Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore launches 4-year undergraduate programme in economics & data science | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIMB) is making its entry into the undergraduate space, offline this time. IIMB will launch a four-year UG programme with majors in economics and data sciences for the academic year 2026-27.The BSc (Hons) programme in economics will have a minor in data science and business. The potential electives include public policy, auction theory, development economics, algorithmic game theory, environmental economics, and health economics, among others. The BSc (Hons) in data science will have minors in economics and business. The electives will include quantitative risk management, supply chain optimisation, big data computing, and combinatorial optimisation.Students must be under 20 (general category) or 22 (reserved category) as of Aug 1, 2025. They will need a compulsory maths component in their class 11 and 12 with a minimum of 60% marks. Entrance will be through a national test to be held in Dec, followed by an interview. The aptitude test will include maths, logical reasoning, English, and general knowledge.The four-year programme will be in line with the National Education Policy (NEP), with an exit option at the end of three years. In subsequent years, the institute plans to introduce behavioural sciences and sustainability. The residential programme will run out of the new campus of IIMB, near Bannerghatta National Park. Initially, each course will have 40 seats, with plans to scale it up to 640 by 2031.The course fee is Rs 8.5 lakh per annum, with concessions to be given to deserving students. Applications for the inaugural cohorts will open in Sept 2025. Currently, five IIMs are running integrated five-year programmes. IIM Sambalpur in Odisha has a four-year UG programme.“The plan to start a UG programme was mooted a decade ago. Even though it was pitched to the Union govt in 2017, only multidisciplinary institutions were given permission,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, director of IIMB. “But now we feel it is the right time to get into the undergraduate space. There is a shortage of high-quality UG programmes outside engineering, medicine, architecture, etc. With our historic experience of running high-quality academic programmes, we felt it was transferable to the undergrad context. Of course, undergrad students are a little different; we need to understand them better.”“This set of programmes will be a combination of two things: We want to give them a good foundation in a basic discipline, while also giving them a flavour of business and management. The main difference here will be that this is a degree offered by a management school. So we’d certainly be looking much more at application — look at business areas where all of these ideas could be effectively applied. We’ll also impart a good range of business-related skills which will make people more employable,” he explained.The programme will come under the umbrella of a school of multidisciplinary studies.