The Hindu Business Line : IPE spells networking success

THE Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), Hyderabad, has been chosen by Microsoft as one of the three management centres in India, which will be provided with Rs 1-crore funding to integrate its enterprise resources planning (ERP) software in 2005.

The other two are the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and the XLRI, Jamshedpur.

The IPE has managed to turn its campus into WiFi enabled, networked through 80 computers and has provided its faculty with a computer and printer and a well-equipped library and databases.

Microsoft's decision to pick IPE for its ERP software integration seems to have a sound background.

It was the IPE which first prompted the Andhra Pradesh Government to create infrastructure in IT and improve its usage, through a comprehensive report several years ago.

The Andhra Pradesh Technology Services (APTS) and the computerisation of the Andhra Pradesh Police Academy were taken up on the recommendations of the report, explained Dr R.K. Mishra, present Director of the Institute.

Located in the sprawling campus of the Osmania University, IPE plans to use the tie-up with Microsoft to launch its Navision, a cost-effective, integrated business management solution, which is fast to implement and easy to customise.

It is specially useful for small and medium enterprises looking for improving productivity and related management practises that bring in efficiency of operations.

Since its beginning in 1964, the IPE recognised as a centre of excellence in management by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), which also financially supports it, has focussed on issues and policies relating to public enterprises and public systems. Today, it runs the popular evening MBA, several training courses, post-graduate management courses, consultancy services to corporates and the Government.

It is successfully involved in an Andhra Pradesh-Netherlands biotech programme, with increasing emphasis on biotechnology education, Mr Mishra told Business Line.

The much-talked about public enterprises reforms in Andhra Pradesh, which gathered momentum during the Telugu Desam rule in the State, especially with the active support of the World Bank were initiated on the basis of a base paper prepared by the IPE, he said.

At the national level also the State Level Public Enterprise's database created by the IPE, has been accepted by the RBI as the base material.

Similarly, the model of disinvestment, termed 3x3 matrix rating followed by the Union Government was the contribution of the institute, Mr Mishra said.

At the international level, the IPE has had long association with the London School of Economics.

Similarly, it has collaboration with the International Association of Schools & Institution of Administration. In recent times, the IPE has also got global recognition for its consultancy.

For example a delegation from Indonesia is expected to arrive around November 15 to seek help for restructuring their Government and to train public sector officials, the Director said.

In the ongoing UNDP study on the Macro Economics of Poverty Reduction, the Indian part is being done by the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai.

This institute has, in turn, given the responsibility for looking at privatisation and the poor to the IPE.

The IPE is part of the 27 institute network of the ICSSR. It gets an annual grant of Rs 44 lakh from it, while the State Government gives it a nominal Rs 4-5 lakh.

The rest of the Rs 2 crore revenue generation per annum is through the training, research and consultancy work it undertakes. It is an autonomous institute managed by a society.

On the industry front, the IPE has done projects for Seimens, Singareni Collieries and is engaged in another project on the Vizag Steel Plant. Several of its students are absorbed for project work. Also, the IPE has inducted corporates on its board and is taking their inputs for curricula development.

The institute is actively involved in preparing corporate plan for State enterprises. Based on the experience on preparing such a plan for the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation, the IPE has been entrusted with the task of doing similar one for Andhra Pradesh Foods and Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation.

In the next two years, the IPE would focus on corporate governance.

The public sector at the Centre and State level, the cooperative societies are other interest areas, which would be pursued.

It has also recently launched the Journal of Economic Policy and Research, a half-yearly exercise. This is an addition to the quarterly "Journal of Institute of Public Enterprise", which it has been publishing.

The Andhra Pradesh-Netherlands project on biotechnology has also brought the institute into the national limelight. The Government of Netherlands entrusted IPE with the implementation of an 11-year biotechnology project with a budget of Rs 40 crore to spearhead research and apply biotechnology for the benefit of poor farmers in two district of Andhra Pradesh.

After a recent review of the project, both sides are exploring the prospects of increasing it beyond 2007 with more projects. The IPE has, in the meantime, compiled a volume on the educational infrastructure in biotechnology and made a cost benefit analysis, he said.

On the management education front, the IPE has a popular MBA (public enterprise), a three-year course for practising managers, launched in 1981.

In 1995, it launched a two-year, full time Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management with the approval of the AICTE to provide skilled resource to meet the requirements of the industry. The admission is through the Common Admission Test, conducted by the Indian Institute of Management.

Manned by its 20 strong faculty and research associates, the IPE wants to increase the number to 30 by the end of the current financial year.

The institute also has collaborations with the Birla Institute of Management and the International Management Association. It is exploring a tie-up with the University of Melbourne.

Over the last four decades of its existence, the IPE has developed expertise in training in areas such as general management, strategic management, IT, marketing, HR, finance and biotechnology. It runs a six-weeks foundation course on basics of management.

Another regular activity for the institute is to train IAS officers. Till date about 2,000 IAS officers and around 10,000 senior and middle level executives from Central, State Governments and the corporate sector have undergone training.

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