Any Malaysian interested in pursuing management course in IIM Ahmedabad?

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is one of India's prestigious management institutes. People say it is more difficult to get into IIM-A than to get into Harvard or any other Business School in western countries, because of the competition to study at IIM-A i.e. more people apply for admission to  IIMs than for Harvard.

Now Malaysians have a golden opportunity to study at this prestigious world class institutionm, thanks to the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, which is fully sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Govt. of India (GoI). IIM-A is now on the panel of ITEC institutions offering International Training Programmes to countries coming under the ITEC scheme.

IIM-A has been offering a 1-year Post-Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy (PGP-PMP). The application form for this has to be submitted well in advance e.g. for the course begining in April 2009, the last date to apply was 03 Nov 2008 (keep in mind that this date is for the institute to receive the application through this Mission; so one would have had to apply by the 1st week of Oct 2008 in order for the application to be processed and sent to IIM-A, which is about 6 months before the start of the course).

About the PGP-PMP course:

This one-year programme focuses on public policy and governance, infrastructure development and financing, and public enterprise management. It has been designed to sharpen the skills and perspectives of civil servants, managers in publi enterprises, professionals from NGOs, executives from the corporate world, and those with legislative experience who have to deal with public management issues.

The curriculum is very rigorous with about 800 contact or equivalent hours of engagement. The programme is offered in four modules:

1. A core management module,
2. A core public management and policy module,
3. An elective and seminar module leading to concentration in a number of areas,
4. An international attachment module which would provide exposure to public management and policy in a different country/context.

The applicants must meet the eligibility criteria laid down by IIM-A as well as the ITEC norms. Participants would need to fill both the ITEC and IIM-A application forms.

IIM-A's eligibility criteria for this course:

The applicant must have a Bachelor's degree or equivalent in any discipline, and must have at least 7 years work experience in a supervisory / managerial / administrative position. In addition, all applicants must have valid GMAT/GRE score obtained recently, or CAT (Common Admission Test) score from any of the last three CATs. Applicants without a GMAT/GRE/CAT score will have to take IIM-A's special aptitude test. The test would be held at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata. (Note: Applicants have to incur the expenditure on the test themselves.)

So those interested in pursuing a management course from institutions like Harvard, you could try applying for this PGP-PMP through ITEC and if you meet the eligibility criteria and are selected, you could get the whole course sponsored by the GoI. Good luck and spread the word around. But remember, apply well in advance of 6 months or more, and have your GMAT/GRE scores ready.