Reading the list
New IIMs vs old IIMs: what actually differs
The word “baby IIM” does a lot of quiet damage. It suggests the qualification gets weaker as you go down the list. It does not — but something else does change, and it is worth being precise about what.
What does not differ
The award. Every institute below is named in the same Act of Parliament and awards the MBA under the same statutory authority. The certificate does not carry a generation. Nothing in the law grades the degree by the age of the campus.
The entrance. All of them shortlist the flagship two-year programme on CAT, through the same common process, in the same season.
The status. Each one is an Institution of National Importance. There is no junior tier in the Act.
What does differ, and it is not small
Alumni base. An institute founded in 2015 has, by simple arithmetic, around a decade of graduates. One founded in 1961 has six. That is the single largest real difference and no amount of statutory equality closes it.
Placement history. Recruiters build habits around campuses they have hired from before. A newer campus is still assembling that record; an older one has had decades of it compounding.
Faculty depth and research output. Both accumulate slowly and both show up in rankings long before they show up in a prospectus.
None of those three is a property of the degree. They are properties of the institution behind it — which is exactly the thing you should be comparing anyway, at an IIM or anywhere else.
The bands overlap
Generation predicts the broad band and then stops predicting. On the India Rankings 2025 Management table, the first generation occupies ranks #1 to #8. The second runs #6 to #38 — and its best-placed institute sits above two first-generation ones. The third runs #25 to #64, a wider spread than either generation above it.
| Generation | How many | Rank range | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 6 | #1 – #8 | Tight band, all near the top |
| Second | 8 | #6 – #38 | Overlaps the first at the top edge |
| Third | 7 | #25 – #64 | Widest spread — judge these one by one |
Which is the practical takeaway: “new IIM” is too coarse a category to decide anything with. Compare the institute, not the generation.
The full list, by generation
Founding years and ranks are read off this site’s own institute records rather than asserted here, so the table cannot drift out of date independently of the directory.
| Institute | Established | NIRF 2025 | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| First generation · the six usually meant by “the old IIMs” | |||
| IIM Ahmedabad | 1961 | #1 | Ahmedabad, Gujarat |
| IIM Calcutta | 1961 | #7 | Kolkata, West Bengal |
| IIM Bangalore | 1973 | #2 | Bengaluru, Karnataka |
| IIM Lucknow | 1984 | #5 | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh |
| IIM Kozhikode | 1996 | #3 | Kozhikode, Kerala |
| IIM Indore | 1996 | #8 | Indore, Madhya Pradesh |
| Second generation · the 2000s expansion, plus IIM Mumbai | |||
| IIM Mumbai | 1963 | #6 | Mumbai, Maharashtra |
| IIM Shillong | 2007 | #38 | Shillong, Meghalaya |
| IIM Rohtak | 2009 | #19 | Rohtak, Haryana |
| IIM Ranchi | 2009 | #18 | Ranchi, Jharkhand |
| IIM Raipur | 2010 | #15 | Raipur, Chhattisgarh |
| IIM Tiruchirappalli | 2011 | #16 | Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu |
| IIM Kashipur | 2011 | #23 | Kashipur, Uttarakhand |
| IIM Udaipur | 2011 | #21 | Udaipur, Rajasthan |
| Third generation · the 2015–16 cohort, the “baby IIMs” | |||
| IIM Nagpur | 2015 | #25 | Nagpur, Maharashtra |
| IIM Visakhapatnam | 2015 | #29 | Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh |
| IIM Amritsar | 2015 | #64 | Amritsar, Punjab |
| IIM Bodh Gaya | 2015 | #31 | Bodh Gaya, Bihar |
| IIM Sambalpur | 2015 | #34 | Sambalpur, Odisha |
| IIM Sirmaur | 2015 | #51 | Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh |
| IIM Jammu | 2016 | #35 | Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir |
One row needs an asterisk in your head: IIM Mumbai dates from 1963 but spent most of that life as NITIE, and joined the IIM system through the 2023 amendment to the Act. Founding year and IIM status are different birthdays there.
So how should you actually choose?
Ask the three questions the generation label is standing in for, and ask them about the specific campus. How many graduates are already out there and where did they go? Which recruiters came last year, not five years ago? Who teaches the subject you care about?
If those answers are good, the founding year stops mattering. If they are thin, an old name would not have fixed them either — and the same three questions are the ones worth asking of any business school, IIM or not.
Frequently asked
Is a degree from a new IIM the same as one from an old IIM?
Legally, yes. Every institute named in the IIM Act awards the MBA under the same statutory authority, and the certificate does not say which generation the institute belongs to. What differs is not the award — it is the alumni base behind it and the placement history recruiters have seen.
What is a “baby IIM”?
Informal shorthand for the seven institutes set up in 2015 and 2016 — Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Amritsar, Bodh Gaya, Sambalpur, Sirmaur and Jammu. It is not an official category and it appears nowhere in the Act. It describes age, not status.
Do newer IIMs rank lower?
As a band, yes — but the bands overlap, and generation does not predict an individual institute's position. In the India Rankings 2025 Management table the best-placed second-generation institute sits above two first-generation ones, and the spread inside the newest cohort is wider than in either generation above it.
Which are the six oldest IIMs?
Ahmedabad and Calcutta (1961), Bangalore (1973), Lucknow (1984), and Kozhikode and Indore (1996). These are the ones usually meant by “the old IIMs” or the IIM-ABC grouping.
Why is IIM Mumbai listed as a newer IIM if it dates from 1963?
Because the campus and the IIM status have different birthdays. It ran as NITIE from 1963 and became IIM Mumbai through the 2023 amendment to the IIM Act. The founding year is real; the IIM name is recent.
Should I take a new IIM over a better non-IIM business school?
That is a genuine trade and the three letters do not settle it. A newly founded campus has the statutory standing but not yet the alumni base or the recruiter habit, and an established non-IIM school may have both. Compare the two institutions on placements, faculty and alumni reach rather than on the name.