IIM-A once again: Sunday ET B-School survey

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They are factories producing business leaders of the future. And are going to play a big role in making India, the talent capital of the world. B-schools have always been a hot subject for business publications in the country, but it’s their perceptual value that makes them ‘hot’ amongst the hiring fraternity.

As 2007 draws to a close, Sunday ET commissioned global research major Synovate to identify some of the big B-schools to watch out for in 2008, on the perceptual benchmarks laid down by India Inc. The survey of the top CEO and HR heads had a story to tell. While some IIMs, ISB and the likes of FMS were bunched together as the top choices by the industry, it was interesting to note second rungs making a prominent mark amongst the top 20 B-schools.

And threaten the popularity of some B-schools that have traditionally ruled the chart. Savour this. Symbiosis, Pune and IMI Delhi outscored the likes of XLRI and IIM Lucknow and others like K J Somaiya and S P Jain Institute finding a stronger favour over IIM Kozikode and MDI Gurgaon. This clearly points to the fact that second line of management education is readying itself and will keep big brothers on their toes. However, Big Bs still rule. The IIM-A bags the top slot followed by IIM-B among the top B-schools in the country. And which management institute has the best faculty and is constantly up-grading? It’s IIM-A once again!

XAT aspirants nearing 100,000

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In a couple of days, around 90,000 management aspirants, will be taking the Xaviers Admission Test (XAT).

This is a 20 per cent increase in the number of candidates taking XAT from last year, when the figure stood at 75,000.

The number of colleges accepting XAT scores has also doubled from 23 in 2004 to 46 this year.

“The Indian industry today has a capacity to absorb management graduates like never before. Moreover, even the top B-schools have increased their batch sizes to meet the growing demand,” KK Raman, executive director, KPMG said.

“A recent trend has emerged where good B-schools are accepting Common Admission Test as well as XAT scores. So deserving candidates who could not perform well in CAT for any reason, see XAT as an opportunity to get into a good business school (B-school,” he adds.

TAPMI sets record in placements of graduates

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AVERAGE SALARY OFFERED IS Rs 7.38 lakhs

Manipal: Almost all the students of T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal, were ‘placed’ within a few hours of commencement of the process of the Campus Placement for the batch of 2008, held on Thursday.

According to a press release, the TAPMI adopted a dual offer system with an end of the day acceptance in order to allow students to have their choice of signing up for the most preferred organisations.

While 74 companies confirmed their willingness to recruit, 61 companies participated on the campus placement process on Day One, that is, December 20.

They together made a total of 184 offers (including 3 Overseas) to 125 students.
Students exercised their choice and accepted offers in 50 companies representing diverse sectors such as Financial Services including Banking, Equity Research and Wealth Management, IT & ITES, Consulting, Telecommunication, FMCG, Manufacturing, Health Care, Entertainment and Infrastructure.

Total of 12 students had received pre-placement offers for their outstanding performance during their summer internship of which three accepted. The average salary offered this year is Rs 7.38 lakhs (which is to go up with revised salary structure from a few companies) and the highest salary offered is Rs 18 lakhs (Rs 9.25 in Placement 2007), the release added. Companies that visited TAPMI campus and recruited for the first time included Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, KPMG, SEBI, ICRA, Adventity, Bank of America, Standard Chartered Bank, CapGemini, D E Shaw, Big FM, GMR Group, Godrej & Boyce, JSW, Tata Capital, Reliance Capital, Pioneer Investment Corporation and Wockhardt Hospitals.

IIMs, XLRI, MDI, dominate Business World Top B-schools Survey rankings

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There are no real surprises in the recently published ‘India’s Top B-schools’ survey, conducted by a leading business magazine Business World (BW).

The BW survey, published in issue dated December 24 - 2007, puts Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad at the top of the league tables. Apart from IIM-A, there are three other IIMs that make it to the Top 10 table.

Widely regarded as leading private B-schools, Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Management Development Institute (MDI), Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) Delhi, Mumbai based SP Jain Institute of Management & Research all make it to the Top 10 table. National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai is perhaps the only real surprise in the Top 10 list. IIM Bangalore did not offer complete details and was hence not ranked, says the survey.
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad are some other B-schools that have done well on the survey.

