Indian Institute of Planning and Management
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management, estabilished in 1973, is a non-profit, educational institute with a presence in 7 cities in India founded by Dr. MK Chaudhuri. Headquartered in New Delhi, since 1973, it has a campus in New Delhi and branches in Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. The institute offers courses in Entrepreneurship and Management, leading to Bachelor of Business Administration(BBA) and Master of Business Administration(MBA) degrees awarded by IMI Europe. IIPM has a strong interface with industry and its course content is highly regarded.
Faculty
Regular Faculty
The current Honorary Dean is Prof.Arindam Chaudhuri. Dr. M. K. Chaudhuri is the current Director. Prof. Prasoon Majumdar is Dean - Academics, and Prof. A Sandeep is Dean - India.
Global Outreach Program
IIPM organizes lectures by over 30 professors from the worlds top 15 b-schools such as Harvard, Columbia, Wharton, Stanford etc for its students. IIPM has also arranged exclusive seminars for their students by Leadership expert and author of 'The 7 Habits of Highly effective people' Stephen Covey, Marketing text author Dr. Philip Kotler, Economic Value Added (EVA) propounder Joel Stern, Sales expert Zig Ziglar and Success and Motivation specialist and author of Chicken Soup series Jack Canfield.
Publications & Research
IIPM publishes four academic journals faculty from IIPM and b-schools like Harvard, Yale and Wharton publish: 1. India Economy Review (A quarterly overview of the Indian economy) 2. The Human Factor (A quarterly collection of articles and research from leading academics and practitioners of HR) 3. Need the dough? (A quarterly collection of articles and research from leading academics and practitioners of Finance) 4. Strategic Innovators (A quarterly collection of articles and research from leading academics and practitioners of Strategy)and two magazines: 1. Business & Economy 2. 4P's. (Cited from Insight Media)
Infrastructure
IIPM's claims that its infrastructure is cutting edge. Students, it claims, learn the very latest in management techniques using the very best in equipment and teaching. According to the institute, its infrastructure including classrooms, teaching aids, libraries, electronic libraries, IT equipment like Wi-fi and laptops, and leisure equipment like gymnasiums and swimming pools measure up to world class standards. - It has over 25000 books in the Delhi library, with access to several other libraries such as the British Council and American Library through sharing agreements. Its electronic libraries with access to leading databases like ProQuest (over 6000 journals archived for up to 90 years)and India Business Information Database (IBID - 25 years of news clippings and analysis sorted by industry and product) are available for all students to access online. All students are provided with laptops (IBM or HP) which are are always online with wi-fi networks in campus.
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Position in Indian B-School Rankings
Business Today-ACNielsen ORG-Marg's 2004 listing of India's top 30 B-schools (Source: Business Today. Oct 10, 2004; pg 96) ranked IIPM Mumbai at 23rd and IIPM Delhi the 30th. The schools were ranked using ACNielsen's Winning Brands model. Respondents were asked to rank 30 shortlisted B-schools on eight parameters - reputation, success of placement, quality of placement, infrastructure, faculty, teaching methodology and specialisation and admission eligibility. Based on the scores on different parameters, the model calculates the Brand Equity Index (BEI) for each school.
The Outlook C-Fore B-School survey[1] had ranked IIPM's Delhi campus in the top 10 among several parameters in 2003, but IIPM advertisements generalised these rankings for all IIPM campuses. In the same year, IIPM complained to Outlook that C-Fore's CEO, Mr. Premchand Palety allegedly connected the b-school research with advertisement demands on his organization's website. Consequently, claiming to have received complaints, C-Fore issued a clarification removing IIPM from its survey[2], stating that it had "received serious complaints about the veracity of information given by them"[3]. However, Sandeepan Deb, Managing Editor of Outlook, stated in a Hindustan Times article that IIPM remained a part of the survey, and that the research agency CFORE could not remove IIPM from the survey. Thereon, IIPM continued to advertise rankings.
IIPM refused to participate in consequent surveys of Outlook in 2004 and 2005, due to C-Fore still being retained by Outlook for conducting the survey. Due to IIPM continuing to use the 2003 ranking, Outlook Magazine twice published caution notices in 2005 informing students and all related parties about the fact that the 2003 rankings were no longer valid. With respect to IIPM not mentioning the year of the ranking in their advertisements, Outlook also stated that they have also "come across instances, where the institute doesn't disclose facts truly and correctly". IIPMStudent 9's blog [4] claims there is a conspiracy behind these events at Outlook, and outlines a series of events that support this claim.
The Business Barons B-School Study 2004 (Source: BUSINESS BARONS. Jan 31, 2005; pg 65) has ranked the Indian Institute of Planning & Management (IIPM) 8th overall in India. Five parameters were used for the qualitative rankings - infrastructure, placement salaries commanded, depth of industry interface, quality of course contents and quality of students.
Advertising Strategy
IIPM is reputed to be one of the largest spenders on advertising in India. According to the Economic Times, the institute was the seventh highest print advertiser for the month of September 2005 spending Rs. 3 crore (30 million)[5]. It buys full-page print ads in, The Times of India, as well as the Hindustan Times, the Telegraph and the Hindu. It increases the frequency of advertising in the May to July period when universities begin admissions for their academic programs. In May 2005, the institute had an ad spend of Rs. 5 crore (Rs. 50 million), making it the largest advertiser in the print media for that month[6].
