Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
Encyclopedia
The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is an autonomous organization set up in 1963 by the government of India
to help professionalize the country's foreign trade management and increase export
s by developing human resources, generating, analyzing and disseminating data
, and conducting research
.
IIFT has, over the years, undertaken research studies with organizations like World Trade Organization
, World Bank
, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry
. IIFT has also trained more than 40,000 business professionals across 30 countries via its management development programs.
It is an institution in which roles of active players in international technology trade especially those of Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of Science and Technology are proposed to be synthesised.
The major objective of the Centre has been to provide 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.
and the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India and is spread over 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) of land.
The Kolkata Centre was setup in July 2006 when it was perceived that they needed a campus in a port city. The Union Commerce minister Kamal Nath inaugurated the campus in the presence of chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The campus is located in Sector V Salt Lake amidst the IT hub of Kolkata.
The facilities available on campus include lecture halls with audio-visual aids, conference halls for round-table conferences, an auditorium of 500 seating capacity, MDP Centre, three Computer Centres, indoor games, and residential facilities for students.
The students also have access to database 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 library in Delhi as well in Kolkata campus have online resources. The Institute subscribes EBSCO, Proquest, JSTOR, Emerald, Blackwell Synergy databases which mainly cover journal articles. For statistical data there are World Trade On-line, IMF databases, IndiaStat, ISI Emerging Markets, Woline, WITS, CMIE databases, World Trade Atlas, OECD online and many more to list.
Other facilities include 24-hour Internet access, access to national and international databases, in-house publishing facilities, LCD / Plasma Screen Projection Systems, etc.
(Milano, Italy
), International University in Geneva
(Geneva
, Switzerland
), Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(Blacksburg, Virginia
, United States), Grenoble école de management
(Grenoble
, France), EDHEC Business School (Lille Cedex and Nice Cedex, France), Hanken School of Economics, Finland.
The institute has a Placement Committee which is a ten member body of elected representatives. It consists of six people from Delhi campus and four from Kolkata campus. The purpose of Placement Committee is to ensure good final and summer placements for the students of the full time MBA (IB) programme. To this end, it makes representations to Human Resource departments of various organizations, and arranges placement week / interviews and selection procedures for IIFT students.
The institute has the following clubs on campus:
The institute has a Corporate Relations Committee(CRC). The Corporate Relations Committee is an elected body of four members. The CRC is headed by a convener. The purpose of the CRC is to maintain constant interaction with corporate partners and associates of IIFT and to arrange interactions with corporates on a regular basis.
The students of MBA (IB) course also issue three monthly magazines:
The Institute also conducts Trade Winds the flagship event of IIFT for corporate interactions and the annual management festival Quo Vadis.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to help professionalize the country's foreign trade management and increase export
Export
The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
s by developing human resources, generating, analyzing and disseminating data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
, and conducting research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
.
Admission information
IIFT is a deemed-university and it conducts an autonomous entrance examination across various centers in India. In 2011, an estimated whopping 90000 candidates took the entrance exam for Full Time MBA (IB) course with 220 seats, making it one of the toughest B-schools to get into in India. The institute is consistently ranked among the top 10 Business Schools in India, in various surveys conducted by independent agencies.Courses
IIFT's portfolio of long-term programmes is as follows:- Two-year residential MBA (International Business) - New DelhiNew DelhiNew Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, KolkataKolkataKolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
,and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania). This is the flagship course, offering specialization in Marketing, Finance, Systems and Trade. - Three-year MBA (International Business) (Weekends), New Delhi & Kolkata.
- Executive Master'sMaster's degreeA master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in International Business, New Delhi, DubaiDubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and Dar-es-Salaam - CertificateAcademic certificateAn academic certificate is a document that certifies that a person has received specific education or has passed a test or series of tests.In many countries, certificate is a qualification attained in secondary education. For instance, students in the Republic of Ireland sit the Junior Certificate...
