Pt.Jawaharlal Nehru's vision of modern technically advanced independent India saw its fulfillment in the development skilled technical hands and trained managers. And thus was laid the foundation of the IITs and the IIMs.

In the initial years (1950s), short-term management programmes run jointly by the Sloan School of Management, MIT and the All India Management Association dominated the management development scenario in India, besides a set of overseas training of groups of industrialists and senior civil servants in Europe and the US.

In 1961, the Government of India setup two IIMs - One in Calcutta and the other in Ahmedabad. The State Governments provided the land for the campus, and other infrastructure was developed by the grants provided by the Central Government.Because of the success achieved by these Institutes and the demand for more of such Institutes, the government in 1972 setup a third IIM at Bangalore and subsequently in Lucknow (1984), Kozhikode (1996) and Indore (1998).