IRMA has achieved notable success by accomplishing several projects that resonate with its mission. These projects encompass a diverse range of initiatives, including the assessment of the performance of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat to promote sustainability, and a comprehensive review of training programs and fund management patterns within the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and Educational Training Centers (ETCs).
Furthermore, the distinguished faculty at IRMA has made significant contributions to academia by publishing their research in esteemed journals such as World Development, Food Policy, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, Rutgers Business Review, Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, and Journal of Cleaner Production, among others. This scholarly output reflects their dedication to advancing knowledge and their commitment to addressing critical issues in their respective fields.
IRMA has successfully completed multiple projects in alignment with its mission. Some of them are – Assessment of Performance of Dairy Cooperatives in the State of Gujarat for Sustainability, Review of Training Programmes and Fund Management Pattern of SIRD and ETCs.
IRMA faculty has published in some of the reputed journals like World Development, Food Policy, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, Rutgers Business Review, Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, Journal of Cleaner Production to name a few.
With the intent of strengthening the functioning of cooperatives in India, IRMA has been conducting various studies on cooperatives with a special focus on dairy cooperatives. In the current year, IRMA has completed 15 different projects addressing various challenges faced by cooperatives. For the internship in villages, IRMA has been able to send the students across 16 states of the country with support from 26 organizations. Students have stayed in remote areas of these states for 8 weeks gathering experiences of rural lives and livelihoods. IRMA faculty has been invited as expert to be part of several committees constituted by the Government. Some of the notables are – National CSR Award by Ministry of Corporate Affairs, National Council for Cooperative Training- Ministry of Agriculture etc .
IRMA has conducted 91 Management Development Programmes with around 1400 participants attending these programs. IRMA has organized TEDx IRMA on the theme ‘Reimagining Rural”. The talk was attended by many distinguished leaders from different organizations (both for-profit and not-for-profit).
IRMA has taken up a study to understand the functioning of Gram Panchayats. The study is supported by NIRD and PR, Government of India.
IRMA is engaged with evaluation of MGNREGS for the Government of Meghalaya. It would look into functioning of SHGs and its impact on empowerment and community mobilization.
IRMA signed an MoU with the Government of Uttarakhand to study their dairy sector and explore potential for growth.
IRMA was a knowledge partner for the 2016 Livelihoods Asia Conference, organized by Access Development Services; December 7-8, 2016. A panel on “Rethinking Cooperation” was curated by VKCOE with T Nandakumar, Balu Iyer, Smita Premchander, Arindom Gupta and Pravesh Sharma as speakers and C Shambu Prasad as moderator. The Centre also facilitated the shortlisting and announcement of the winners of the Sitarama Rao Case Study competition. The ten dairy cooperatives from Gujarat Participated in the orientation field of students. These cooperatives hosted the students in remote villages of Gujarat and help them understanding the functioning of rural life and village cooperative society.
IRMA has organized The International Conference on Agribusiness in Emerging Economies (ICAEE) in collaboration with the Whitman School of Management & the South Asia Center at Syracuse University (USA) along with the Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies on January 6-7, 2016. The conference had 150 attendees from 17 Indian states. It also had international participants from Uganda, USA and Sri Lanka. As many as 84 participants presented papers on various dimensions of agribusiness include marketing, public policy issues, dairy cooperatives, supply and value chains, contract farming, finance, innovations and entrepreneurship. The conference also featured a round table with speakers from GCMMF, Tata Trusts, NDDB, NeML and Yes Bank along with an invited talk on “Agribusiness development and smallholder agriculture: Experience and prospects” by Mr. Pravesh Sharma, former Managing Director of Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium. 27 Institute of Rural Management Anand The conference was supported by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Gujarat Co-operative Milk & Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Tata Trusts, Yes Bank and NCDEX e-markets.
IRMA has signed an MoU with Awadh Research Foundation (ARF), a leading NGO providing specialized services to international organizations in the development sector. The agreement, signed in February 2016, involves extensive fieldwork in 37 villages of Uttar Pradesh for the survey “Socio Economic Profile of Rural Households in India”. Under this agreement, ARF’s work will be supervised by a core team from IRMA with Dr. Hari K. Nagarajan, also the RBI Chair Professor, as its head.
1. IRMA has been successful in obtaining the NABARD Chair Professor unit. The objective is to encourage applied and empirical research of a high standard in a bid to promote agriculture and rural development while broadening perceptions and gaining insights into these areas. The NABARD Chair Professor at IRMA shall collaborate with NABARD on joint research and policy related activities. A lecture series touching upon issues of mutual interest to both IRMA and NABARD is also being contemplated. Prof. Rakesh Saxena, has been nominated NABARD Chair Professor at IRMA.
2. GCMMF has recently communicated that Dr. Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence and a Chair Professor shall be instituted at IRMA. The Centre’s mandate is to work on emerging models of collectives and contemporary challenges of the dairy industry through research, consultancy, extension, outreach and policy analysis. Every year VKCoE releases its information brochure on the birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, the founder chairman of Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). The information brochure provides details of various activities carried out by the VKCoE such as proposed and ongoing research projects, policy brief, working papers, journal publication, newspaper article, workshop details, and collaborations and MoU signed with various national and international organizations.
3. The student group engaged in doing Organic Farming at IRMA had applied for SAYEN (South Asian Youth Environment Network) Hand print Challenge Competition in August 2014, organised by SAYEN and CEE (Centre for Environmental Education), and supported by UNEP (United Nation Environment Programme). This challenge aims at promoting sustainability in college students across Asia and the Pacific through student teams, identifying sustainability issues on their campus with an implementable action plan was selected among the top 20 projects and IRMA’s Organic Farming Projects became eligible for seed funding of $750 (or actual).
