Classes for the undergraduate B.Sc. (Hons) programmes in Data Sciences and Economics began on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore’s Dorabji Tata School of Undergraduate Studies. About 80 students from 20 Indian states enrolled in the inaugural cohort.
Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairperson of IIM‑B’s Board of Governors and Chairman and Founder of Narayana Health, described the launch as a momentous step for India’s education system. He linked the new school to the Tata legacy that includes the Indian Institute of Science and the Tata Memorial Centre, and noted that roughly 25 percent of the first cohort received full or partial scholarships.
Shetty said the school aims to nurture bilingual minds capable of moving fluidly between business, public policy, economics, and science. Siddharth Sharma, CEO of Tata Trusts, outlined a long‑term vision: the initial 80 students could expand to about 2,400 by 2034, supported by 150 faculty members. He emphasized that scaling the institution is a means to address India’s shortage of high‑quality higher‑education options, not an end in itself.
The inaugural batch comprises 56 male and 24 female students. Academic backgrounds include 39 students from commerce streams, 39 from science, and two from arts and humanities. Most students—51—came from CBSE schools, followed by 23 from state boards, four from the International Baccalaureate, and one each from NIOS and ICSE.
