Delhi NCR

Meeting people at IIFT Delhi

IIFT Delhi is the Commerce Ministry's business school, set up in 1963, running its flagship MBA in International Business from a compact 6.5-acre campus in the Qutab Institutional Area of South Delhi. With a small residential campus and a packed schedule, your batch and your clubs become your whole world for two years.

The story of IIFT Delhi

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade was set up on 2 May 1963 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, at a time when India badly needed people who understood exports and international markets. For its early decades it trained professionals for trade promotion and advised the government on trade policy.

In 2002 IIFT became a deemed university, which let it award its own degrees, and the MBA in International Business grew into its flagship. Its Centre for WTO Studies provides research support to the Department of Commerce on World Trade Organization issues, a rare think tank embedded inside a business school.

IIFT has since expanded to Kolkata, Kakinada and GIFT City, and in May 2025 it received approval for its first offshore campus in Dubai. From the 2024-25 admissions cycle, it dropped its own entrance test and began admitting MBA students through CAT.

What the campus is like socially

Life at IIFT Delhi is compact and busy. Two academic blocks and two residential blocks sit on a small campus near the Qutub Minar, so classmates are also hostel neighbours, and days often stretch from morning lectures to evening club meetings and case prep. The international business focus shows up everywhere, from trade-themed clubs to guest speakers from export houses and government.

When students need a break, South Delhi is right outside: Mehrauli, Saket's malls and cafes, and the Qutub complex are all close by. Fest season and club competitions are the main social peaks, and class participation keeps debates lively long after lectures end.

Traditions every IIFTian knows

• Quo Vadis: IIFT Delhi's annual management and cultural fest, Latin for where are you going. Its bigger editions drew 60+ B-schools and 80+ Delhi undergraduate colleges, with acts like Vishal-Shekhar and Indian Ocean.
• BLASH International Trade Conclave: The trade club's conference, with editions held as far afield as Singapore and Dubai.
• Commodity Analysis Challenge: A BLASH competition where students analyse commodity markets like traders.
• Club induction season: First-years compete for spots in the finance, marketing, trade and consulting clubs within weeks of arriving.

Campus lore and insider spots

• Buy Low And Sell High: The trade club BLASH is literally named after the oldest rule in trading, and it calls itself one of the oldest student-driven clubs on campus.
• The last own-exam batches: Students admitted before 2024 cracked IIFT's own entrance test, and they like to remind CAT-era batches of it.
• A think tank next door: The Centre for WTO Studies sits inside the institute, so trade policy is never far from the classroom.

How to find your people here

At IIFT Delhi, joining a club or a case-comp team early is the fastest way to build a circle, since the program is intense and most friendships form around shared deadlines.

Fests and societies at IIFT Delhi

Signature fests

• Quo Vadis

Notable societies

• Melange (Cultural Committee)
• Capital - The Finance and Investments Club (CFIC)

Societies worth knowing at IIFT Delhi

• BLASH: The International Trade Club, which publishes TradeWinds magazine, runs workshops and live projects, and organises its trade conclave.
• Capital: The Finance and Investments Club, for students heading into banking, markets and investing.
• Placement and sports committees: Student-run bodies that handle corporate relations, placements and inter-college sport, and are a big time commitment.
• Melange: The cultural committee that drives fests and campus events.

Careers, internships and placements

IIFT's MBA (International Business) places students across consulting, finance, sales and marketing, and trade and operations roles, while its MBA in Business Analytics leans towards analytics and tech. The international business focus gives graduates an edge in export, logistics, trade finance and global strategy roles.

Admission is through CAT followed by IIFT's own rounds, which can include writing, group discussion, extempore and a personal interview. Clubs, live projects and case competitions are the main way students build their profiles for placements.

Notable alumni

• Rashesh Shah: Founder and chairman of the Edelweiss financial services group.
• Vineet Joshi: IAS officer who has served as Chairman of the UGC.
• Ruchita Misra: Author of popular novels including The (In)Eligible Bachelors.

Rivalries and eternal debates

IIFT versus the IIMs is the evergreen CAT-forum debate: a specialised international business MBA against the broader IIM brand. Within Delhi NCR, IIFT is constantly compared with FMS Delhi and MDI Gurgaon on fees, placements and return on investment, and the Delhi and Kolkata campuses have their own friendly debate about which one is the real IIFT.

What IIFT Delhi is talking about now

IIFT is in expansion mode, with campuses at Kolkata, Kakinada and GIFT City and a Dubai campus approved in 2025, and the CAT-only admission era has broadened its applicant pool.

Meeting people at IIFT Delhi by interest

A lot of friendships here form around a shared interest rather than a class or a hostel wing. If you are into finance and investing, startups and builders, debating and mun, running, and reading and book clubs, those pages cover where that scene actually happens in India and how to find people near you who are into the same thing.

Colleges nearby

IIFT Delhi sits close to ISI Delhi, NIFT Delhi, and AIIMS New Delhi, all part of the same Delhi NCR student scene. Cross-college friendships often start at inter-college fests, hackathons, or shared-interest communities rather than in class.

Similar campuses across India

If you are looking beyond your own campus, students at Indian School of Business, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, JBIMS, and MDI Gurgaon share a similar campus culture, and Zyber works the same way at each: showing you verified people nearby who match on interest, intent, or timing.

Zyber on campus

Zyber is built for meeting people nearby in real time, with verified profiles only. At IIFT Delhi, that means showing you people near you who share your interests or your drive, whether or not you overlap on a class or a society.

New to IIFT Delhi? Start here

If you are just starting out, these freshers guides are written for exactly this moment: first week of college checklist, how to choose societies in college, making friends beyond your branch, and case competitions for freshers.

See meeting people in Delhi NCR, events in Delhi NCR, the freshers guide, the Meet People pillar, or read what Zyber is.