About IRMA
IRMA's mission is to promote professional management of democratic
and sustainable institutions for eco-friendly and equitable socio-economic
development of rural people.
IRMA is located in Anand, a town in Gujarat, India that can be truly called the
"milk capital of India". Situated between Ahmedabad (85 Kilometers
North-West) and Vadodara (35 Kilometers South), Anand is well connected to
major cities in India. It is on Ahmedabad-Mumbai National Highway 8 and is
connected by rail on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai broad-guage route. Anand
experiences extreme weather conditions, with the temperature between 5 and 25
degrees Celsius during winters (November to February) and between 35 and 40
degrees during summers (March to June). The sylvan environs of the IRMA
campus, however, ensure slightly lower temperatures within the campus.
Anand is the headquarters of Anand Taluka. Though a small town, it is one of the most important towns in the district -
Kheda.The population of Anand is around 100,000. The town is governed by the Anand Municipal Corporation which takes
care of the general upkeep of the town and provides basic medical facilities. The municipal corporation also runs a local
transport facility through its small fleet of buses. In addition, Gujarat Agricultural University runs its own fleet of buses which ply
between the railway station and the University campus. There are a large number of auto-rickshaws which can be hired for
moving about in the town. Tourist Taxi services are also available, but are generally used more for inter-city travel than for local
travel.
How to Reach Anand
Anand can be reached by rail and road. A large number of trains ply between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Most of the trains
have a brief halt at Anand. Anand is also directly connected by rail to other important cities of India including Bangalore,
Bhopal, Bhubhaneshwar, Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad, Madras and Tiruvananthapuram. Most of the other parts of the country
could be reached through a changeover at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai or Delhi. The journey to Mumbai takes around 6
to 8 hours and to Delhi around 14 to 16 hours.
A large number of state-owned and private buses run between Anand and several important cities. For reaching Ahmedabad
and Vadodara, there are state-run buses plying at an interval of every 30 minutes. Buses also ply towards Mumbai, Udaipur,
Nasik, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Anand can be reached by air through Vadodara or Ahmedabad. Vadodara city is connected to Pune, Mumbai and Delhi.
Ahmedabad city is connected to Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madras, Pune and Jaipur. Ahmedabad also has an
international airport which caters to the traffic to Muscat, Sharjah and other destinations. Flights from Ahmedabad to other
countries are routed through either Mumbai or Delhi. Tourist Taxis are available at the Vadodara and Ahmedabad Airports and
they can be hired to reach Anand. On an average the tourist taxis charge upto Rs.400 from Vadodara Airport and upto Rs.600
from Ahmedabad Airport to reach Anand.
How to reach IRMA
The 60-acre campus of IRMA is located between the campuses of the
NDDB and Gujarat Agricultural University. Anand railway station and
bus station are opposite to each other and are about 4 kms away, while
the National Highway 8 is about 3 km from the campus.
For reaching IRMA campus, the best mode of transport is an auto-rickshaw. Auto-rickshaws ply without meters and charge
Rs.15 during the day and Rs.20 during the night, from the Railway Station and Bus Station. The charges from Chikodra
Crossing on the National Highway 8 would be upto Rs.30. Bus service run by the municipal corporation could be used from
the railway station to reach either Ganesh Chowkdi or Jagnath Mahadev, which are about a kilometer away from the campus.
Other Institutions in Anand
Anand, the small town in Kheda district is famous all over the world as the abode of many institutions. Amul was the pioneer;
NDDB was set up to replicate Amul; these were followed by others and together they form a family of institutions, IRMA being
one of them. In fact IRMA owes its birth to two of the larger institutions namely Amul Dairy which was an inspiration on the
basis of which a national level co-operative dairying programme was launched, and the National Dairy Development Board
(NDDB) which conceived an funded the initial corpus of IRMA. NDDB continues to be an active partner in IRMA's work.
