Indian Institute of Foreign Trade - IIFT New Delhi

About Indian Institute of Foreign Trade - IIFT New Delhi

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) was set up in 1963 by the Government of India as an autonomous organisation to help professionalise the country's foreign trade management and increase exports by developing human resources; generating, analysing and disseminating data; and conducting research. IIFT was set up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. IIFT was awarded the status of Deemed University in May 2002 under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 vide Notification No. F.9-31/2001-U.3 of the Government of India. It is the only Institute of its kind in the country which provides Management Education with an in-depth global focus. The course curriculum offered at IIFT consists of core papers like international business strategy, international marketing research, international trade operations, etc. that reflect the concepts & trends in international business. Such courses are otherwise offered as electives by other institutes. A large number of electives are offered to students. The Institute has also been engaged with high calibre training organized in the form of various Management Development Programmes. These programmes are sponsored by national and international organizations. IIFT has emerged as the nodal Institute for conducting training programmes on WTO related issues for the Government of India, state governments and Industry. The focus has shifted from export procedures to areas such as IT and E-commerce, Currency Values, Risk Management in Exports & Imports and Foreign Trade Policy. Similarly, IIFT has conducted a number of research studies for both national and international organizations in the government and private sectors on emerging policy issues. IIFT follows a pedagogy that has a healthy blend of both theoretical aspects as well as practical nuances. The classroom environment is designed to impart the theoretical knowledge reinforced through the case study approach. The take-home assignments require the students to work on the concepts taught in the classroom coupled with the research work carried out by them so as to imbibe the idea into their very ethos

University Campuses

• Delhi Campus - It is Located in the Qutab Institutional Area in close vicinity of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India. It is spread over six acres of land and overlooking the green ridge and historical Qutab Minar, the IIFT Campus provides an ideal environment for academic excellence.

• Kolkata Campus - The Kolkata centre of IIFT was inaugurated in July 2006, which is pursuing all the activities as has been performed in Delhi under the same administrative set-up. Currently, the centre is functioning from J-1/14, (7th to 9th Floor) EP & GP Block, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata, where state-of-art infrastructure is already in place.

University Centres

• Centre for International Trade and Technology (CITT) - It is engaged in offering training and conducting research in various aspects of international trade. The Institute offers a wide variety of executive development programmes to suit the needs of an executive at different levels in export organisations. Besides offering consultancy services to export enterprises, the Institute is involved in marketing, functional and policy research.

• Centre for WTO Studies -It provides research and analytical support on a continuous basis to the Department of Commerce on identified issues pertaining to the World Trade Organization. In addition, it is also tasked to carry out research activities, bring out Publications on WTO related subjects, carry out Outreach & Capacity Building programmes by organizing seminars, workshops, subject-specific meetings etc., and to be a repository of important WTO documents in its Trade Resource Centre.

• SME Centre - Small and Medium Enterprises Centre conducts Training Programmes and acts as a catalyst for interfacing with other concerned and associated institutions.

Facilities

Hostel Facilities - The MBA (International Business) is a fully residential programme. There is a separate wing for girl students. Computers are provided in every hostel room with 2 MBPS Internet connectivity. The Institute also has residential facilities for participants of its Management Development Programmes.

Library Facilities - One of the largest of its kind in the developing world, with a holding of around 84,000 volumes and subscriptions to 800 journals with complete online cataloguing. Besides being an invaluable place of reference for industry, research scholars and students alike, the Library has a unique collection of publications of FAO, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, UNCTC, World Bank, and other international agencies. The students have access to databases such as the NIC, CMIE, India Trades, World Bank Indicators and other audio-visual aids on management. IIFT has set up the WTO Resource Centre in the Library to focus exclusively on WTO issues. The Centre is the only one of its kind in India, which enhances the utility of the IIFT Library even further. Besides the main Library, there is a Library-cum-Reading Room open round-the-clock, situated in the hostel.

Management Development Programmes Division - It offers a number of Executive Development Programmes of varying durations throughout the year that caters to the needs of the Corporate Sector, Entrepreneurs, Public Sector Enterprises, Organizations in Small and Medium Enterprises, Association of Industries, Ministries & Departments of the Government, Trade Facilitation Agencies and Export Promotion Organizations. The institute has also been designated as a nodal agency for Capacity Building of officers from African Countries in the area of WTO under the ITEC funding of the Ministry of External Affairs. It has been organizing programs in the area of international business for Co-Developing Countries under Colombo Plan and ESCAP Secretariat.

