IRMA's successful rural MBA is undergoing an uneasy makeover at Delhi’s desk

22/09/2025 13 min Episodio 581
IRMA's successful rural MBA is undergoing an uneasy makeover at Delhi’s desk

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Episode Synopsis


IRMA was never just another B-school. Born out of Verghese Kurien’s (the father of Operation Flood movement) mind, it built a one-of-a-kind management program for rural India—training managers for cooperatives, NGOs, and grassroots institutions, far away from the IIM playbook.Now, Delhi has other plans. An Act of Parliament is folding IRMA into a vast new central university, the "Tribhuvan" Sahkari University, with hundreds of affiliates. On paper, it’s about scaling cooperative education nationwide. But the shift is sparking anxiety over placements, faculty, and whether Kurien’s vision will survive in a system built for size.Tune in.Compete in India's first and only case competition.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

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