Centre for Management Development

Work out which part of CMD you need

CMD does different things for different audiences, so start by matching your need to the right offering.

• If you are an innovator preparing a submission for the Ministry of MSME's national hackathon, the relevant offering is CMD's Pre-Hackathon Mentoring, which it provides as a Host Institute under the MSME Innovative Scheme.
• If you are a working professional, a government or public-sector officer, or a senior executive, the short training courses on project financing and on corporate finance are the fit.

How applications work

There is no single intake. The Pre-Hackathon Mentoring and the training courses each have their own registration, and intake windows open and close by programme, so check the current status before you plan around a date. Role inboxes handle questions for each offering, and CMD's general organisation email is mail@cmd.kerala.gov.in.

What to keep in mind

• CMD is a government consulting and training body, not a startup incubator. It does not run founder residencies, take equity, or offer incubation space.
• The MSME Idea Hackathon and any funding attached to it belong to the Ministry of MSME, not to CMD. CMD's part is the mentoring it gives as a Host Institute.
• The training courses are paid professional programmes rather than startup support, so weigh them against what you actually need.

The Centre for Management Development (CMD) is a management consulting and training institution of the Government of Kerala, based in Thiruvananthapuram. It was established in 1979 as a research-driven consulting and training body, is registered as a professional society under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Society Registration Act, 1955, and is attached to the Industries Department, Government of Kerala.

What they do

CMD works as a consultancy and training organisation rather than as a startup incubator. Its work spans consulting, project management, human resource management, monitoring and evaluation, and training, education and research, and it runs trainings on public-private partnerships and governance. Its programmes are aimed mainly at government departments, public-sector undertakings and working professionals, not at early-stage founders.

Support for innovators

CMD is a Host Institute under the MSME Innovative Scheme of the Ministry of MSME, Government of India. In that role it offers Pre-Hackathon Mentoring to help innovators prepare stronger submissions for the national MSME Idea Hackathon. The hackathon itself is run by the Ministry of MSME; CMD's own offering is the mentoring and guidance it provides as a Host Institute. The mentoring is open to students, startups, MSMEs, research scholars, companies and individual innovators across India who have an idea in the scheme's focus areas, which include renewable energy, energy efficiency, automotive technology, Industry 4.0 and 5.0, robotics and automation, and other frontier technologies.

Training programmes

Alongside the mentoring, CMD runs short professional training courses. Two current examples are a two-day programme on project development and financing, which covers market and technical analysis, project report structuring, financing instruments and public-private partnerships, working capital and risk mitigation, and a two-day programme on corporate finance for enterprise governance, which covers financial statement analysis, working capital, costing and capital budgeting, sources of finance, financial restructuring and investment decisions. The first is aimed at officials from government and public-sector undertakings and at private-sector professionals and project teams; the second is aimed at directors, board members, CFOs, CEOs, company secretaries and strategy managers. Both are held at the Silver Jubilee Hall at CMD in Thiruvananthapuram.

Who runs it

CMD is attached to the Industries Department of the Government of Kerala and operates from Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram. Over its history it reports having collaborated with management teams in a large number of organisations across the country.

How to apply

Entry depends on the activity. Innovators who want Pre-Hackathon Mentoring register through CMD, with queries going to the MSME team. The training programmes have their own registration on each programme's page, with a programme team inbox for questions. CMD's general organisation email is mail@cmd.kerala.gov.in.