Children of armed forces personnel often have a tough time in their education years. Tagging along with their parents all over the country, they somehow manage to get a schooling, wherever their parents get posted. The result is a mixture of Kendriya Vidyalayas and big-city schools. But the real problems begin after school, when it comes to choosing a career. However, over the years, the Army Educational Welfare Society has set up various specialised educational institutions, the latest being a management institute in Calcutta, staffed by a top-class faculty. The National Institute of Management, Calcutta(NIMC), inaugurated in July 1997, has been set up primarily for dependents of armed forces personnel, with 20 per cent of the 60 seats open to the general public.
The NIMC offers an MBA degree at the end of a two-year course. The first batch will be completing their course in 1999. The written admission tests for second batch are over and evaluation is in progress. The process for the third batch willstart in September 1998 when advertisements will be released in newspapers. The minimum qualification is a graduation with 50 per cent marks.
``We found that our children often ended up with a less than confident attitude toward life. To give them the confidence we have started this MBA programme, generally considered the most desirable qualification today,'' says Major General Jitendra Singh, general officer commanding, Bengal area, and the chairman of the NIMC managing committee.
``We also wanted our children to mix with children from other backgrounds and thus have reserved 20 seats for candidates with civilian backgrounds,'' Singh added.
The NIMC is recognised by the Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan, and a full- fledged affiliation is now awaited. ``The All India Council for Technical Education has given us a viability certificate and will be conducting an inspection next month,'' Singh added.
That NIMC has been well received by the industry can be judged from the response to summertraining placement of the students of the first batch. ``The number of projects offered was far greater than the number of the students. The offers were from the top corporate houses of the city,'' claims Singh.
The army has set up a fund with a corpus of Rs 50 lakh for the NIMC. ``The fees have been kept at a reasonable level, and we are operating on a shoe string budget,'' he says.
The tuition and other fees for the first year for army dependents excluding the hostel and security money are Rs 24,000 and Rs 39,500 for others. The fees for a post graduate diploma in management at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, would be around Rs 50,000 per year.
The faculty has been drawn from premier management training institutes like the IIM, Calcutta and XLRI Jamshedpur etc. The director of NIMC, Sujit Kumar Basu, has worked with IIM, Calcutta, for a 23-year stint.
``The opportunity to build something on my own has brought me here,'' says Basu. ``I am trying to shape this institute along the modelof the IIMs with some minor changes. We will have some special classes on values and ethics. We want them to grow up as professionals who will work in India. There will also be a special set of lectures on Tagore's idea of development,'' Basu said.
According to Basu, several companies which took his students for summer projects have said that they don't have the common tendency of job-hopping like students of other premier institutes. ``They are going to observe my students and have hinted that their ultimate aim is to recruit them,'' Basu said.
The institute is run by a managing committee consisting of army officers and the director. The committee looks after the administrative functions as well as providing the infrastructural support that the NIMC needs. The academic functions and related administration are solely managed by an academic committee.
Construction is under way at the NIMC, situated within the Eastern Command Hospital compound at Alipur. A new library, new hostels for boys and girls andsome other renovation within the complex, is being done.
The first batch of students had quite a few engineers along with some graduates in science, humanities and commerce as well as a few master degree holders.
One can write to The Director, NIMC, Building No 117, Command Hospital Complex, Post Office No 16710, Alipore, Calcutta 27, for further details. One can also e-mail at nimc1@giascl01.vsnl.net.in.
Written examinations for admission to NIMC are held in January, at ten centres all over India and also in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
