Among reasons cited for these firsts, institute authorities stated that the 5 per cent weightage given to candidates from aspirational districts and the entire online admission process has helped achieve these numbers. (File)The Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), the premier rural management institute founded by Dr Verghese Kurien, has set two records for its flagship Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Rural Management) batch of 2022-2024 with the highest number of enrolments from aspirational districts and candidates from outside Gujarat.
In the batch of 2022 out of the 271 total students 12 per cent are from aspirational districts and 97 per cent are from outside Gujarat, the data accessed and analysed by The Indian Express reveals.
Among reasons cited for these firsts, institute authorities stated that the 5 per cent weightage given to candidates from aspirational districts and the entire online admission process has helped achieve these numbers.
“This year, we have the highest number of students from aspirational districts, a significant improvement in the representation from aspirational districts as they go back and work for the respective districts, state or area. With this idea we launched a 5 per cent weightage for candidates from aspirational districts, for this batch,” IRMA Director Dr Umakant Dash told The Indian Express.
As per the recent Delta ranking by NITI Aayog based on incremental progress made across 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under five broad socio-economic themes – Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development and Infrastructure-there are 112 aspirational districts in the country.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018, the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) aims to quickly and effectively transform 112 most under-developed districts across the country.
The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central and State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level Nodal Officers and District Collectors), and Competition among districts through monthly delta ranking; all driven by a mass movement.
With the flagship programme in rural management, students once they pass out are encouraged to contribute to the rural development sector. However, the trend over the years reveals that the managers are attracted towards lucrative corporate sectors.
On this, the Director added, “Instead of forcing the students once they pass out to serve in rural areas instead of corporate setups, we have tried to motivate students from these (under developed) areas in admission.”
The decision for IRMA, an autonomous institute, the authorities say was a “call from within”.
“This is not imposed or dictated by anyone. The call was from within to serve vulnerable districts lagging behind in several indicators than the developed districts. It is a part of capacity building for them,” added Dr Dash.
Out of 271 students, 262 or 97 per cent are from states other than Gujarat. The highest representation from among six regions is from the North Indian states-73 followed by the South Indian states-72.
In the 2022 batch, the states which sent maximum number of students to IRMA are-Maharashtra (33), Uttar Pradesh (30), Kerala (24), Bihar (20), Haryana and Madhya Pradesh (17 each), Telangana (14), Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh (13 each) and Tamil Nadu (12). This is the second batch appearing for the online admission process. With the introduction of an online admission process owing to Covid-19 pandemic replacing personal interviews that were held at Anand, it was conducted online this time.
Among reasons behind this spike, IRMA authorities attributed the online admission process. Learning from the first online admission process that was also affected by the pandemic, this time IRMA disseminated information well in advance.
Also, with active social media awareness more candidates sat for the interview process as compared to last year, authorities said.
From the coming academic sessions, the institute plans to set up around seven centres in each region across the country.
As other management institutes also conduct interviews around the same time, candidates prefer not to risk their chances of securing a seat. Also, travelling all the way to Anand from across the country not only consumes time but also poses a financial burden on them.
However, the dominance of students from agriculture and allied discipline continues in the new batch with 42 per cent followed by 26 per cent students with engineering background.
The PGDM (RM) is recognized as equivalent to a Master’s Degree in Rural Management by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and has produced some of the most influential leaders across diverse sectors.