Research - The Institute has so far brought out over 650 research studies and surveys. In addition, it has developed substantial consulting capacity in analysing international business situations and developing appropriate corporate strategies. Prominent institutions and national and international organisations that have been consulting the Institute on issues related to international business include FICCI, CII, FIEO, CID – Harvard University, European Union Office, USAID, UNDP, ESCAP, Commonwealth Secretariat, and Central & State Governments of India.

Computer Facilities - IIFT has three state-of-the-art Computer Centres with a Local Area Network comprising IBM Blade Centre, SUN on Clustered Environment, HP Servers and 300 Pentium IV nodes with wired & wireless access to the network available on the campus. The software applications include Solaris, Novell Netware, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP,  SPSS, Oracle, Visual Basic and Java. Other facilities include 24-hour Internet access via a 3 MBPS leased line, access to national and international databases, in-house publishing facilities, LCD / Plasma Screen Projection Systems, etc.

Placements -  The Institute facilitates the Placement Process for both Delhi and Kolkata Centres at a common campus, presently at Delhi. Placements provide an opportunity to students to demonstrate their knowledge acquired over two years for applicability in the real world.

Placement activities include :

• Pre-Placement Talk - Companies come down to campus to conduct pre-placement talks. These talks give the students an idea about the recruiting organizations and opportunities available within these. It also gives students the chance to interact with employees of the company and learn more about the work culture. Based on these talks, students decide if they wish to apply to those organizations.

• Resumes Submission - The willing students submit their resumes to the company after the PPTs or to the Placement committee in case the companies wish to have them early prior to their arrival on campus.

• Shortlisting of Candidates - Based on the resumes, the companies prepare a shortlist of qualifying students and inform in advance the Placement committee.

• Campus Recruitment - Prior to arrival on campus, the companies are requested to inform the Placement Committee about the recruitment procedure to be followed by them, like Group Discussions, Case Studies, Personal Interviews etc. After the selection process, organizations are requested to announce the list of selected candidates on the campus itself.

• Lateral Placements - The campus also has lateral placements. The candidates applying for the lateral placements have relevant work experience of more than 1 year unless specified otherwise.

• Summer Placements - The Summer Internship Programme aims to widen the student's perspective by providing exposure to real-life organizational and environmental situations. Selection is typically based on group discussions and or personal interviews on campus. The placement process witnessed participation from the top companies across diverse sectors in 2009. A total of 62 companies made final offers to the students including industry leaders like ITC, Colgate Palmolive, Nomura Holdings, Coca Cola, M&M, Bharti Airtel, Titan, Bajaj Auto, Cargill, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, ICRA, Eli Lilly and Vodafone; who recruited students for various roles like marketing, sales, corporate finance, treasury, operations, logistics and international business.

Exchange Programme - IIFT Exchange Programme is an outcome of the institute’s academic collaboration with some of the leading institutions across the world. The academic collaborations are an endeavour towards showcasing IIFT’s legacy of over four decades and at the same time to also gain from the expertise of the partner intuitions. Each of these partners has created a name for themselves around the world. These collaborations are mainly for student and faculty exchanger programme, joint collaborations on research and various other capacity-building exercises. As an outcome of the student-faculty exchange programme both the partner intuitions gain outcome.

Sports  - Sport and games provided by the university include Badminton, volleyball, basketball, table tennis etc. IIFT has its sporting festival called the Motley Brew held twice every year, once in August and again in February. Female participation in team sports is remarkable with every team having at least one female member.

Achievements

Accreditation - It was accredited as an “A” Grade institution by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in May 2005

Ranking:

Consistently ranked among the top 10 B-Schools of India
2009: IIFT secures 8th position among all the B-Schools in India - CNBC TV18 rating
2009: IIFT secures 8th position among all the B-Schools in India - Zee News rating

Research - IIFT has, over the years, undertaken path-breaking research studies with organisations like WTO, World Bank, UNCTAD and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. The Institute has also trained more than 40,000 business professionals across 30 countries in various facets of international business and trade policy via its Management Development Programmes.

Collaborations - IIFT has been successfully strengthening its relationship with international organizations by signing MoUs and participating in their activities or taking collaborative initiatives.

The Institute is a member of the following international organizations:

1. Academy of International Business (AIB), USA
2. Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, India (A Division of Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, London, United Kingdom)
3. Eduniversal Official Selection
4. European Foundation For Management Development (EFMD), Brussels
5. International Association of Trade Training Organisations (IATTO), UK
6. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The Institute has Academic collaboration with the various International Universities/Institutions.

Some of these are:

• Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.
• Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
• Centre for Globalization and Sustainable Development, Columbia University, New York, USA.
• Edhec Business School, Lille Cedex and Nice Cedex, France.