The Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) founded by Dr Verghese Kurien, has applied for Institute of National Importance (INI) status under the Ministry of Co-operation.
IRMA, which is an autonomous and self-financed institution is working towards having pan-India presence with its expansion from only two diplomas and one fellow programme to multiple programmes, soon. This recognition, once granted, will not only allow it to open centres across the country but will also permit it to receive funding from the central government.
INI is a status that basically may be conferred on a premier public higher education institution by the act of Parliament. With this Gujarat will have four institutes to have received the prestigious INI status. Back in the year 2020, three institutes from the state: Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar; National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, and Rashtriya Raksha University, Gandhinagar were also given Institute of National Importance status.
The prestigious Institute of Rural Management Anand was set up in the year 1979 primarily as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.