IIFT to build third campus in South

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade(IIFT) is planning a campus in South India, after Delhi and Kolkata, as the student representation from the region is quite low.

 

The ministry of commerce, GoI is in talks with the Planning commission on the proposal and a go-ahead nod is expected, said K T Chacko, director of IIFT on the sidelines of the Annual Symposium of the institute. The investment on the campus can be up to Rs 50-60 crore.

 

The initial capital will be provided by the Human Resources Development Ministry(MHRD), while the running cost of the campus will come from the institute itself.  The location of the campus is yet to be decided as the proposal is still in an early stage.

 

Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) was planning to subsidise interest rates on education loans to 4 per cent so as to bring more students from the underprivileged backgrounds into the mainstream of higher education.

 

IIFT already had a subsidy programme for its students, acting as a facilitator between student and the bank. Students with family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum were entitled to the subsidy.

 

IIFT would pay entire interest on the loan amount,

while the student would have to pay the principal amount of the loan in installments starting from six months after leaving the institute, said Chacko.

 

There was no upper limit on the amount to be disbursed as subsidy every year, he added.

 

Last year, the institute spent Rs 1 crore as interest amounts on education loans.

 

The MHRD plan was still under discussion before the Planning commission, University Grants Commission, and ministry of commerce.

 

A corpus fund may be created for disbursing the subsidies. With summer placements complete, IIFT was all set for final placement season in January.

 

Average salaries were expected to grow by 20 per cent over last year's average salary of Rs 9.5 lakh, said Umang Gupta, placement coordinator for IIFT.

 

Nearly 20 per cent of the final-year students received pre-placement offers.

 

Corporates expected to come for recruitment included Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Dabur along with financial sector firms like ICICI, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, GE Money and IT firms like CTS, Accenture and IBM besides others.