IIM-A ties up with three corporates for research

Indian Institute of Management -Ahmedabad on Wednesday announced a tie-up with three corporate houses -- CRISIL, ATS Infra and SAP -- for research in financial markets, infrastructure and entrepreneurship.

"I am thankful to CRISIL and ATS Infra for establishing chairs (research initiatives faculty) in financial markets and infrastructure, respectively."

"The desire of SAP, which will also establish a chair, to foster spirit of entrepreneurship is in line with IIM-A's long-term goals, and we are delighted to partner with them," IIM-Ahmedabad Director Ashish Nanda told reporters.

"The contribution of the three companies will help the institute to strengthen its impact and maintain quality. As we continue to connect with practice, I am confident the institute will benefit from access to current management practices and challenges; and also support for high-quality research," Nanda said.

"Besides, the World Gold Council has established a centre here which will be called as India Gold Policy Centre. These chairs and centre are initiatives as part of ongoing efforts to deepen ties between industries and academia so that we can learn and interact with them and they will support our researches," he said.

"This is a good initiative for that. The first step of this initiative was announced by us in June this year with some chairs. This is the second step and we hope such type of collaboration and support will be increased in next few months so that we can make our institute one of the best management institutes in the world," he said.

The three corporates have contributed Rs 1.50 crore for their term chairs of five years.

The money will go into research, strategic support and in administrative efforts as well, he said. Providing money is only one part, other parts include ongoing research, inter-change and contribution in education.

It's a signal for us that a management school needs to collaborate with corporates for research and teaching, he said.

Earlier, IIM-A had set up the India Gold Policy Centre in collaboration with World Gold Council (WCG) for conducting research on all aspects of the Indian gold industry.

According to a press statement from IIM-A, its recent tie-ups with corporates have brought in a funding of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million), which will be spent towards research in financial markets, infrastructure and entrepreneurship, respectively.