Indian Institute of Planning and Management and Talk:Kala Nera: Difference between pages

Revision as of 16:47, 11 October 2005

Revision as of 20:13, 4 July 2007

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'''The Indian Institute of Planning and Management''', which was established in [[1973]], claims to be a premier autonomous [[management]] institute. Its headquarters are based in [[Delhi]]. It has branches in [[Mumbai]], [[Chennai]], [[Ahmedabad]], [[Bangalore]], [[Pune]] and [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]].

The current dean of IIPM is [http://www.arindamchaudhuri.com/ Arindam Chaudhuri] who is a self-styled management guru. IIPM on its makes claims of excellent infrastructure and faculty in its advertisements in the Main Stream Print Media and on its website. However, [http://www.jammag.com/careers/articles/mbacorner/iipm/ these claims have been disputed].

===IIPM's Infrastructure===

==IIPM's Advertising Strategy==

IIPM is alleged to be one of the largest spenders on advertising in India. It buys print ads in educational supplements distributed with [[broadsheet newspapers]], and increases the frequency of advertising in the May to July period, which is when universities begin admissions for their academic programs.

It usually runs full-page or half-page advertisements. These advertisements are notable for:

<ol>

<li>'''Cluttered Copy''': they contain a huge amount of text and tables, sometimes including an essay by Arindam Chaudhuri on an economic topic.</li>

<li>'''Rankings''': they mention IIPM's rankings on various parameters of a B-school ranking survey. This has led to controversies. The Outlook C-Fore B-School survey had ranked IIPM's Delhi campus in the top 10 among several parameters, but IIPM advertisements generalised these rankings for all IIPM campuses. After complaints made by IIPM students and alumni, Outlook C-Fore issued a clarification removing IIPM from its survey, stating that IIPM had misrepresented facts. IIPM continued to advertise rankings even after Outlook C-Fore had removed it from its survey.</li>

<li>'''Inflated or unverifiable claims''': IIPM's advertisements claimed that its campuses were [[Wi-Fi]] enabled, a 100% placement record, and facilities such as a swimming pool. Only its Delhi campus is known to have a swimming pool, and neither its Delhi nor Mumbai campuses were Wi-Fi enabled at the beginning of 2005.

</ol>

IIPM was the [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1163051.cms highest advertising brand for the print medium ] in May 2005. Bloggers have alleged that the mainstream media do not investigate the claims made by IIPM for fear of losing ad revenue.

==The Controversial Lawsuit==

In 2005, a youth magzine named [http://www.jammag.com JAM], edited by Indian blogger [http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/ Rashmi Bansal], did a story [http://www.jammag.com/careers/articles/mbacorner/iipm/index.htm exposing some of the claims made by IIPM]. [http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/ Gaurav Sabnis], a popular indian blogger, [http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/08/fraud-that-is-iipm.html linked] that article. Three months later, [http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/10/im-disconnecting-my-cable-connection.html IIPM threatened to sue Gaurav ] for libel if the said postings were not removed from his blog. When Gaurav refused to remove his postings, in a bizzare move IIPM contacted his employer, [[IBM]], and threatened to publicly burn the [[IBM Thinkpads]] they had purchased from IBM unless the posts were removed. Gaurav stated that IBM did not pressure him to remove the blogpost, but [http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/10/update.html he decided to quit his job], as he did not want IBM to suffer bad publicity through his actions. This has generated [http://www.desipundit.com/2005/10/08/lies-damned-lies-and-fake-blogs/ spontaneous] [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/2005/10/10/india-defending-freedom-of-speech/ support] for Gaurav from bloggers. On 11 October, 2005, IIPM became the highest ranked search term on [http://www.technorati.com/ Technorati.]

Most of the [[Desi]] Blogosphere stood by Rashmi Bansal and Gaurav. [http://www.desipundit.com/ Desi Pundit], a popular medium for Indian Blogs mobilised the Desi blogosphere to publicise the issue, stating that it was a litmus test for freedom of speech.

==External Links==

*[http://www.iipm.edu/ Official IIPM Website]

*[http://www.jammag.com/careers/articles/mbacorner/iipm/ JAM Article about IIPM]

*[http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/10/update.html Gaurav Sabnis's blogpost announcing his decision to resign from IBM]

*[http://www.desipundit.com/2005/10/08/lies-damned-lies-and-fake-blogs/ Desi Pundit blogpost declaring a Blog War on IIPM]

[[Category: Universities and colleges in India]]

[[Category: Delhi]]