Untold & Fun Stories from Rural Immersions Program at IIMs

IIM Calcutta: From Case Studies to Cattle Sheds

During a rural excavation, IIM Calcutta students were sent to a remote village in Bihar. Students accustomed to urban technology and 10-minute delivery are shocked to see the struggle of women entrepreneurs running small businesses. To tackle this problem, the students began a micro-finance initiative to help grow their businesses. This small initiative inspired other nearby villages to adopt the same. Though not as fast as 10-minute delivery, a smooth transaction of business was made possible for the women in the village.

IIM Calcutta: When Wi-Fi Meets Kerosene Lamps

Another such interesting story at IIM Calcutta is when the students visited a village in Uttar Pradesh as part of their rural immersion program. Upon reaching the village, the students experienced a blackout while resting, a problem that they rarely encountered in urban areas.

To help the students overcome this situation, the villagers taught them how to make kerosene oil lanterns and candles for survival. By the end of the night, the Wi-Fi generation was laughing around the kerosene lamp, sharing their stories with the villagers under the stars.

IIM Ahmedabad: Rural Olympics; The Tug of War That MBAs Lost

Students of IIM Ahmedabad introduced the rural Olympics to connect and interact with the rural folk. In one such incident, gym-going students underestimated the power of hands working in a field. In a tug of war competition, both groups participated, but the MBAs were the ones who lost every time. Constant losses on the ground increased humour and excitement in both camps. In the end, students learned the strength of teamwork and the power of hard work in the fields.

IIM Udaipur: Feasts, Festivals, and Culture

When a group of IIM Udaipur students visited Tamil Nadu, they were greeted with a grand feast by one of the villagers. Not knowing anything about the ingredients and knowing only burgers and French fries as food, students stumbled upon a native ingredient used for tackling the exorbitant heat in the region. At first glance, it looked like curry, but when one student tasted it was bad in flavour. Though no one complained about it, and talked even more to rural people about their culture and the significance of food.

IIM Nagpur: Solving Problems, One Village at a Time

Similarly, IIM Nagpur students got to visit the Vidarbha region in the state, where they noticed a profound problem related to the cultivation of cotton. Having learned about agriculture in class, they improved the cultivation by helping them procure better seeds, manure, and fertilisers. But the problem was much deeper than that. Here, the middlemen's interference in the supply chain was the issue.

To solve this problem, the students interacted with the villagers, understood their needs, and introduced a model to connect villages directly to consumers without the interference of middlemen. Through this, the students at IIM Nagpur understood that to understand any problem, one must understand the root cause to be able to come up with a solution.

IIM Kozhikode: The youngest entrepreneur who didn’t need a CAT score

Prayaas is a student-driven initiative started by IIM Kozhikode. The initiative aims to empower underprivileged kids in Kozhikode with a focus on experiential learning and entrepreneurship. During a backwaters fest, Prayaas set up a kids' stall to sell bookmarks, greeting cards, and handicrafts so that kids could learn selling, pricing, and interacting with customers.

One of the kids sold out all the bookmarks within an hour and outsold some of the big names. How? Simply because of his genuine excitement and pitching with a confidence that drove consumers to his stall. Since then, kids stalling during festivals became a ritual, and people preferred buying from them because of their excitement and fun way of pitching. This shows how management studies link with social transformation and not just competition.

What is the Rural Immersion Program?

The Rural Immersion Program involves business is all about students’ direct engagement with rural communities and getting to know their culture better. The program at IIM Indore was started in 2009 to reduce the urban-rural divide in society and equip future business leaders with the problems faced by rural communities. Over the years, the rural immersion program has expanded across the campuses, including top IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta.

The Rural Engagement Program is mandatory at IIM Rohtak, IIM Indore and IIM Udaipur, and is conducted immediately after term 1 exams and is of 0.5 credit points.