IIM full form and the list of IIMs in India

What is the full form of IIM?

IIM is short for Indian Institute of Management (plural: Indian Institutes of Management). The IIM full form in Hindi is भारतीय प्रबंध संस्थान (Bharatiya Prabandh Sansthan), the form used in the Hindi title of the 2017 Act on the Ministry of Education’s Hindi Acts page and in IIM Sirmaur’s Hindi site header. Some institute footers and press releases write भारतीय प्रबंधन संस्थान, with the same meaning. Each campus adds its city to the name, so “IIM A” is the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and “IIM Calicut” is the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.

The IIMs are public business schools set up by the Government of India. The flagship course at every campus is a two-year, full-time MBA that admits through the Common Admission Test (CAT). Most IIMs also run doctoral programmes, executive MBAs and short executive education courses.

How many IIMs are there in India?

The total number of IIMs in India is 22 as of October 2026. The count grew in three legal steps:

Sources: the IIM Act, 2017 gazette copy (Schedule, 20 rows), the 2023 commencement notification S.O. 3663(E), the IIM (Amendment) Act, 2025 on the Ministry of Education site, and the PRS summary of the 2025 Bill. IIM Guwahati calls itself the 22nd IIM.

Older articles that say “20 IIMs” or “21 IIMs” were written before one of these amendments.

List of IIMs in India

All 22 IIMs, in order of founding year. Generation labels follow our site taxonomy (explained in the next section). The flagship programme name is what each institute uses for its two-year MBA.

Maharashtra is the only state with two IIMs (Mumbai and Nagpur). Each name links to our scored review of that campus. For a ranked view, read top IIMs in India. For fees side by side, use the fee and seat matrix or IIM fees and ROI.

IIM official websites

Each IIM runs its own admissions, fee and placement pages. The official website addresses, as listed on our campus reviews:

The CAT 2026 Information Bulletin lists the same domains for the institutes that use CAT. The CAT exam itself runs on iimcat.ac.in.

Old, new and baby IIMs: what the labels mean

“Old”, “new” and “baby” are applicant shorthand for founding waves. The law makes no such distinction: all 22 sit in the same Act with the same status. On iimHQ we group them like this:

• Old IIMs (6): Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore, founded between 1961 and 1996. Their initials give the nickname “BLACKI”.
• New IIMs (7): Shillong (2007) and the 2010-11 wave of Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Kashipur, Tiruchirappalli and Udaipur.
• Baby IIMs (9): the 2015-16 wave of Amritsar, Bodh Gaya, Nagpur, Sambalpur, Sirmaur, Visakhapatnam and Jammu, plus the two latest additions, IIM Mumbai and IIM Guwahati.

IIM Mumbai is the awkward fit. Its institution dates to 1963 as NITIE and it ranks #6 in NIRF Management 2025, yet it joined the IIM system only in 2023. We file it under “baby” by its IIM date and judge it on its numbers.

The labels predict brand reach and alumni depth on average. They do not predict your fee, your role or your payback. The old vs new IIMs comparison covers when a newer campus is the better offer.

What the IIM Act, 2017 changed

Before the Act, each IIM was a registered society. The Act converted all of them into statutory bodies and did three things that matter to applicants:

1. National importance. Section 2 declares every institute in the Schedule an institution of national importance (IIM Act, 2017).
2. Degrees. Section 7(f) lets each IIM grant degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions. That is why the flagship two-year programmes now lead to an MBA degree, where the institutes earlier awarded a Post Graduate Diploma in Management.
3. Autonomy with public accountability. A Board of Governors runs each IIM and sets fees and admission regulations. Central government grants fund the institutes, and the Comptroller and Auditor General audits their accounts (PRS summary of the 2017 Bill).

Because each Board sets its own fees and selection policy, two IIMs can differ widely on cost and on how they weigh CAT, academics and work experience. Read IIM selection criteria explained before you assume one rule fits all 22.

Which are the newest IIMs?

IIM Guwahati is the newest. The 2025 amendment brought it under the Act from 1 September 2025, and its first MBA batch (2026-28) started in July 2026, mentored by IIM Ahmedabad. It runs from a transit campus near Guwahati airport while the permanent campus at Marabhita is built. See the IIM Guwahati review.

IIM Mumbai came before it, in August 2023, when NITIE was renamed. Before that, the newest IIMs were the seven founded in 2015-16.

The full list of new IIMs, from the founding years in the table above:

• 2007: Shillong
• 2010: Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak
• 2011: Kashipur, Tiruchirappalli, Udaipur
• 2015: Amritsar, Bodh Gaya, Nagpur, Sambalpur, Sirmaur, Visakhapatnam
• 2016: Jammu
• 2023 and 2025: Mumbai (as an IIM) and Guwahati

New IIMs usually start in a temporary campus, take admissions through CAT with shared interviews, and publish placement data only after the first batch graduates. Read the latest fee circular and admissions policy for any campus that is less than five years old.

How do you get into an IIM?

The usual route is the two-year MBA through CAT. You need a bachelor’s degree with at least 50% marks (45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates), then a CAT percentile that clears each institute’s floors, an interview call, and a strong WAT/PI. CAT 2026 is on 29 November 2026. The step-by-step process is in how to get into an IIM, and the exam itself in the CAT exam guide.

Two other doors exist:

• After Class 12: five-year integrated programmes (IPM) at several IIMs, including Indore and Rohtak, admit through their own aptitude tests. See the IPMAT exam guide.
• With work experience: one-year MBAs and weekend executive MBAs admit on GMAT, GRE, CAT or institute tests. See executive MBA from IIM.

Many newer IIMs interview through the Common Admission Process. CAP for IIMs explained shows how it works.

Common questions