Date:20/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/20/stories/2006062003891300.htm

National

IIMA, U.S. varsity subsidiary sign MoU

Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD: The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on Monday formally signed a memorandum of understanding with Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Duke University, United States, for collaboration in developing and delivering customised executive education programmes in India and Middle East.

Duke CE chief executive officer Blair Sheppard signed the MoU on behalf of Duke, while its director, Bakul Dholakia, represented IIM-A. At a press meet, Mr. Dholakia described the move as a "logical and inevitable expression of our mutual goals."

Mr. Sheppard described the MoU as the "best joining with the best." "We are delighted to be partnering with another world class institution," he said.

It will be the first initiative of its kind in India by any institution and Duke CE's first collaborative affair in the Asia and Pacific Region. The programmes customised to suit the needs of the client corporate houses in India and the Middle East, would be launched from the IIM-A campus where the "initiative" would be housed to leverage the resources and capabilities of each institution to extend Duke CE's business model.

Pointing out that high-level managerial talent was in short supply in the country, Mr. Dholakia said IIM-A had estimated that in the next five years or so, India would require about 5,000 new CEOs in the corporate sector and many times that number in other top level positions if the Indian economy had to achieve a sustained growth rate of over eight per cent. Executive education was a critical component in the area, which, however, had remained a neglected field in the corporate sector, he said.

Noting with satisfaction that Duke CE had preferred India to China in this initiative, Shailendra Mehta, managing director and CEO of Duke CE India Initiative, said India now had more multi-national companies compared to China.