Dr. P Rameshan, Director of IIM Rohtak joined the institute at its inception in the year 2010. Being the first Director of the first IIM in North West India, Dr. Rameshan has high plans and missions to develop the institute and take it to the global level. His association with IIMs is nothing new. Prior to joining IIM Rohtak, he was a Professor at IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, National Institute of Bank Management, Pune; Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune and Jawaharlal Nehru College, Pasighat.

In an interview, Dr. Rameshan shares his vision and mission for IIM Rohtak, the challenges and achievements and his plans to fulfill his vision and passion for the country.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: You have been a part of IIMs for a long time. You were associated with IIM Lucknow and IIM Kozhikode. Now you are the Director of IIM Rohtak. What is the experience of this entire journey?
A: I have been a very active faculty throughout my tenure in IIM. I have played several roles in IIM Lucknow and Kozhikode including Admission Chairman, Founder FPM Chairman, and Director-In-Charge of IIM Kozhikode. The Directorship of IIM Rohtak is an extension of the initiative that I have been taking in IIM Kozhikode and IIM Lucknow. Of course this is a task of much responsibility and I will have to play the role carefully. 

Q: What is your vision and mission for IIM Rohtak as the Director?
A: My mission is to make the institute an internationally reputed one owing to the intellect. Today people look at Harvard Business School as the top management institute of the world. I want IIM Rohtak to reach that status. I know that is not an easy task. But if we aim for it from now, we will be able to achieve that within the next 20 to 25 years. I don’t consider the Indian B-Schools as my competition.

We should dream big. Today we are proudly boasting about India’s economy and hoping that we will be the global leaders in economy. Similarly, we should also aim to take our institutes in that stature.

The second mission for me is to get rid of all the corruption and nepotism which is the concern of the hour for India. As educated people, particularly as a part of the national institute like IIM, we have the responsibility to fight such vices India is undergoing.  This has been my mission since the last 20 years. I am active against corruption and nepotism since the last 20 years. As the Director, I find this a great opportunity to take the mission further.

Q: When you say that you want to take IIM Rohtak as the global institute, what is your way forward for that?
A: I take it as my mission to make IIM Rohtak as a leading global institute of high academic and intellectual caliber. I will play my own small role to take my institute to that height. Firstly I will have to assume what my roles can be. My role model is Nalanda University where students came from all over the world. I want IIM Rohtak to be the modern day Nalanda University.

We will have to satisfy the global parameters. There are certain things which are in our control but certain things are not in our control. I can have a global vision and global culture, global attitude. Once I have the global resources like quality research oriented faculty, we can have lot of research in our institute and they can be published in international journals and media through which people will come to know about us. But that will take time as we need to acquire that size and strategic resources. For instance, I need to get good researchers and motivate them for doing research. I have to choose the faculty very cautiously. We have a grand plan of increasing the intake to more than thousand in some year’s time. For that, I have to have the approval of the other stake holders like Government and other decision makers. We should maintain the Indian culture and we should not compromise with that. We need to have the human touch. We should inspire future institutes.

Q: What are the USPs of IIM Rohtak?
A: IIM Rohtak is the first IIM in North Western India. It is located in a strategic location, which is in the proximity to the Delhi and National Capital Region. It is well connected and now there are talks that the Metro will reach Rohtak which will make the connectivity with the capital even better. There is lot of scope in future. Apart from that, right from the Day 1 of the institute, we have the belief that we will reach the number one position. Once we accept that, everyone will look up to us.

Q: What are the challenges faced by IIM Rohtak since the inception took place only last year?
A: The good thing is that, we have a clear vision of what we want to achieve. But the challenge lies in the execution of what we have aimed for. The challenge is getting in my plan of making an international campus, increasing the intake of students accepted by the Government. The challenge is in getting the requisite resources, like minded research oriented faculty members. We need to have international faculty exchange.

Q: Over the last year, five new IIMs have come up. What is your take on this government policy?
A: There are 13 new IIMs including the two new ones in Udaipur and Kashipur. I welcome and appreciate this policy by government. Today we are talking about India’s growing economy, growing population and with that, the demand for more institutes like IIMs. But the challenge lies in proper planning. The issues which the new IIMs are facing are related to faculty. There are very few FPM programs. Matching resource generation is not happening. But if we are able to make proper planning, there will be no problem.

The other challenge is to maintain the quality. We have the burden to maintain the quality irrespective of the resources. Hence, there should be proper planning while announcing new IIMs on part of the government.

Q: IIM Rohtak, IIM Ranchi and IIM Raipur have conducted the first Common Admission Process for the admission of 2011 batch. How was the experience? Was it a success?
A: Yes, it was successful. I had been planning for a combined GD PI process for a long time. I always believed that IIMs should grow a network within itself. When the three new IIMs came up last year, we had difficulty due to lack of resources in conducting GD PI. We did not have many faculty members. So it came as a necessity for us to conduct a combined GD PI process. Implementation was not easy. We needed more faculty members to conduct the GD PI processes. I approached all the established IIMs where I am well known and well recognized due to my various initiatives. Everyone was very cooperative and they helped us in every way. IIM Bangalore faculty members helped us in the GD PI of Bangalore and Mumbai. IIM Lucknow helped us in Delhi, IIM Calcutta helped in Kolkata. It went off very well. We have combined the data and supplied to all the institutes. The final results were declared pretty soon.  The six new IIMs will continue the process as we have good wavelength amongst ourselves. We will develop this network.

Q: What plans do you have for IIM Rohtak for the upcoming academic year?
A: We are planning to increase the student intake from 50 to 120 or 130. We are developing our library and computer facilities. We are developing our academic council. We are planning to have at least 15 faculty members this year. At present we have four permanent faculty members. We have received about 1200 applications. We also want to have more international faculty members. We have invited guest faculty members from the industry. There has been a very positive response.

 Q: What is the present status of the permanent campus of IIM Rohtak? The foundation stone was laid last year.
A: The initial construction work has started. Due to some technical issues between the state government and local authorities there are some problems which are faced. But we are hopeful that within two to three years we will be able to function from our permanent campus.

Q: What is your take on the students of the first batch of IIM Rohtak?
A: We have got very good students. The first Summer Placements have been very good. All the students are placed in top national and international companies. Only two students have opted out. One of them is interning with an NGO and another one is in a five star hotel in Delhi. They are also getting good stipends. Their quality is very good. All of them are above 99 percentilers and we are getting very good reviews from the faculty members. It’s a very satisfactory feeling.

Q: What has been the main inspirational driving force for you?
A: For me, my inspiration has been my mother. She had always believed that I will be a great man someday. She had always told me never to compromise with honesty or the values she had imparted on me. She said that even if you starve for three days you should not lose your dignity. Due to her inspiration, I have always been determined to fight against corruption in spite of several threats of dire consequences. I am only trying to live up to my mother’s vision in terms of values, in terms of dignity and in terms of honesty. I am just trying to contribute something for my country. Then only my mother’s belief of me being a great man will be fulfilled.

Q: What is your message for the MBA aspirants? What kind of candidates are you looking for?
A: We are looking for people who can make good future leaders. In addition to academic excellence and work experience, they should be hard working. Otherwise they will find it difficult to survive the rigor of the IIM curriculum. They should have the right value and right attitude. We are looking for a round personality to be a good manager. They should have the virtue of honesty. Without being a good human being, you cannot be good manager.