The Hindu Business Line : IIFT Kolkata opens with 2-yr MBA course

Centre of excellence
IIFT has already been allotted a 7-acre plot in south Kolkata to construct a permanent campus
Three more acres, already available as adjacent area, is now going to be added for making it a centre of excellence

TIME TO ACT: The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, at a meeting in Kolkata on Friday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata , Aug. 11

Ask for land and you will be given, seems to be the credo followed by Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, these days, when it comes to any developmental activity in the State.

On a request by Mr Prabir Sengupta, Director of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), for an additional three acres for an expanded new IIFT campus in Kolkata with more facilities here on Friday, the CM said it is `done'. Land will be handed over as early as possible.

Campus inaugurated

The first off-Delhi campus of IIFT was inaugurated on Friday at a temporary premise in Salt Lake City by the Union Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath. IIFT has already been allotted a seven-acre plot in south Kolkata to construct a permanent campus, work on which is expected to begin soon.

Three more acres, already available as adjacent area, is now going to be added for making this school of international business in Kolkata a centre of excellence. Work on the permanent campus, with hostel facilities, is expected to be completed by 2009.

Course details

A two-year full time MBA (IB) programme by IIFT in Kolkata has already been launched, and a three-year part time MBA (IB) degree programme is also being started from November 2006. Mr Bhattacharjee released the prospectus of this programme at the inaugural function.

Mr Kamal Nath said the Kolkata campus of IIFT would not only cater to the needs of eastern States like Bihar, Orissa and the North East, but also take in students from the country's south Asian neighbours.

Hinting that IIFT's Kolkata campus would need to expand in a big way as a major resource centre for international research, given India's projected global trade engagement of $500 billion in the next five years, he said more such institutions are needed in other cities of India.

Exports, the Minister pointed out, were now needed not so much for dollar generation, but for employment generation.

Manufacturing sector

Stressing on the need for India to emerge as a major manufacturing hub in the world, given the young workforce, he said that the country needs to strategise well in advance for this. "Manufacturing now accounts for only 17 per cent of our GDP, and we need to take this to at least 24-25 per cent of GDP in the coming years."

Mr Kamal Nath said some 70 per cent of the FDI coming into India in the last one year has been in manufacturing, and this augured well for creation of more and more jobs. He said if the export growth of 20 per cent can be sustained, we might be able to create 21 million jobs by 2010. In 2005, when export growth touched 20 per cent, some 1.4 million direct jobs could be created, he pointed out.

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