THE SCHOOL ON THE HILL

NESTLED IN THE LUSH FORESTS OF THE WESTERN GHATS, THE GOA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT IS ATTRACTING STUDENTS FROM THE FARTHEST CORNERS OF THE COUNTRY WITH ITS UP-TO-DATE CURRICULUM AND STRONG HERITAGE

- ARNAB DUTTA

DHRUV AGGARWAL'S PLANS of pursuing his dream of an MBA did not include Goa. But when he started his research to zero in on a B-school after the Common Admission Test, a management school located in a little known corner of the tiniest state-thousands of kilometres away from his home in Delhi-seemed the most obvious choice.

He is not alone. There are hundreds of such prospective business leaders from farflung parts of India who have congregated at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) in pursuit of a dynamic corporate career.

A world away from the fun and frolic associated with the state, the B-school is today not just a confluence of students and culture but also a showcase of the diversity within the country's party capital.

It had very humble beginnings in 1993, when it was founded by the late Jesuit priest and Padma-awardee Father Romuald D'Souza. A former director of XLRI, Jamshedpur, and founding member of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, D'Souza started GIM when a bunch of leading personalities, including state ministers, invited him to start one in Goa. He had six faculty members, 24 students, and no money to invest in building a new campus. So the college began inside the campus of a law college in the state capital, Panaji, when one of its patrons managed to get the classrooms free after 12:30 pm.

By the mid-1990s, it was hard to ignore the need for a larger campus. The state government stepped in, letting GIM shift its campus to a heritage building that earlier housed the Goa Medical College. After spending a few years in the stunning 300-year-old building overlooking the Mandovi River, the management finally decided to get its own campus in 2006-07. Not run like a typical business venture, finding funds remained a challenge. But the goodwill of the institute helped the management raise