Other than being a leading B-School that is contributing to management thought and action, IIMB also undertakes many activities that have impact on policy and society. In fact, we are constantly asking ourselves – “What else and How else can we impact local communities and the society at large?”
Over the years, IIMB has made significant impact on various aspects of policy making, management practice and society. In fact, IIMB was set up to help PSUs and the Government by producing management professionals who are sensitive to the needs of the bigger challenges faced by the government and society. In a a way, making impact on society is part of the DNA of IIMB! We have just listed some of the impact making stories below.
Current/Recent Innovative projects devised for social Impact
1. Partnering with the Deshpande Foundation: IIM Bangalore adopted 5 Gram Panchayats in Navalgund taluk of Dharwar district in Karnataka, in February 2016. Professor Gopal Naik and his team from IIMB are working on interventions that can be made in the Gram Panchayats at Gudisagar, Tadal, Alagawadi, Shishuvinahalli and Halakusugal.
2. Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA): As a Coordination Institution for Education and Networking under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, IIM Bangalore is extending on-going projects, especially those related to education to villages in India. We are also taking up new village adoption
3. Tele-Education in Rural Schools: An IIMB-led consortium initiated, in November 2015, tele-education in 1000 rural schools in the backward districts of Karnataka. Classes delivered in a studio are broadcast through satellite and received by the schools with the help of special equipment and the content is projected on large screens. Students can ask questions at the end of the session, making it live and interactive. For now, three subjects – English, Science and Mathematics – are covered in this project.
4. Pragathi Kendra: IIMB, with 11 consortium partners, successfully ran 15 Pragathi Kendras at the Gram Panchayat in Gubbi taluk, Tumkur district, Karnataka State, during 2010-13. Consortium members included Intel, Cisco and WIPRO as well as small start-ups such as Gumbhi Software and Zoomin Infotech, Terrasoft, Neurosynaptics and IDF. Tele-education, tele-medicine, delivery of government certificates, crop data collection methodology, banking correspondence, weather information, data authentication methodology and agricultural extension through video conferencing were developed and demonstrated their use in rural areas.
5. ICT and Agriculture: IIMB has initiated a project in two taluks of Karnataka, examining how information can be communicated to farmers effectively using Information & Communications Technology (ICT). IIMB’s researchers, equipped with tablets containing relevant information on crop production, visit randomly selected farmers regularly to give them adequate, reliable and timely information that impacts production and yield.
6. The Centre for Public Policy (CPP) has developed a tele-education project called Satellite & Advanced Multimedia Interactive Education (SAMIE) to address the problem of poor-quality education in rural Government and aided schools in Karnataka. This project has overcome many challenges with respect to technology, infrastructure and organization. Today the tele-education project of the IIMB-led consortium, supported by the Government of Karnataka, is reaching nearly 200,000 school children in 1000 schools in rural backward regions in Karnataka.