In 1997 Professor N. C. Nigam, Vice Chancellor of University of Roorkee (converted to IIT Roorkee in 2001) was of the view that the globalization of the economy and the liberalization measures introduced in India in early 90s, accelerated the process of increased demand for professional managers to meet the rapid growth of industry, services and business during the last few decades. He was also of the view that the gap between demand and supply, especially of quality managers is widening. Therefore, under his leadership it was decided to give a serious thought to start an MBA programme in the University.

Professor M. P. Jain, (Professor in Charge, Industrial Liaison, Placement and Training at the University, in addition to his existing responsibilities) was entrusted with the responsibility to act as Coordinator of the newly conceived MBA programme, and to explore and initiate the process. Prof. Jain organized two workshops in Delhi in 1997 inviting distinguished and well placed alumni of Roorkee University and other experts from industry, government and academia, to seek their opinion with regard to whether an MBA programme should be started in UOR and what could be the broad contours of the programme including eligibility requirements of the students for admission. One major issue was whether MBA programme should be offered by existing Department of Humanities and Social Sciences or it should be an independent department. The overwhelming response of the participants was that we should start an MBA programme suiting the reputation of the University of Roorkee by an independent Department. Alumni promised support in every possible way. Shri S. K. Sinha, a product of Roorkee University, former Managing Director of Balmer Lawrie & Company Limited was the biggest support. Thus the Department of Management Studies (DoMS) became a reality. The proposed admission process, curriculum and syllabi were exhaustively discussed.

The process of recruitment of faculty, location of premises within the UOR campus, application to AICTE for approval and the admission process was initiated with fullest vigor. Dr. N.C.Nigam gave his full support, cooperation and guidance in this endeavor. Notably another alumnus of the University, Mr. Harish Midha from Toronto, Canada gave his support and guidance from day one and was present at the inauguration ceremony and also taught a course to begin with.

Roorkee University Management Admission Test, RUMAT 98 was set up under the Chairmanship of Professor V. K. Goel with Professor Harsha Sinvhal, Professor H. O. Gupta and A. D. Pandey as other members. Issue of application forms started on March 2, 1998. Written test was conducted in 31 cities at 32 centres on May 6, 1998. Group discussions and interviews were conducted on June 16 and 17, 1998. Result was declared on June 18 and registration was completed on July 24, 1998. First round of interviews for faculty selection was conducted in March 1998 and in June 1998 Prof. Vinay K. Nangia and Ms. Shiri Ahuja joined the Department of Management Studies as Professor and ‘Lecturer on Contract’, respectively. AICTE team under the leadership of Professor Bhagwati Prasad visited the newly set up department for approval during June end 1998.

Next daunting task accomplished was identification of faculty from within the University and Visiting Faculty, mostly from IIT Delhi and Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University to teach in the very first semester and setting up of computer laboratory and library. The department was inaugurated by Shri Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, Eicher Group and President CII, an outstanding management professional and alumnus of Roorkee University, on July 27, 1998 and the classes started.

In the first batch (1998-2000), 57 students were inducted including 7 international students. In the admission process 85% weightage was given to Written Test and only 15% weightage was given to Group Discussion, Interviews and Work Experience. The fees chargeable from the Indian students was Rs. 25,000/- per semester. One of the Unique Selling Proposition was to offer Dual Specialization in the programme in addition to offering number of Open Electives. Another unique feature was 24 hours open State-of-the-Art Computer Laboratory in addition to offering Information Technology as one of the specializations.

In a batch of 57 students 25 were Engineers, remaining came from varied backgrounds like Science, Management, Commerce, Art and Pharmacy. Students joined with background qualification like Hotel Management, B. Sc. Agriculture and B. Sc. Home Science. 11 students were more than 25 years old, 10 were in the age group of 24-25 years and the largest number 16 came from the age group of 22-23 years. 35 students had no work experience whereas 6 students had more than 3 years of experience.26 students opted for Marketing and IT as their areas of specialization, 15 took Marketing and Finance, 13 chose Finance and IT and only 3 opted for the combination of Marketing and Operations.

First batch students had a Quiz Committee and a News and Views group. They started @doms.edu as in-house magazine. They brought home seven prizes from Manfest’99 (IIML Annual Festival) and five trophies in Passion ’99 (IMT Ghaziabad Annual Festival). They went for Summer Internship in companies like ABB, Bechtel, Balmer Lawrie & Co., Bausch & Lomb, Carrier Aircon, Dabur, Eicher Goodearth, Hindustan Levers, IBM Global, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Modi Rubber, RITES, Samtel, SAIL, TCIL and TCS etc.