Top engineering institutes and business schools across the country are going green with a vengeance. Seeing a growing market for green managers in the country, B-schools and universities are learning fast to offer management lessons in environment-related disciplines. While the Birla Institute of Management Technology (Bimtech) and the Institute of Chemical Technology have just introduced full-fledged MBA programmes in sustainability-related disciplines, IIM-Calcutta along with IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Madras has begun offering courses in green manufacturing this academic year onwards. IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Lucknow, too, have been including carbon courses in various programmes over the last years.
Elaborating that the green manufacturing course offered under the post-graduate programme for executives for visionary leadership in manufacturinga joint programme of IIM-Calcutta, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Madrasfocus on both technological and management aspects of greening, Shekhar Chaudhuri, director, IIM-Calcutta, adds, “It’s an imperative for managers to be equipped to lead on sustainability issues in todays world.” An initiative of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, the programme is supported by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica) under a bilateral agreement between the two governments.
Going a whole hog, the Birla Institute of Management Technology or Bimtech has introduced a two-year, full-time post-graduate diploma in management (Sustainable Development Practices) this year. According to Bimtech director H Chaturvedi, “The programme aims to impart skills to managers to tap into new opportunities arising out of the interplay between changing international polices and national priorities on development issues and the business responses to them.” The programme is modelled on similar ones offered by some of the leading foreign institutions like the Earth Institute at Columbia University and adapted in the Indian context after taking into consideration views of the industry thought leaders, adds programme coordinator Rahul Singh.
Mumbai-headquartered Institute of Chemical Technology just started a two-year MTech programme in green technology, which would seek to focus on green chemistry, environmental engineering and pollution prevention among other issues. Industry practitioners would have the option of pursuing it as a three-year part-time programme. Explaining the rationale for introducing the programme, GD Yadav, director, Institute of Chemical Technology, says, “The chemical industry is an important industry to focus on from a sustainability perspective. Though the chemical industry is one of the most polluting industries, it also has a big potential to offer sustainable solutions not only for healing itself, but also treating others.”
While these institutions are newcomers in the environmental domain this year, Teri University and Symbiosis Institute of International Business took the leap last year. Teri’s MBA in Business Sustainability positions itself as an MBA+ programme for integrating sustainable and ethical practices into traditional management disciplines like marketing, finance and strategy. Claiming that the university got a good response last year, which has further improved this year, Rajiv Seth, registrar, Teri University, adds, “We have an advantage over other green management programmes because we have the scope to leverage Teris environmental knowledge bank.”
Similarly, Symbiosis’ two-year, full-time programme in Energy & Environment seeks to cater to the industry requirements by imparting economic, legal and technical know-how in energy and environment to aspiring mangers. The programme also focussed on related issues like mitigation of climate change, loss of biodiversity and ozone layer depletion that , which influence business decisions in the new global context. According to director Rajani Gupte, We got a fantastic response to our summer internship for the first batch. We did not have enough students to cater to requests from companies.
Even the Amity School of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development runs a two-year MBA programme in Natural Resource Management, which seeks to focus on development, conservation and sustainable management of natural resources and their measurable impact on economy.
Despite so many programmes, the trend is just about picking up in India. As of now, none of the Indian programmes is making it to the worlds top 100 MBA programmes with green content, according to Aspen Institute. The ranking is dominated by American universities, which offer 68 of the top 100 programmes. The toppers include Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada; Stephen M Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, USA; Yale School of Management, USA; Stanford Graduate School of Business, USA, and Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, USA.
Source: The Financial Express
Published on 5 September 2010