The President of India, Droupadi Murmu on Thursday inaugurated the North Eastern regional campus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC)  through virtual mode while gracing the 17th Convocation of Mizoram University at Aizawl.

The President speaking on the inauguration ceremony said, "inauguration of the permanent campus of IIMC Aizawl would be a boost to the media and mass communication studies in the entire North-East."

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a press release said, “The construction work for the campus began in 2015 and was completed in 2019. The total cost is Rs. 25 crores. The IIMC (Indian Institute of Mass Communication) permanent campus on the 8 acres of land given by Mizoram University has separate Administrative and Academic buildings along with hostels and staff quarters."

The campus is offering PG Diploma course in English Journalism and it also enables its students to secure employments in reputed media organisations like Doordarshan across the country through campus placements and through their own efforts.

According to the official release, the course is taken up mostly by students from other parts of India and some from the North East states.

"From the 2022-23 session, the North East Campus has been chosen to start PG Diploma Course in Digital Media along with two other Campuses of IIMC. This course is started keeping in view the importance and significance of digital media in the present situation, the Ministry further added.

The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is is an autonomous Institution under the Ministry of I&B and is a premiere Journalism Institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It was inaugurated back in 1965 to cater the training needs of media professionals in the country and other developing countries. It has ever since function as a training institute for Indian Information Service and later on started courses for aspiring journalists through competitive entrance examination.

Since its inception, the IIMC has expanded and has currently institutionalized 5 regional campuses in different part of the country. The five regional campuses are Dhenkanal (Odisha), Aizawl (Mizoram), Amaravati (Maharashtra), Jammu (J&K), Kottayam (Kerala).

The President also virtually inaugurated various education related projects which includes ST Girls hostels at Mizoram University and at Sairang, Government Aizawl College at Maulpui.

The President is on a maiden visit to three states, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim of Northeast India from November 2 to 5, 2022.