The history of IIFT began as far back as 1963 when the Government of India established it as a Centre of Excellence in International Trade and Business. Starting as a think tank for the Government, IIFT moved on by the 1990s to become a business school. In a few years, IIFT established itself as one of the top business schools of India with a special focus on Trade and Finance. The alumni of IIFT are front ranking executives and business leaders and have made us proud with their achievements. IIFT offers 100 percent placement to its students, and the employers now come from top companies both in India and abroad. During 2015-16, the students of IIFT have bagged 38 national and international awards including “RBI Policy Challenge 2016” and “Axis Moves Award” for entrepreneurial development. IIFT offers its flagship full-time MBA programme, part-time programmes for working executives and training programmes for corporates, PSUs and Government officers. It also offers diversified Management Development Programmes tailor-made for working executives of industry apart from numerous certificate programmes of export promotion and foreign languages.

In 2002, IIFT was also conferred the status of a Deemed University and, in its assessment by NAAC in 2015, it was accredited with an A Grade. As a university, the institute has also signed MOUs with leading institutions of the world for mutual exchange of students and teachers in the area of International Trade and Business. IIFT also runs a full-fledged MBA programme in Kolkata in tandem with the Delhi Programme. The Kolkata division has, in a few years, made its mark as a leading business school in its own right.

As a university, the institute has three functions: teaching, research and training. While the flagship MBA programme is extremely well known both nationally and internationally, IIFT also has an expanding research programme with a Ph.d programme which now enrols business executives, teachers and professionals from all over the country. Hence, with a strong student, research and alumni base, the institute is well on its way to pushing the frontiers of knowledge while at the same time maintaining its role as a think tank for the Government through the Centre for Research on International Trade (CRIT) where studies on WTO, regional organisations and international law are regularly conducted.

In the future, IIFT aims to not only continue to be one of the top business schools but to compete with the best universities in the country.