The Development Management Institute (DMI) is a business school located in Patna, the capital of the Indian state of Bihar. The institute focuses on management education oriented towards the development sector, including rural development, livelihoods, cooperatives, microfinance, and social enterprise. It is among a small set of Indian institutions that explicitly position management training around developmental and public-purpose contexts rather than purely corporate management.
| Name | Development Management Institute |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | DMI |
| Type | Business school / management institute |
| Focus area | Development management |
| Location | Patna, Bihar, India |
| Country | India |
Development management as a discipline brings together tools from general management—such as strategy, finance, marketing, operations, and human resources—and applies them to organisations whose primary objective is social or developmental impact. These include non-governmental organisations, producer collectives, cooperative societies, public sector development agencies, and mission-mode government programmes. DMI was set up in Patna to build a dedicated talent pipeline for such organisations, particularly in eastern India where the demand for trained development professionals has historically been high.
The institute's curriculum is designed around the practice of managing development interventions. Typical areas of teaching and engagement at institutions of this kind include:
Field immersion and engagement with grassroots organisations are generally integral to such programmes, alongside classroom instruction in management fundamentals.
Being based in Patna places DMI within one of India's most populous and developmentally significant regions. Bihar and the wider eastern Indian belt host extensive rural development programmes, self-help group networks, and agrarian economies, providing a natural laboratory for development management education. The presence of a specialised institute in the state contributes to local capacity building in policy implementation, livelihoods, and the social sector.