"The major impediment in the growth of the institute has been the availability of quality faculty. Getting well-qualified teachers is a challenge we are facing today," said Barua in his first media interaction after taking charge as the director on November 8.

Barua who joined IIM-A as a faculty in 1980, said "not enough qualified people are available, who could take up teaching".  He said IIM-A had a faculty strength of 85, and needed about 15 more faculty in various disciplines to 'feel reasonably comfortable'.

According to him the number of PhDs in the field of management education were few, as most institutes like IIM-A which offered doctoral programmes had a very small annual intake of students.

"The second impediment would be infrastructure," he said adding IIM-A needed to ensure that adequate infrastructure was in place to accommodate future growth of the institute.

"To build this infrastructure one needs funding," he said while highlighting it as the third hurdle for the institute. "We need to work towards being financially self-sufficient," the director said adding institute largely sourced its funds from its consulting and advisory services, contributions from the IIM-A alumni, expansion of the membership of the IIM- A society.

Talking about financial autonomy, Barua said, "We are in existence since the past 46 years, and we have to be financial independent. We like to be in a state where we don't have to ask for funds (from the government)."

The IIM-A director was also trying to attract more faculty from foreign countries. "Given that India has come into prominence and become an attractive destination as an economy and a nation in the last few years, I think it is easier to attract faculty now than about five to ten years ago," he said.

"Right now we have tie-up with 50 different foreign B-schools in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America," he said adding the institute will look to deepen these partnerships and increase their associations with more B-schools.

He said IIM-A will also be requiring quality non-teaching staff as many officers were on the verge of retirement. "This is also an area of concern as we want people to man the non-academic positions," Barua added.