The Centre has asked the Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) to start an MBA course in Project Management, said Pankaj Jain, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday.
Delivering the inaugural address at a two-day conference on “Project Management: orchestrating complex projects,” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said that the two year MBA (Project Management) course would be offered on the lines of MBA Finance. IIM-Indore was willing to offer 20 seats for the MBAPM course. The next step would be to go in for PM certification.
Noting that the country needed quality Project Managers to tackle time and cost overrun, he said every mega project needed a reputed and experienced consultant.
Even one per cent saving in infrastructure cost would lead to adding one per cent to Gross Domestic Product.
According to Mr. Jain, private firms had an effective control over time and cost overrun as they had access to latest technology and management practices.
The project cost overrun in Central Government projects had come down drastically due to effective signing process of MoUs with the Centre and implementation of strict fiscal control measures. However, it was not so in the case of State government projects. The Ministry did not monitor State government projects as well as PPP projects.
“To help the industry, the Ministry will come out with a Project Management manual next month. It would be generic in nature and will be applicable across the board. It will enable firms to keep time and cost in check. CII is making efforts to get it translated into Tamil,” he said.
Online monitoring system
The Ministry also has an Online Computerised Monitoring System for projects and infrastructure monitoring that provides information about projects costing over Rs.20 crore and above.
In his welcome address, T.T. Ashok, Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region said that it was time for Project Managers to be the leaders of change as there was change in economic conditions and companies adapted to the changes effectively.
“The future of effective project management lies in three expertise areas such as skills unique to project management, mastery of general management capabilities and experience pertinent to a specific application area,” he said.
