Rajasthan to get IIM after all

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that a new Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Rajasthan, announced by mistake in his budget speech of February 16, would be set up after all.

While presenting the interim budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha on February 16, Mr Mukherjee had announced that teaching was expected to commence in 2009-10 in four of the six new IIMs proposed for the XIth Plan period. He went on to say that these would be in Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.

"I have since been informed that there was a typographical mistake made by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Institutes that will start functioning during 2009-10 will be in Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. HRD Ministry has rectified the mistake. However, as announced we will now take action to set up an IIM in Rajasthan also," Mr Mukherjee said during his reply to the debate on the interim budget in the Rajya Sabha today.

Mr Mukherjee is looking after the Finance portfolio, in addition to his duties as External Affairs Minister, in the absence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is convalescing after a coronary bypass surgery in January. Dr Singh was handling the Finance Ministry after shifting Mr P Chidambaram to Home in the wake of the November 26 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

NNN