NTPC in pact with IIM - A to develop energy sector professionals

India's power sector leader NTPC and top business school IIM-Ahmedabad today announced a joint initiative to create a world class research institute at NTPC School of Business for policy prescription and develop energy sector management graduates.

"We are proud to have entered an agreement, under which India's marquee business school - Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad - will hand hold NTPC School of Business to replicate its management degree courses beginning this year with special focus on energy verticals not only for NTPC but for the entire power sector," Saptarshi Roy, human resource director, NTPC announcing the alliance.

"This is the first time we are tying up with a leading academic institution for degree and other specialised courses on the lines of IIM-A.

Roy said NTPC was fortunate for IIM-A's hand-holding for five years.

IIM-A's HRM area chair and strategic management professor Sunil Kumar Maheshwari said the institute would hand-hold NTPC School of Business (NSB) for five years, "create a top class faculty like our own and offer a host of specialised electives for various aspects related to energy and power sectors."

"We wish to create a strong research and policy centre. To create manpower for this centre, NSB shall be the ideal institute to take lead and this will become centre of excellence for policy research and policy documentation," Maheshwari said.

Under the scheme of arrangement, NSB, guided and shepherded by IIM-A specialists, will seek applications from aspirants for MBA degree from April this year for a two-year degree course from aspirants with specialisation in energy sector.

IIM, apart from bringing professionals from the parent organisation, will gradually create NSB's own faculty by the end of the fifth year.

NTPC's Roy, who also holds additional charge as director finance, said that NTPC is focussed on creating robust leadership for the future of the organisation that currently lights up every fourth lamp in the county and accounts for 16 per cent of the total power generation capacity. He added that NTPC's budget for learning and development has significantly gone up this year.

"The NSB tie-up is the latest in the series of learning and development initiatives at NTPC. We also have tied up with Harvard Business School and other Ivy League institutions under which a total of 180 senior executives are being given global exposure for the first hand learning of leadership modules and best business practices as part of efforts to create future leadership for the organisation that is supplementing the national economic growth by way of meeting electricity requirement," Roy said.

''We have the entire infrastructure at our NSB's NOIDA campus ready to start the courses from the academic year including residential facility for the students.  We intend to enrol 120 students in the first year'', said  A K Bhatnagar, executive director, head of Power Management Institute, and NSB, NOIDA.