Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has decided to hike the fees for the second batch of the one year Post Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy from Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh (from Rs 0.9 million to Rs 1.2 million) for non-sponsored candidates.

For students sponsored by the Department of Personnel and Training the fee has been raised from Rs 7.5 lakh to around Rs 9 lakh (from Rs 0.75 million to Rs 0.90 million).

The institute has also announced opening its course to candidates with legislative and/or ministerial experience for the batch of 2008-09.

The institute is hoping to attract candidates who are at least 27 years old and have one or more years of experience as a minister at the central level or as a member of Parliament or two or more years of experience as a minister at the state level or as a member of state assembly or have served local bodies for five or more years.

For the first batch of the programme, the institute had received 300 applications from which 33 participants have been selected. 12 of them are sponsored by various government departments, while 21 are non-sponsored participants.

The average age of these participants is 36 years and their average work experience is 12 years. The list includes four IAS officers, one IRS officer, three from the Railways, one from defence and others from NGOs and banks.

Since the placements for the first batch would take place in March 2008, IIM-A will decide student intake, electives and other changes for the next batch depending on the response from recruiters to the first batch.

The programme retains essentials of the institute's executive management programme and is targeted at those who are looking to take on senior management positions in public management and policy.

Apart from core management courses, the programme offers various electives leading to specialisation in specific areas such as financial regulation, infrastructure development, management of international organisations, public enterprise management, and technology.

The participants of this programme will also be going abroad on an international exchange for 7-8 weeks to international universities including University of Geneva, University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown University and Carnegie Mellon University.