The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are Centrally Funded Business Schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of business administration. The establishment of IIMs was initiated by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, based on the recommendation of the Planning Commission of India.
IIMs were declared institutions of national importance by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) after the passage of Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017. By this act, IIMs were given more autonomy in handling their day-to-day operations. The act changed the IIM governing body from the IIM council to an IIM coordination forum. IIMs were granted much leeway to decide their courses, fees and other related matters. Top IIMs—such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow and IIM Indore —have featured in top 100 global b-schools by FT MBA Ranking as well as achieved top 10 rankings among management schools in India, according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) used by the HRD minister of India.
The full time Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes, are the flagship programs across all IIMs. The full time MBA degree is offered as a two-year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) or the one-year global MBA (EPGP, PGPX,PGPEX,PGPEX-VLM, PGP-BL & IPMX). Seven leading IIMs IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Shillong, Lucknow and Kozhikode offer the one year MBA as a full-time programme that follows the global MBA norms. Some IIMs also offer a two-year part time (executive) MBA for graduates with more work experience.
IIMs only offered diplomas at the end of the full time programmes However, since the passage of IIM Act 2017, all IIMs have started offering Master of Business Administration (MBA). Some IIMs offer the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM), a doctoral programme. The fellowship is considered to be equivalent to a DBA globally.