country and also bring new people to the country. But there will also be some interactions with the existing system, which will help our students get in tune with new ideas, new cultures and the education systems of these foreign schools. Students who study in foreign schools will work in India so their interaction with peers will increase the chance of their knowledge and work culture spilling over to our students as well.

On the other hand, the negative points include that many Indian institutions that were getting these students, will lose out on their student base. But how does it matter. If some institute is not doing well and students have the chance to go to a better institute then they should go there. Maybe these institutions will have to settle for lower order students from what they were getting earlier, but this will increase the pressure on them to perform better. This is a negative impact for some time but only for those who do not want to improve. For all others it will be a challenge. For example, when Coca Cola and Pepsi came in, everyone thought Thumps Up and Limca would be wiped out. Some others did get wiped out, but these did survive. Those who are not ready to adapt and become better there is no justification for them to survive. If the people who come from outside short change our people, thats bad. So there should be a regulatory mechanism that should look at the type of institutions which are allowed to come in.

Another thing is that when these older institutions come in, they have a brand in place. One would say that the level of playing field should be there. In public institutions, we cannot give very high salaries. Whereas when you look at very good private institutions, they are able to give very high salaries to their staff – from faculty administrative members, which we cannot do. If we want to do that then there is government restriction. Of course, government allows us to give topping up salaries. But in such a scenario, we will have to raise the fees, which means that a lot of people who would have otherwise entered out institutions will be deterred. Many of the students who study in the foreign institutes go abroad, so the country loses out on good talent. I do not know what the solution is. But overall this is a good step since it will help take the overall level of management education in the country to the next level.

There were talks about IIM Calcutta opening a campus abroad. Any development?

The idea was floated. But right now, we have so much to do here in the country that the idea has been put on hold. It is also possible that IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta could jointly take up the project. We have thought about it but we have not taken the next step yet. The idea is definitely there in the radar screen but no action has been taken yet.

Have the older IIMs ever considered the option of mentoring other management institutes in the country to improve the level of education in the country?

We have already mentored IIM Ranchi. Now it is on its own. But even now if it asks for help, we give help in whatever sense needed. Beyond the IIMs, if there is an institution we can explore, we will. If an institute comes to IIM Calcutta, we will be willing to explore the option. At the end of the day, even we have to motivate our faculty because they have their own work, research projects going on. But if there is some institute that wants to be mentored and wants support, we will be willing to look at it.

IIM Indore applied for a deemed university status recently. What is your opinion on the viability of IIMs getting a deemed university status?

I am not aware about IIM Indore applying for a deemed university status. However, as a body, all the IIMs have requested the HRD ministry to explore the option of enabling us to award degrees. Whether as a deemed university or as an institute of national importance, in whatever way it think it is possible to do so. But we have requested the ministry to give us that award by which we will be able to award our own degrees. Because if we can award our own degrees, our students will be able to have a better stand on a global level instead of having an equivalent to an MBA post graduate diploma.

IIM Kozhikode became the first IIM to get operational autonomy recently. What are your views on the IIMs wanting more autonomy?

IIMs are already autonomous. No organisation in the world is so perfect that there is nobody to give any guidance. If we are under the HRD ministry, then there are general guidelines for all of us. For example, in the Tata group, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power and all the rest have to work under the general guidelines developed by the Tata Sons for the management of the entire group. In the case of the IIMs as well, we cannot say that we will not work under anyones guidelines. That is not possible. In the operational sense, we can select our own students and we can design our own curriculum.

Yes, we cannot decide our salary scales. But in this case, the government has given us autonomy in a different manner. They have given us the option of topping up salaries. Topping up salaries essentially mean that if according to the salary scale, a person has a salary of Rs 5000 per month but the Institute wants to pay him Rs 2500 more because he/she has performed very well, the government allows it. However, we have to adhere to the scale. We have incentive schemes for non-teaching staff, we have the system of providing honorarium to faculty who have been teaching management development programs. So each IIM is autonomous. We do not follow any particular guideline. If you look at IIM A, B, C, L and so on, each institute has its own management that works independently, but some similarities at its core.

What are the future development plans that have been chalked out for IIM Calcutta?

Immediately, our focus is on completing the construction work that is currently going on in the campus. It is a 200 crore project. We have hostels, an amphi theatre complex and new classrooms coming up. The new academic block has already been completed but there a few details still left out. That will take another two years. The basic idea behind all this construction is because we are planning on increasing the number of participants in our programs. So the executive hostel will have 200 rooms whereas our current hostel has 55 rooms. This is in terms of the infrastructure.

In terms of programs, in the post graduate program we have reached the maximum capacity that we had planned, which is 460. At least for the next several years, we are not planning any increase in that program. However, in the PGP-EX, our one-year programme, we would like to increase it to 120 from 50, over the next few years. However, that will depend upon the time when the new construction will be completed. We would like to expand the Post Graduate Program for Executives for Visionary Leadership in Manufacturing. Currently we are taking in about 30 students, which we would like to increase to 60. Executive Education will expand in a very big way.

Also, we envisage improving the infrastructure even more. We have already witnessed great development over the past few years, but we would like to improve it even more. Our vision is to improve the student exchange programs. We are looking to increase our number of partner schools so that at least one-third of our students get the opportunity to go abroad. We also want to improve facilities for foreign students because they are used to a certain way of living. So we may, over a period of time, develop an international hostel.

Strengthening alumni relations is another major aspect. Over the past few years, we have put in a lot of efforts to complete our database of alumni. Currently we have a database of 6000 names. Now we want to include students who were a part of all the programs, including executive programs in our database. We are also developing a proposal to raise funds from alumni and corporates to fund all the infrastructure developments and programs. We also want to strengthen out finance lab and want to involve other IIMs in the process as well. We have already started an International Finance Conference. While we began the conference, the last chapter was held by IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad is going to hold the conference next year. So we want to increase the collaborative programs between institutes. We also want the doctoral programs to become more collaborative. We have already started one double degree program but would like to increase them in number as well.

Over the last one year, the economic condition of the country has seen a dip. Will this affect management studies?

It definitely will affect the field of management as well as management students. Earlier, there was a wave in the country wherein everybody wanted to do an MBA. That has already taken a beating. Already, there are a large number of private institutions which are not able to fill up its seats. In a way, there will be a correction factor. Earlier people were just running without thinking but now students will pause and then decide whether they really want to go in for management. If you ask me, the IIMs and other good institutions will not be affected much unless the economy goes way further down. For example, if we were getting x number of posts in consultancy that may go down by a few numbers. But overall, I am sure all our students will get placed.