Jagan Institute of Management Studies, Delhi

Since it admitted its first batch of 25 students in 1993, JIMS has come of age and is routinely ranked among the top 50 of the country’s estimated 1,000-plus B-schools

Registered in 1993 in  memory of the late Shri Jagannath Gupta (1950-1980), a modestly successful Delhi-based realtor, under the competent management of his sons Manish, Amit and Deepak, the Jagan-nath Gupta Memorial Educational Society (JNGMES) has transformed into a major provider of higher education in north India.

Following the promotion of JNGMES’ flagship institution, the Jagan Institute of Management Studies (JIMS) in 1993 in Rohini (then a distant suburb of Delhi), the society has established 11 campuses and learning centres in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan boasting an aggregate enrolment of 12,000 students and 800 faculty. Since it admitted its first batch of 25 students 18 years ago, JIMS has come of age and is routinely ranked among the top 50 of the country’s estimated 1,000-plus B-schools. For instance, the Delhi-based Mail Today ranked JIMS the fifth best B-school in Delhi/NCR, the Kochi (Kerala)-based The Week ranked it 10th and Business India awarded JIMS its A+ certification.

Officially as well, JIMS has received high encomiums from the All India Council for Technical Education with its 24-month postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) programme accredited by the council’s National Board of Accreditation (NBA). The PGDM programme has also been granted equivalence with an MBA degree by the Association of Indian Universities. Moreover JIMS offers BBA, BCA and MCA degree progra-mmes endorsed by the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.

“We are very pleased with the continuous growth of JIMS over the past two decades. Currently JIMS enjoys a national reputation for offering excellent management and technical education. Our steady success can be attributed to our unique and contem-porary curriculum and education delivery process combining workshops, seminars, personal tutoring, classroom lectures and live industrial projects. That’s why reputed companies including Tata Consultancy Services, L&T Finance, Reckitt & Benckiser, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI, among others routinely recruit JIMS graduates,” says Manish Gupta, chairman, JIMS.

By common consensus, the USP (unique selling proposition) of JIMS is its excellent infrastructure. The institute’s well-planned and landscaped 1.1 acre compact campus in Rohini boasting a built-up area of 60,500 sq. ft includes 12 fully air-conditioned classrooms, three seminar rooms, a conference hall fully wired with internet and intranet connectivity, and hi-tech multimedia and computer lab facilities. Moreover, the Rohini campus library contains 26,000 volumes and 1,969 journal subscriptions.

JIMS’ excellent infrastructure is supported by a carefully chosen 50-strong core faculty including ten Ph Ds. “We are complemented by eminent visiting faculty and senior industry executives who regularly visit our campus and lecture students, grooming them to assume the role of entre-preneurs or join industry and business as professionals,” says Dr. J.K. Goyal, an alumnus of Punjab University and Delhi School of Economics who served with Delhi University and Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies, Delhi, prior to signing up with JIMS in 2005.

Students’ interactions with academia, corporate leaders and policy-makers through seminars, workshops, present-ations as well as guest lectures are reinforced by company visits and internships, consultations and field research studies, which empower students to confront the business world squarely. “The placement record of the institute is also excellent,” adds Goyal with evident satisfaction.

Proof of JIMS’ excellent placement record is provided by the quality of companies which flock to the institute’s campus recruitment programme orga-nised in November-December every year. Among them: ABN-AMRO Bank, A.C. Nielson, Accenture, Barclays Bank, Bennett & Coleman, Career Launcher, Deutsche Bank, Edelweiss Capital, Glaxo Smithkline, Helix Technologies, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro and Maruti Suzuki. The batch of 180 PGDM students who graduated in April 2011 were snapped up by India Inc at an average start-up salary of Rs.4.5 lakh per year, with the highest offer being Rs. 6.5 lakh. Likewise, the 60 MCA students who graduated in May 2011 were all placed with their remuneration packages averaging Rs.3 lakh per year. “We have a 100 percent placement record because we offer the best IT and computer application curriculums in north India,” says Prof. V.B. Aggarwal, director of the institute’s MCA programme.

Little wonder that Goyal is optimistic about the steady expansion of JIMS mainly by way of establishing new branch campuses in north India, where the demand for qualitatively proven institutes of business and technology far exceeds supply. “JNGMES’ state-of-the-art Jagan Nath University in Rajasthan (estb.2008) which offers business management, engineering, architecture, law, IT, mass communi-cations and commerce degree programmes, has also established an excellent reputation. Now our intent is to multiply JIMS’ branch campuses in north India followed by west and south India. With JIMS’ sound reputation — we receive 20 applications for each seat available — there’s growing demand countrywide for our domain expertise in professional education,” says Goyal.

Quite obviously, JIMS’ best is yet to come.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)