Course in Export Management, New Delhi, Kolkata, GuwahatiGuwahatiGuwahati, Pragjyotishpura in ancient Assam formerly known as Gauhati is a metropolis,the largest city of Assam in India and ancient urban area in North East India, with a population of 963,429. It is also the largest metropolitan area in north-eastern India...
(Assam) - Post Graduate CertificatePostgraduate diplomaA postgraduate diploma is a postgraduate qualification awarded typically after a bachelor's degree. It can be contrasted with a graduate diploma...
Course in International Business through NIIT ImperiaNIIT IMPERIANIIT Imperia Centre for Advanced Learning was created to provide management education from premier academic Institutes of India .India- History :...
IIFT has, over the years, undertaken research studies with organizations like World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....
(UNCTAD) and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India)
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry administers two departments, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. The head of the Ministry is a Minister of Cabinet rank...
. IIFT has also trained more than 40,000 business professionals across 30 countries via its management development programs.
Centre for International Trade in Technology
With the primary objective of actuality India’s potential in technology trade and addressing some of the institutional complexities, IIFT has set up the Centre for International Trade in Technology with financial and technical support from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India.It is an institution in which roles of active players in international technology trade especially those of Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of Science and Technology are proposed to be synthesised.
Centre for WTO Studies
The Centre for WTO Studies was established at IIFT in November 2002.The major objective of the Centre has been to provide 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.
Centre for SME Studies
The growing importance of Small and Medium Enterprises in the economy as a whole and External Trade in particular has prompted IIFT to establish a separate Center for SME studies which can act as a catalyst to the internationalsiation of SME activities. The center has become operational from May, 2005. The Centre for SME Studies at IIFT provides continuous support to the SME sector by carrying out activities which can be broadly classified into conducting Training Programmes, provision of Business Intelligence services through a Databank and acting as a catalyst for Interfacing with other concerned and associated institutions.Campus
IIFT Delhi Centre is located in the Qutab Institutional Area in close vicinity of Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityJawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...
and the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India and is spread over 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) of land.
The Kolkata Centre was setup in July 2006 when it was perceived that they needed a campus in a port city. The Union Commerce minister Kamal Nath inaugurated the campus in the presence of chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The campus is located in Sector V Salt Lake amidst the IT hub of Kolkata.
The facilities available on campus include lecture halls with audio-visual aids, conference halls for round-table conferences, an auditorium of 500 seating capacity, MDP Centre, three Computer Centres, indoor games, and residential facilities for students.
Library
The IIFT library has 84,000 volumes and subscriptions to 800 journals with online cataloguing. The library has a collection of publications of FAO, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, UNCTC, World Bank, and other international agencies.The students also have access to database 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 library in Delhi as well in Kolkata campus have online resources. The Institute subscribes EBSCO, Proquest, JSTOR, Emerald, Blackwell Synergy databases which mainly cover journal articles. For statistical data there are World Trade On-line, IMF databases, IndiaStat, ISI Emerging Markets, Woline, WITS, CMIE databases, World Trade Atlas, OECD online and many more to list.
Computer facilities
Eleven servers (IBM, Compaq and HP), 300 Core 2 Duo/Pentium IV nodes with wired and wireless access to the network are available in the campus. The software applications include Solaris, Novell Netware, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP, Lotus Domino, SPSS, Oracle, Developer 2000, and Java.Other facilities include 24-hour Internet access, access to national and international databases, in-house publishing facilities, LCD / Plasma Screen Projection Systems, etc.
International Student Exchange Programs
IIFT has Exchange Programmes with some international institutions. These collaborations are mainly for student and faculty exchanger programme, joint collaborations on research and various other capacity building exercise. As an outcome of the student faculty exchange programme both the partner intuitions gain outcome. Particularly, the student exchange programme has really picked up in the last five years. This is also because of the increase in the number of collaborations with premiere business schools like Bocconi UniversityBocconi University
Bocconi University is a private university located in central Milan, beside Parco Ravizza. Bocconi provides undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education, in addition to a range of double degree programs, in the fields of economics, management, finance and law. According to many university...
