The Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore expects to launch its one-year Executive Master of Business Administration programme from the academic year starting July 2006, IIM-B sources said.

The institute will most likely use the Common Admission Test to select candidates for this full-time residential programme.

In addition to its own experience, IIM-B will draw heavily on what three reputed international MBA schools do with their executive education courses, the sources said.

"We have existing tie-ups with Lancaster in the UK, McGill in Canada [Images] and Insead, France [Images], through an international management programme for experienced managers."

IIM-B will learn from the executive MBA programmes of these schools, as "the quality of the course will be paramount. This is the key reason we are going slow on this," they said.

IIM-B, along with its sister institutes in Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode, runs a popular two-year post-graduate programme in management. The PGP tends to draw fresh graduates and those with about a year's work experience.

MBA degrees became popular, starting some 50 years ago, as post-war industrial development took off in the US, the UK and Europe.

In the US and the UK, MBAs were initially attached to universities; therefore, they had more academic flavour and less relevance to the corporate world. In Europe, some of the best schools, such as the IMD and Insead, were started by large companies.

Some of these universities realised the need for relevance and the better schools took steps to improve their courses. In fact, the best MBA schools continue to be in the West. They have also moved quickly to introduce the one-year programmes, especially in Europe. Some insist on full-time experience of upto five years from those interested in doing these courses.

In the last two years, the Indian scenario has changed as well -- corporates have become more interested in giving formal management training to talented executives. But such employees have often found the 'opportunity cost' (earnings lost) of the conventional two-year programme unattractive.

One B-school that started off with a one-year course that found many takers is the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

The IIMs too have begun to put together good one-year courses in general management. "The idea is to give experienced executives the latest in modern management techniques," an IIM-B official said.

On July 17, IIM-B also saw the first batch of its 26-week distance course graduate. Over a hundred graduates from firms such as the Tata Group, Infosys [Get Quote], L&T Group and General Electric got a certificate in executive general management.

IIM-B is among the several B-schools in the country that have introduced these courses.