The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the setting up of an Indian Institute of Management in Jammu, as part of the development package Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced for the state in November 2015. From 2016 to 2020, the institute will operate from the Old Government College of Engineering and Technology. It will cost around Rs 61.90 crore to function from the "transit/temporary campus".

In the first academic year at the temporary campus, 54 seats will be offered for the post-graduate diploma programme in management. The figure will be raised to 120 by the fourth year. The institute will be run by the newly-approved IIM Jammu Society, with a board of governors that will be formed by the Centre. The Jammu campus will be the 20th IIM establishment in the country.

In a statement, the central government said that a permanent campus in Jammu and an out-campus in the Kashmir region will be constructed soon, and that they were preparing a Detailed Project Report on the campuses. The Union government had earlier announced that it will set up an Indian Institute of Technology at Jammu, in addition to modernising the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar and opening two new All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the Kashmir and Jammu regions.

The Rs 80,000-crore development package that Modi had announced includes funding for educational infrastructure for school students, employment facilities for local youth, as well as health facilities and initiatives to promote tourism in the state, according to The Indian Express. This was the prime minister's way to highlight his government's commitment to restoring peace in the Valley.

Kashmir has been tense since July 8, when Indian security forces killed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. More than 90 people have died in the unrest so far, and relations between India and Pakistan have deteriorated. The violence has been made worse by the attack on the Indian Army installation in Kashmir's Uri sector on September 18, in which four militants from across the border left 19 Indian soldiers dead.