Agent For Change

The smart campus of IIM Sambalpur is aiming for innovation, integrity and inclusion…

- Faizal Khan

If there is one Indian Institute of Management (IIM) campus that could find a synergy in the classroom between manufacturing in state-of-the-art assembly line and a simple handloom under a thatched house, it is in Sambalpur.

Launched three years ago, IIM-Sambalpur is located in the ideal surroundings of one of India’s biggest manufacturing centres. On the one hand is multinational corporations in steel and power spattered around the Sambalpur town in western Odisha, on the other is the country’s biggest home-based handloom sector in Sambalpur and Bargarh districts of Odisha. For IIM-Sambalpur students, it is a mix of learning and contributing--learning from the global industrial giants, which are modern, and contributing to the bare minimum looms that are traditional.

“It is an educational and industrial hub,” explains IIM-Sambalpur Director Prof. Mahadeo Jaiswal about the institute’s advantage of having a campus near major industrial centres like Rourkela, Talcher and Jharsuguda. “As many as 14 major industries are located around Sambalpur. There are Vedanta, Tata and Jindal groups. They regularly give projects for our students and teachers to discuss in classrooms,” adds Prof. Jaiswal, a specialist in digital strategies and former Dean of MDI, Gurgaon.

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