NE EDUCATION BUREAU
AMARAVATI, DEC 20
The Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), one of the country’s premier institutions in management education, is setting up its second campus at Pulivendula in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.
The objective of IRMA-AP is to take up capacity building of rural youth, with special focus on rural women empowerment, as the state government decided to revive and strengthen the cooperative dairy sector by creating an enabling environment, a senior official involved with the project said.
IRMA-AP will offer certificate courses in the first year of its establishment and diploma courses from the next year onwards. The first-year certificate courses will be launched in May-June 2021. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will lay the foundation stone for the IRMA-AP campus in his hometown on December 24.
IRMA-AP will come up on the premises of AP Centre for Advanced Research on Livestock (APCARL) in Pulivendula. The state government will spend Rs 83.59 crore to improve the facilities at APCARL and raise the buildings required to accommodate IRMA-AP, a senior official said.
He said that IRMA offered mentoring support to IRMA-AP and assistance in curriculum development, besides providing support in faculty recruitment and training.
“Importantly, IRMA will collaborate with us in research projects in addition to teaching and training,” he added.
Varghese Kurien, considered the Father of the White Revolution, founded IRMA at Anand in Gujarat and had aspired to have three more of its campuses in different corners of the country. IRMA-AP will become the second campus that will cater to wards from south India. With IRMA-AP set to come up, the APCARL will also come to life as the ambitious project of the late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy remained a non-starter despite the state government spending Rs 250 crore on it. Though several buildings were constructed, the research laboratories were not set up as envisaged.
“IRMA-AP will serve a dual objective in that a new institute will be coming up to help in our capacity building efforts and also put the infrastructure to use. APCARL will become the focal point now that thrust is being given to promotion of the dairy sector,” the official added.
