In her budget speech this month, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a pilot scheme to upskill 10,000 guides at 20 iconic tourist sites through a standardised, high-quality, 12-week training course delivered in a hybrid format, in collaboration with IIMs.
“We are fully committed to this national mandate of introducing a visionary pilot scheme to upskill 10,000 guides across 20 iconic tourist sites,” said Bhimaraya Metri, director, IIM Nagpur. Currently, IIM Nagpur provides upskilling courses including executive education and specialised training programmes. “Leveraging this expertise, we will work on developing a tourism-specific curriculum that blends worldclass management principles with local cultural insights,” said Metri.
The institute is developing a curriculum centred around forest conservation and tiger safaris. “We will use this vast experience in rural and administrative training to create a specialised ecosystem for tourism skilling, ensuring that the benefits of the ‘Tiger Capital’ reach every local guide and hospitality provider,” he added. IIM Nagpur has also launched a specialised hospital management course aligning with the budget’s emphasis on Medical Value Tourism.
Separately, IIM Indore is planning to upskill the tourism workforce in Madhya Pradesh through executive training programmes, said director Himanshu Rai. The institute has academic capability in tourismrelated areas, including a tourism marketing course in the PGP programme, he said.
Executive Modules
IIM Indore has faculty experience in services, destination marketing, sustainability, and publicsector training, Rai said. In addition, IIM Indore is engaging its faculty with tourism research, tourism marketing, and advisory roles. “The faculty regularly designs customised programmes and consultancy assignments for government departments and public-sector organisations,” according to Rai. In the coming months, IIM Indore will help conceptualise and develop a gender-sensitive corridor.Rai said it will include frameworks for women-centric service delivery, safety, accessibility, and coordination across tourism touchpoints. “The institute will support the design of training modules and advisory inputs for gender-sensitive coordinators, particularly for large-scale events such as the Mahakumbh.”
Most IIMs are looking at upskilling through executive modules, case-based learning, field immersion, and applied projects. “We contribute primarily through management education that builds cross-functional capabilities relevant to tourism businesses, and entrepreneurship programmes,” said Sanjeev Prashar, director-in-charge at IIM Raipur. Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM Kozhikode finds the budget’s emphasis on strengthening India’s tourism workforce as both timely and strategic. Going forward, the institute will actively participate in shaping high-quality, industry-relevant curricula for upskilling the tourism workforce, said Chatterjee. A key enabler of this effort is the institute’s upcoming MOOC infrastructure and content development centre.