It usually runs full-page advertisements. These advertisements are notable for:
- Large amounts of detailed text: IIPM advertisements typically include a large amount of text and many tables. Some advertisements also include an essay by Arindam Chaudhuri or Dr. Malay Chaudhuri, on economic or social topics. These essays have covered topics such as the existence of an 'MBA Mafia', corruption among politicians, and prescriptions for economic and social reform. See http://www.iipm.edu/itt.html.
- Rankings: Mentions IIPM's rankings on various parameters of various B-school ranking surveys. In the fine print of its advertisements, it mentions that the institute believes that it is #1 in India in terms of course content, global linkages and industry interface but that this has not been acknowledged by official rankings because of the 'inferiority complex' and the 'intellectually dwarfed unquestioning attitudes' that the industry and media in India have developed towards the IIMs.
Bloggers have alleged that the mainstream media does not investigate the claims made by IIPM for fear of losing ad revenue.
Sister Concerns
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM's honourary dean) founded Planman Consulting in 1996. Planman has an IT Services division which provides offshoring solutions, a film producing division which makes feature films in Bollywood, a publishing house which runs Business & Economy magazine, and a management consulting arm that is engaged by FORTUNE 500 companies. Outlook Magazine refers to the group as "a media, publishing and education behemoth"
Controversies
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
A Jam Magazine investigation[7] (Edited by Rashmi Bansal, an IIM alumnus; IIM alumni are mentioned in IIPM's official statement on the controversy as begin jealous of IIPM) claimed that contrary to the impressions put out by IIPM's advertisements, the institute's Mumbai centre is only a four storey building (which IIPM refers to as "tower" in its advertisements) with a parking lot. It also claimed that IIPM was advertising its free laptops and Wi-Fi much before they actually started providing them to students. It also pointed out that the fees paid by students is very high by Indian standards and cover the price for the laptops many times over.
Detractors complain of non-existent infrastructure and misrepresentation in promotional messages. Most of these criticisms relate to the infrastructure in centres other than its New Delhi campus.
A Jam Magazine investigation[8] Edited by Rashmi Bansal, an IIM alumnus; IIM alumni are mentioned in IIPM's official statement on the controversy as begin jealous of IIPM) claimed that contrary to the impressions put out by IIPM's advertisements, the institute's Mumbai centre is only a four storey building (which IIPM refers to as "tower" in its advertisements) with a parking lot. It also claimed that IIPM was advertising its free laptops and Wi-Fi much before they actually started providing them to students. It also pointed out that the fees paid by students is very high by Indian standards and cover the price for the laptops many times over. A Businessworld article (Rashmi Bansal is a contributing editor - and IIM alumnus; IIM alumni are mentioned in IIPM's official statement on the controversy as begin jealous of IIPM)on the same issue[9] pointed out the discrepancy between IIPM's use of the words "campus" and "branch". IIPM's advertisements never make it clear that many of the facilities advertised, like swimming pools and gymnasiums, are available only in its New Delhi campus and not in its other branches though students at all centres pay the same fees.
A Businessworld article on the same issue[10] pointed out the discrepancy between IIPM's use of the words "campus" and "branch". IIPM's advertisements never make it clear that many of the facilities advertised, like swimming pools and gymnasiums, are available only in its New Delhi campus and not in its other branches though students at all centres pay the same fees.
In 2005, a youth magazine named JAM[11], edited by Rashmi Bansal (an IIMA alumna) who also runs a blog Youth Curry[12], did a story claiming to expose some of the claims made by IIPM[13]. The article claimed that institute hasn't been accredited by any Indian accredition agency or University such as AICTE, UGC or under other state acts. The institute's degrees are conferred by an unknown agency called IMI Europe, which has been called a diploma mill organisation on the lines of the ITT Technical Institute model[14].
Gaurav Sabnis[15], a popular Indian blogger, and an [[IIML] alumnus, linked that article[16]. Three months later, IIPM threatened to sue Sabnis for libel if the postings were not removed from his blog[17]. Sabnis refused to remove his postings, and further stated that IIPM contacted his employer, IBM, and allegedly threatened to publicly burn the IBM Laptop Computers they had purchased from IBM unless the posts were removed. IBM is yet to confirm this threat. Sabnis stated that IBM did not pressure him to remove the blogpost, but he decided to quit his job[18] as he did not want IBM to suffer bad publicity through his actions. This action generated spontaneous support for Sabnis from bloggers. On 11 October, 2005, IIPM became the highest ranked search term on Technorati. On October 11, 2005, Varna Sriraman, a blogger who had been posting on the ongoing controversy, claimed on her blog that IIPM emailed her and asked her to remove all the posts related to IIPM or face legal action[19]. There is also some doubt about whether the legal notice to Sriraman was sent from IIPM or whether it was a hoax, as Sriraman admitted that someone might have played a prank on her. [20]
Most Indian bloggers stood by Bansal, Sabnis and Sriraman arguing that it is a litmus test for freedom of speech in India. IIPM's response to this was not clear. On 12th October, Hindustan Times reported that[21] "All India Dean" A. Sandeep was indeed planning to "take legal action against the blogger for defamation". However, on 13th October, Indian Express reported A.Sandeep as saying that he had no idea of any legal notices[22], though from the article it is not clear if he was referring to just the legal notice to Sriraman or to Sabnis and Bansal as well.