(Milano, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
), International University in Geneva
International University in Geneva
International University in Geneva is a private university founded in 1997 and located in Geneva, Switzerland.-History & Mission:Founded with the aim of providing a multicutural education and incorporated as a not-for-profit Swiss Private Foundation in 1997, its first president was David Williamson...
(Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
), Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech , is a public land-grant university with the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia with other research and educational centers throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and internationally.Founded in...
(Blacksburg, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States), Grenoble école de management
Grenoble école de management
Grenoble Ecole de Management also known as Grenoble EM or Grenoble School of Management, was founded in 1984 by the local chamber of commerce...
(Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
, France), EDHEC Business School (Lille Cedex and Nice Cedex, France), Hanken School of Economics, Finland.
Campus life
The institute has a student body called International Management Forum (IMF). IMF is the official representative student body at IIFT which acts as a coordinator for, and provides administrative support to, various student activities and events at IIFT besides taking policy decisions regarding student affairs in consultation with the Director/Chairperson/Program Director.The institute has a Placement Committee which is a ten member body of elected representatives. It consists of six people from Delhi campus and four from Kolkata campus. The purpose of Placement Committee is to ensure good final and summer placements for the students of the full time MBA (IB) programme. To this end, it makes representations to Human Resource departments of various organizations, and arranges placement week / interviews and selection procedures for IIFT students.
The institute has the following clubs on campus:
- Brandwagon – a forum of students that are interested in marketing, either as a subject or as a preferred career.
- Blash - aimed at equipping members with ideas of the mechanisms of trading.
- Cash-O-Nova - The club acts as a platform for discussion and activities in the field of finance.
- Systemix - Systems Club at IIFT which aims to provide a platform for information technologyInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
. - Quintessential - Quizzing club at IIFT.
- Socrates - Consulting club at IIFT.
- E-Cell - Entrepreneurship Cell at IIFT
- Koshish - CSR Club at IIFT
- EOM-Cell - The Energy, Operations & Manufacturing Cell at IIFT
The institute has a Corporate Relations Committee(CRC). The Corporate Relations Committee is an elected body of four members. The CRC is headed by a convener. The purpose of the CRC is to maintain constant interaction with corporate partners and associates of IIFT and to arrange interactions with corporates on a regular basis.
The students of MBA (IB) course also issue three monthly magazines:
- infineeti- the magazine for finance
- markmantra- the magazine for marketing
- techtonix- the magazine for IT
The Institute also conducts Trade Winds the flagship event of IIFT for corporate interactions and the annual management festival Quo Vadis.
Notable IIFT alumni
- S.K. Roongta, Chairman, Steel Authority of India LimitedSteel Authority of India LimitedSteel Authority of India Limited from 116950 The company's current chairman is C.S Verma. With an annual production of 13.5 million metric tons, SAIL is the 14th largest steel producer in the world....
- Siraj Chaudhry, Country Head, Cargill India Pvt. Limited
- Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR SportsESPN Star SportsESPN Star Sports is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and News Corporation...
- Rashesh Shah, Founder & Chairman, Edelweiss CapitalEdelweiss CapitalEdelweiss Capital is a financial services company based in Mumbai, India. Edelweiss Capital Limited provides investment banking, institutional equities, private client broking, asset management, wealth management, insurance broking and wholesale financing services to corporate, institutional and...
- V Sivaramakrishnan, President Education Services, Manipal Group
- V. Shashikant, CEO, UB Global
- Govind Ambady, CEO, Louis Dreyfus Commodities, India
- BVR Subbu, former president of Hyundai Motors, India
- Sanjeev Asthana, President and CE, Agri Business & Food Supply Chain, Reliance Retail
- Dinesh Jain, CEO, Hover Automotive India-Nissan Motors
- Manav Garg, CEO, Eka Software