Shillong: After over a year of discussions, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has finally notified that the new Indian Institute of Management (IIM) campus in Shillong will be operational by 2008.

The announcement by the Ministry means that IIM - Shillong will admit students for its 2008-09 batch.

IIM aspirants all over the country have welcomed the decision with great enthusiasm. Candidates appearing for the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year will also be short-listed for IIM-Shillong.

Candidates who have applied through the CAT form which was released on July 15th are in a fix as the form does not mention the seventh IIM at Shillong.

The new institution will initially function under one of the established IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode.

Assam and Meghalaya or more precisely Guwahati and Shillong were the main contenders in the race for the new IIM.

Impressive presentations were given by both Guwahati and Shillong to rope in the seventh IIM.

HRD Minister Mr. Arjun Singh finally zeroed in on Shillong for the seventh IIM owing to its rapid development in the education sector. The existence of a premier institution in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) also worked against Guwahati.

Other contenders including Nagaland and Mizoram were not short-listed for the IIM because of their geographical locations.