Himanshu Meena has his priorities sorted. The IIM-B student wants to change India's politics and will intern with the Congress party next summer.

Off the beaten path', 'breaking new ground' - the cliches are endless, but what happens when an IIM student shuns the lure of investment banking firms and FMCG companies and decides to work with a political party? 'Killing a career before it started', 'professional suicide' most would exclaim. Himanshu Meena takes the brickbats in his stride.

The IIM Bangalore student will spend the summer of 2011 with India's oldest political party - the Congress.

For all post-graduate programmes in all the IIMs an internship is compulsory. Corporate giants line up at campuses in November for 'summer placements', which take place in April-May. Himanshu decided he would skip the placements. Because he plans to set up a consultancy firm which will devise campaign strategies for political parties in the run up to elections.

"I followed the last US Presidential elections and noticed how immensely organised the whole process was," says Himanshu. "In India, there is no organisation, no record of what funds go where, whether they are actually used at all. So I want to bring in a process that makes everything clear."