In a bid to inculcate rural perspective in decision making at the middle and senior managerial levels of the corporate and agri-businesses, the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) will soon launch a 15-month Post-Graduate diploma programme for executives.

The programme, which is likely to be launched from January 2019, will have a strength of 60, out of which 30 will be sponsored by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for suitable and qualified candidates recommended by the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPOs) or cooperative dairies.

“The remaining 30 participants will be individuals, who will be given placement assistance on completion of the course. A minimum of four years’ experience will be required in any domain. The 15-month course will have one year of classroom teaching and three months of project work or internship,” said Hitesh Bhatt, Director of IRMA.

Notably, in 1990-91, IRMA was among the first to launch the one-year diploma programme in rural management, which was sponsored by NDDB and the dairy cooperatives — primarily to meet the requirements of dairy professionals under Operation Flood.

“After the third phase of Operation Flood ended in 1996, the one-year programme, popularly known as OYP, was also suspended. This created a vacuum for a course suitable for executives interested in pursuing rural management. The new course will be unique in its structure,” said Saswata Biswas, Organisational Behaviour and HR.

Key components

According to Biswas, the new executive programme will have broader applications beyond dairy sector as it will have three key components — functional areas of management, perspective building for rural management and social marketing (such as marketing of social goods such as health, sanitation, mother and child care etc).

Screening for the new course will take place through a score of common admission test (CAT) or XAT, followed by IRMA’s own internal test, ISAT — IRMA Social Aptitude Test, group discussions and personal interview.

Currently, IRMA offers a two-year Post-Graduate Diploma in rural management (PGDRM, equivalent to masters), a fellow programme in rural management (equivalent to doctoral programme), besides a certificate programme in rural management with total student strength of 360.

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