Response to criticism
While the controversy was on, a number of fake blogs spawned in defense of the IIPM, and blogs of the critics of IIPM were spammed with derogatory comments, including personal attacks and misleading information about them. This includes a misleading story about an unsubstantiated investigation of JAM by an Indian news channel Aaj Tak. The persons operating these blogs claimed to be IIPM students or alumni, but posts and comments made by the same blogger user sometimes contained contradictory information. It is unclear whether these blogs were operated by IIPM students, faculty, staff, or by unrelated pranksters.
Coverage of the allegations in the Indian Media
IIPM's official response[23]to the controversy was to claim that the controversy was motivated by jealousy of IIPM on the part of IIM alumni and professors. It issued the following statement:
"We are stunned as to how the people from IIMs, who are the most pampered people of India, suffer from so much inferiority complex from IIPM that, given the first opportunity to pen something (be it the so-called IIM L professor Amit Kapoor, or ex-IIM students like Rashmi or Gaurav and all the other IIM students on the net and other media), they stoop down so low as to write relentless lies about us and spread baseless rumours about IIPM. But beyond a point, IIPM cannot allow this kind of shallow rumour mongering to go on and had to take an action. IIPM always believed in intellectual debating and not in false allegations with defamatory ulterior motives. Therefore, in the general interest of our existing students, as a policy decision we have decided that we will take legal action against any form of media trying to spread baseless lies and rumours about us with malicious intent. For the rest, our law firms will decide on how best to proceed and bring such liars to justice. About Gaurav Sabnis, all we have to add is that yes, we approached IBM and asked them to take proper action against someone spreading baseless lies against a reputed institution. They did what they must have deemed fit after their internal examinations and procedures."
Following this statement being made public on certain blogs and mailing-lists, several journalists started coming out with stories - Sruthijit KK's large piece in Mumbai daily DNA being the first [24].
Businessworld came out with an article in its 31 October 2005 issue titled "When the Chickens come home"[25] . In addition to reporting on the controversy, it investigated the claims made by IIPM in its advertisements. It found IIPM less than forthcoming with information, and its own investigations revealed that most of the claims were exaggerations and less than honest.
Outlook Magazine's October 31, 2005 edition carried an article called "Bite in The Blog Bark"[26], using the controversy to wonder: "The war has raised a flurry of questions — are blogs personal diaries in the public domain or can they be legislated?". CNBC TV18 carried a story on The Tech Show highlighting "Indian Blog Wars" which included an interview with Rashmi Bansal. The channel subsequently carried two exclusive news reports: 1. The Indian University Grants Commission (UGC) was unhappy with IIPM for claiming to award Bachelors and Masters degrees which only UGC - affiliated institutions have the right to confer. [27] 2. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said that IIPM does not have the right to use the words "Indian Institute" in its name without central government approval.[28]
References
- ^ Outlook survey of business schools
- ^ Clarification issued by Outlook
- ^ Outlook announcement
- ^ Economic Times article on ad-spends, September 2005
- ^ Economic Times, July 2005 article about IIPM's ad spend of 5.1 crores for May 2005
- ^ Home page of JAM
- ^ Youth curry - Bansal's blog
- ^ JAM article on IIPM's claims
- ^ Thalassa Mikra's investigations on IIPM's claims
- ^ Gaurav Sabnis' blog
- ^ Sabnis on IIPM
- ^ Sabnis on IIPM's threat of libel
- ^ Sabnis on quitting the IBM job
- ^ Varna Sriraman's blog
- ^ Sriraman's post analysing the headers of the legal notice from IIPM she is supposed to have received.
- ^ Hindustan Times article on the issue titled, "Freedom under siege - Bloggers' rights: Storm brews in cyberspace" - Copy mirrored on a yahoo group.
- ^ A Sandeep's statement in Indian Express
- ^ DNA article
- ^ Businessworld article reporting on the controversy and investigating IIPM's advertising claims. (Requires free registration)
- ^ Outlook Magazine article- "Bite in the Blog Bark" (Requires free registration)
- ^ IIPM Student 9's blog reveals the conspiracy behind Businessworld and Outlook articles
- ^ Moneycontrol story on UGC's concerns about IIPM offering MBA degrees without its approval
- ^ Moneycontrol story on AICTE's notice to IIPM objecting to the use of the term 'Indian Insitute' in its name
External links
- Official IIPM Website
- Roundup of Blogposts and Information about IIPM at DesiPundit.
- Technorati Search for IIPM
- Amit Varma's summary of the IIPM controversy
- A summary of the IIPM controversy, by Mark Glaser on the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review
- How fair have the bloggers been? Introspective views here, here, here and here.
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