According to M N Pal, coordinator of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Management for Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing, “It has been decided that only companies with operations in India will be allowed to offer placements to these students.”

He added, “Since the country is trailing in the manufacturing sector and the programme was initiated by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) to promote this sector, we, therefore, don’t want our students to get overseas placement.”

However, even if the placement is restricted to companies with Indian operations, IIM-C officials are aware that they cannot monitor the placement of students once they pass out from the institute.

“If a student is inducted in an Indian branch of a company, but is transferred to an overseas branch in a few month, the whole point of restricting the recruitment becomes irrelevant,” said a professor at IIM-C.

The programme was initiated in August last year as a result of an MoU signed between India and Japan, in which both the countries had agreed to share human resources to promote manufacturing.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has been providing the faculty support for this programme. The programme is for students with a minimum of five years experience in manufacturing sector. The first batch has 30 students. The placement for the one-year course will be conducted from June 26 at the IIM-C campus.

IIM Calcutta, IIT Chennai and IIT Kanpur are conducting the programme jointly.

The students undergo four months training at IIM-C, another two months training at IIT Chennai and IIT Kanpur, respectively.