The US industry, though created on the foundation of engineering skills, had started believing that it could sell anything if it was marketed well and that it could make profits selling any product if it was financed well, before the Japanese shattered the myth. The Japanese demonstrated that engineering was equally important, if not more, and in the process gave birth to the concept of techno-managers.

India too took a leap in fulfilling its engineering requirements and established a chain of IITs starting with the laying of foundation stone of IIT Kharagpur in 1951. It long served the needs of the corporate sector and set up standards to be emulated by otherengineering colleges.

The new winds of change were felt in India too. With liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian economy and the growing competition, industry needed who could market its goods, look after its finances and hire manpower more efficiently. At the same time growth of the information technology sector fuelled demand for systems people. Thus the MBAs came into importance.IITs have been showing direction to the industry and providing the basic raw material (i.e. human capital) for the last five decades. They had proved their mettle in operations, had the best analytical skills for financial computations, had engineers whose versatility made them fit for marketing and had infrastructure for systems, which could be matched by none in the country.

As engineers left IITs and other reputed engineering colleges, they felt the need for a management institution which could provide the same infrastructure they had become used to at IIT Kharagpur, Mumbai and Delhi spread over an area of 1,400,550 and 380 acres, respectively. MIT (MIT is to America what IITs are to India) had already shown the path of enduring the change and meeting the challenging demands of industry by setting up a B-school. So what could be a better place than IITs to provide a combination of engineering and management skills?

IIT Kharagpur again set the pace for others by creating a School of Management on its campus. Soon IIT Delhi and IIT Mumbai followed the trend. Thus, a long quest of engineering graduates to have a management degree at a good institution was fulfilled.

IITs have been setting up standards of engineering education, curriculum and teaching methods to be emulated by other institutions. Now they are set to revolutionise the management education. IIT Kharagpur, for instance, restricts its batch to engineers/graduates with minimum two years of exposure to the corporate world. Apart from that, a degree is awarded only after the student has worked on a live management problem and demonstrated his capabilitiesas a manager. With most of the faculty being drawn from the corporate sector itself, more attention is being paid to the practical aspects of the problem.

Extending the project period from two to eight months is another revolutionary concept in B-schools. University of Michigan started this approach. IIT Kharagpur in India and some of the reputed B-schools in the US and Europe have readily accepted it. Thus, students no longer use their first job as a time gap arrangement. They're able to identify the industry they want to be in and do not just opt for the best paymaster. Working on a live problem in industry, the student gets a hands-on experience. He's able to apply the concepts he has learnt, which are otherwise forgotten in a few days.

Systems knowledge is a necessity today, irrespective of what field a person is working in. A management student may be working in the area of finance, marketing, human resource development or operations, he cannot do without systems. IITs have successfully integratedthe information technology in management courses with excellent infrastructure and manpower at their disposal. Thus IIT B-schools producing techno-managers have got a definite edge over some of the other reputed management schools which do not have the access or background in technology.

The academia and intellectual forum used to complain that the students study engineering for four years and waste the national resources by shifting over to management. Their grudge has been taken care of by integration of both the disciplines. Such a student will demonstrate performance and will be able to deliver better.

The advancement of technology in all spheres and progress towards a border- free world have all led to the growth of the so called techno-managers. Today, companies need professionals who're master of all and jack of none. The IITs have answered the call of the corporate industry. Truly, the techno-managers have arrived on the scene.

The writer is a student at the Vinod Gupta School of Management,IIT Kharagpur