Technology grips Management

The IIT’s i.e Indian Institute of Technology are known for imparting quality and quantity education in engineering and technology. MBA (Masters in Business Administration) today can be done from the engineering and technology major IIT. A child today dreaming to make an inroad to the IIT, pulls up his socks right away and starts preparing from standard 8th and 9th itself. It takes an iit-ian more than four years to call himself a specialized ‘hardcore engineer’ from an institute of this standing. Approximately 50% of its students move ahead for a management degree from premier institutes of India.


In today’s era of rat race and a desire of a higher level of achievement motivation is seen and is rising among Indian students. This kind of development is a threat for students coming from non- IIT background. The students of IIT after 4 years of rigorous studies can get easily through competitive exams and finally crack the CAT exams. They somehow stand as one of the road blocking agents of the seats in premier management institutes. “A trend has been seen that a good number of engineering students are able to make their way towards Indian Administrative Services (IAS).” Says a senior officer of the IAS cadre.

A veteran academician and director of a reputed management and technology institute is aware of this development, he corroborates “It is happening due to stiff competition.” To take it this way for example, the IIT’s can retain the best brains of our country and further empower them to go high in the horizontal hierarchy of the corporate world.

These institutes have introduced specialized courses not many management institutes are offering take for e.g the IIT- Kanpur. It offers an MBA in collaboration with the Industrial and Management Department of IIT-K and have courses like infrastructure, system management, manufacturing etc. The idea is to prepare an MBA pass out manage modern enterprise effectively and independently. Similarly IIT-Bombay in its management package offer courses like technology policy, R&D (research and development) management and managing technology transfer. IIT- Roorkee, IIT- Madras, IISC- Bangalore are the other institutes where management courses are available.

To leaf a recent example some private investment and banking companies came to recruit final year engineering grads from the IIT-Delhi. According to sources, the HR persons were eager to hire the iit-ians primarily for their number crunching ability and analytic approach.

Clusterising or grouping subjects has also been seen, engineering subjects like operations management are also taught in the management institutes. It also includes topics like inventory control, game theory, decision making etc which are mathematical in theory but managerial in practice. A media person reacts by saying that even a plain engineering graduate, once in a workplace should know how to work and lead a team to ensure better results. “So, management principles are applied in engineering too.” he completes. “To become a complete package. A combination of technology and management degree is good in terms of career prospects.” reacts an engineering graduate.

According to reports, more than Rs 10 000 crores, circulates among the management institutes, popping up across the country. They somehow fail to deliver quality education. “Disallowing brain drain is the prime idea, I feel. Hence retaining students and money too, in form of fees.” Says an academician.

It is like your neighborhood PCO wallah started offering cyber services also. “With infrastructure and expertise available, no harm in disseminating knowledge from the same campus” Says an education researcher and supports IIT’s coming up with its management programme.