Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore will open a campus in Indonesia. The announcement makes IIM Bangalore the second Indian IIM to expand overseas, following IIM Ahmedabad, which already runs a campus in Dubai.
The announcement was made during a joint press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, held as part of a broader state visit focused on strengthening ties between the two countries.
Speaking alongside President Subianto, Modi said India would set up a campus of IIM Bangalore, calling it one of the country’s leading management institutes. He noted that the new campus would not just serve Indonesia but could benefit young people across the wider ASEAN region, which includes several Southeast Asian nations.
Modi also spoke about the shared potential of both countries when it comes to technology and innovation. He pointed out that the current era is shaped heavily by technology, and said both India and Indonesia have large young populations with a natural inclination toward tech skills. According to him, this shared strength could help both nations grow together in the years ahead.
The IIM Bangalore campus announcement did not come alone. It was part of a wider set of agreements signed between India and Indonesia during the visit. These agreements cover several sectors, including artificial intelligence, telecommunications, digital public infrastructure, startup collaboration, and space research.
The inclusion of startup collaboration as one of the key areas signals that both countries may look to support entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems jointly in the coming years, alongside the education and technology partnerships already announced.
Beyond education and technology, India and Indonesia also agreed to strengthen their cooperation in space research. Both sides spoke about deepening joint research, sharing technology, and building capacity in this sector. The two countries pointed out that this cooperation builds on a partnership that has already existed for several decades, suggesting the new agreements are meant to expand and modernize existing ties rather than start from scratch.
The decision to open an IIM Bangalore campus in Indonesia also reflects India’s growing effort to expand its higher education presence on the global stage. IIM Bangalore currently holds the second position in the NIRF 2025 rankings, one of India’s key rankings for educational institutions, which adds weight to the decision to take its academic offerings beyond Indian borders.
With this move, IIM Bangalore joins a small but growing list of Indian educational institutions establishing a footprint overseas, aiming to make quality management education more accessible to students outside India, particularly across Southeast Asia.
The announcement of an IIM Bangalore campus in Indonesia marks a significant step in India’s education and diplomatic outreach in Southeast Asia. Combined with new agreements on technology, startups, and space research, the visit signals a broader push by both India and Indonesia to deepen cooperation across multiple sectors in the years ahead.