IRMA actively works with several of these institutions which include:
In addition to the above institutions, there are several other institutions in Anand. Anand is the seat of the Gujarat Agricultural
University which apart from agricultural sciences has a specialised Bidi Tobbacco Research Station, a Veterinary College, and
a Dairy Science College. The dairy science college runs the Vidya Dairy in collaboration with Amul and processes and packs
liquid milk for local supply. The Sardar Patel University is 6 kms away and is located in the university township of Vallabh
Vidya Nagar. VV Nagar has a population of around 50,000. In addition to these educational institutions, there are several small
scale industries which operate from the industrial area of Vitthal Udyognagar. There are a large number of other co-operative
institutions in various other commodity sectors. The co-operative urban banks of Anand are particularly known for their
success. Anand also has good medical facilities. There are a large number of medical doctors who run small clinics and basic
treatment for any ailment could be had in Anand. In addition to the above, Karamsad which is around 14 kilometers away has
the Pramukh Swami Medical College which runs a specialised rural hospital.
Anand has a town hall and a handful of cinema theatres for entertainment. In addition to the entertainment outside, several
cultural activities are held at IRMA, NDDB and Sardar Patel University.
IRMA shall strive to achieve this mission through
creating a new breed of professional rural managers having appropriate values and ethos;
helping rural organisations and institutions in professionalising their
management;
empowering rural people through self-sustaining processes;
building new rural management knowledge and theories through action-oriented
and problem-solving research and consultancy; and
influencing public policies.
Audio Visual Facilities at IRMA
IRMA's Audio Visual Section has state of the art AV aids to support faculty and students in their day to day academic work.
The AV section has variety of equipments to suite all kinds of presentations i.e. Multi Media Projectors, Television, VCRs,
Over Head Projectors, Slide Projectors and Cordless Public Address System. The section has a small studio which includes
Video and Audio editing facility, Video Cameras, Digital Still Camera, 35 mm Still Cameras and a Scanner attached to a PC.
The AV section also maintains a video film library. This library has about 400 titles on various aspects of management and rural
development procured from different organisations throughout the world. These titles are devided in to the following 23
categories:
IRMA has a world-class facility campus situated on a 65-acre landscaped site, maintained very well with manicured lawns and
lush green trees. The campus has a separate complex of hostels with single-occupancy rooms for all the students of the
long-duration programs. The hostel mess provides dining facilities for over 200 students. A separate class-room complex is
earmarked for these programs. Faculty and Staff live on campus in the quarters provided, thereby providing facilities for
interaction with the participants even beyond formal class rooms.
The Ravi J Matthai Library is fully air-conditioned and has a collection of choicest books,
periodicals, reports, CD-ROMs and other collections useful to carry out all the academic
activities of the Institute. The accession in the library is fully computerised with the library
hosting its own home-page on the internet. The library also has an exchange program and is
networked with several other similar facilities in India.
The Computing Facilities at the Institute are of world class. The Students have an exclusive personal computer laboratory
with individual e-mail accounts. The faculty have separate personal computers in their offices. All the computers are networked
through a local area network.
The Executive Training and Development Centre where the executive training programs and seminars are held, has 35
single occupancy Air Conditioned rooms, four suites, a dining hall, a lounge, conference and syndicate rooms with audio-visual
equipment and an exclusive computer laboratory which is networked with the Institute's main computer center. This facility is
available for executive training programmes and conferences planned by the faculty.
The Auditorium which has a seating capacity of 400 is used for all major events of the Institute and for entertainment. Movies
are screened regularly for both the participants of programs and the residents of the campus. It is also used for musical concerts
hosted by the Society for Promotion of Indian Culture and Music amongst Youth (SPIC-MACAY) and the cultural programs
hosted by the students.
The Students Activities Center has a gym-cum-sports complex, with facilities for a regular work-out, badminton and
table-tennis courts.
The Co-operative Store on the campus is open in the evenings - 6 days a week and provides all the essential items required
by the residents on the campus. It is well stocked with provisions and stationery required for the residents.
The Campus Dispensary is readily accessible for any basic medication necessary. The Honourary Medical Officer visits the
campus for an hour every day and a staff nurse resides on the campus to attend to any medical emergencies.
Contact Information:
Postal Address: 
An Institute with a mission
Born out of the recognition of the need for trained managers to work for co-operatives, IRMA has
become a premier center for research and training in rural management. IRMA distinguishes itself as
a management institute with a mandate of working for the development of rural people--a mandate
that has crystallised as a mission in the course of sixteen years of research and training.
Institute of Rural Management
PB 60, Anand 388 001, Gujarat
INDIA
E-mail: postmaster@fac.irm.ernet.in
Fax: +91-2692-40188
Phone: +91-2692-40181/ 40186 / 40391