IIM Rohtak director suggests setting up CAT corporation to hold multilingual exam, allow multiple attempts a year

IIM Rohtak suggests creating CAT corporation that can be housed in one of the Indian Institutes of Management and be chaired periodically by each of them.

Indian Institue of Management (IIM) Rohtak Director Dheeraj Sharma has suggested that the Common Admission Test (CAT) should be conducted in both Indian and foreign languages. He also suggested that the exam should be conducted multiple times in a year and shall be made as an international exam. 

IIMs can create ‘CAT corporation’, he says, which can be housed in one of the Indian Institutes of Management and be chaired periodically by each of them.

“CAT corporation can not only allow the facility of taking the test in Indian languages but also in Arabic, Persian, Sinhalese, Nepalese, Burmese, and Thai. It has the potential of becoming an international organisation that can offer the test to interested candidates multiple times a year. The score can be used by even international institutions, at least in the neighborhood of India. This can probably help in attracting international students to study management in India,” says the IIM-Rohtak Director.

Last month, Sharma had proposed to hold CAT in multiple languages, however, as per reports, IIMs are yet to discuss conducting the exam in regional languages.

While speaking about the same, the chairperson of admissions at IIM Ahmedabad, Professor MP Ram Mohan, told the media house, “CAT is a joint exercise of a group of six IIMs. Any change, like holding the exam in regional languages, will have to be discussed with all the parties concerned while also considering capacity and competence, availability of faculty and staff at IIMs, and, importantly, how well students of other states cope up. It should be thought through and any hasty decision may not be desirable.”

Sharma, however, says conducting CAT in regional languages has the potential to improve the economy of India, especially in semi-urban and rural areas. “It is expected that future economic growth drivers in India may be in rural and semi-urban situations. An understanding of the context and regional language will be an added asset for the management graduates.”

“I believe that the English language is a skill that can be honed in the IIM system but may not necessarily be an excluding criteria for those not in possession of that skill, at least at the entry-level. To start with, CAT can be conducted in a few of the scheduled languages in addition to English, and based on the response from the applicants, more scheduled languages can be added to the examination,” the Rohtak director said.

Read More:

• IIM Rohtak Courses & Fees 2021
• IIM Rohtak Admission 2021: Process, Eligibility, Dates, Fee