Amongst the B-schools that have moved up rapidly on the survey rankings, when compared to last survey in 2005, include Bangalore based Alliance Business Academy and Chennai based Loyola Institute of Business Management. Alliance Business Academy is ranked at # 15 and Loyola Institute is ranked at # 20.

Business World Survey 2007: Top B-schools league table
# 1 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
# 2 Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata
# 3 Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur
# 4 Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
# 5 Management Development Institute, Gurgaon
# 6 Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi
# 7 Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
# 8 National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai
# 9 SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai
# 10 Indian Institute of Management, Indore
# 11 Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi
# 12 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
# 13 Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
# 14 Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubneshwar
# 15 Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore

Source: Business World, Dec 24, 2008

The Business World survey was done is conjunction with research agency Gfk- Mode. The survey contacted 202 B-schools of which ninety six B-schools participated by answering the questionnaire. Notably, the survey back checked all data with a ‘facility audit’. Says Business World survey, “BW has followed the facility audit methodology. All these B-schools were visited and 2000 students were interviewed to verify the information.” Taking about parameters used in the survey, BW says, “The scoring was done on five parameters, each with different weights.” The survey also included feedback from recruiters.

Parameters and their weightages for BW are: Living Experience (campus infrastructure) 150; Learning experience (qualification and experience of faculty) 300; Placement experience (placement performance and salaries) 250; Return on Investment (salaries received in comparison to the cost of the programme) 200; International exposure (tie-ups with foreign campuses and exchange programme) 100. Weightages were allocated from a total of 1000.
According to BW, some of B-schools that did not participate in the survey include Jamnalal Bajaj School of Management, Institute of Rural Management Anand and Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi.

This survey completes that 2007 B-school survey reports. As reported on this management portal earlier, several media rankings have been released in past few months. Prominent media rankings include Outlook, Business India and Business Today.

Institutes analyze JMET 2008 for IIT B-schools

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After the analysis of Common Admission Test (CAT) 2007 and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade Entrance Exam (IIFT) 2007, MBAUniverse.com Aspirant Zone looks at analysis of Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) 2008.

JMET 2008, the entrance exam for six IIT B-schools and IISc Bangalore’s Department of Management Studies was held on December 9, 2007. Lets know what Mumbai based IMS Learning, Hyderabad based Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME) and Pune based Career Forum have to say about the paper and their expected cut-offs.
The JMET 2008 paper was scheduled for 120 minutes and had a total of 150 questions. The paper was divided in 4 sections include Verbal Communication (VC); Logical Reasoning (LR); Quantitative Ability (QA) and Data Interpretation (DI).

According to experts, JMET 2008 was more difficult than last year. According to IMS Learning, “JMET is gradually increasing the calculation and reasoning element in Data Interpretation questions and making experiments with the Quantitative ability questions. The Logical Reasoning-Verbal Reasoning balance has changed drastically from last year. The focus on Reading Comprehension has gone down slightly, and that on Verbal Ability, especially grammar-based questions, has gone up a bit. Because the test was a bit more difficult than last year’s, overall cut-offs are expected to be lower”.

Section-wise analysis of JMET 2008:
Verbal Communication
According to TIME analysis, “the Verbal Communication section had questions (40) from Reading Comprehension, Grammar, Vocabulary, Analogies and Fill in the blanks. The section had a good mix of both easy and difficult questions. The RC passages were short and readable (as opposed to CAT) but like CAT, had two very close options in most cases, which made them a nightmare to negotiate. The vocabulary questions were not commonly used words which made them very difficult to answer. The Fill in the blanks and the questions based on semantics were doable and would have given opportunities to score”.

Logical Reasoning
The section had total 23 questions based on verbal reasoning (17) and on logical reasoning (16). According to IMS Learning, “In logical reasoning, the sets were time consuming. One should have given more preference to single questions while solving. In verbal reasoning, there were the usual constructs like critical reasoning and jumbled paragraphs. Several questions were similar to logical reasoning in that they required a passing knowledge of mathematical concepts”.
Quantitative Ability
There were total 40 questions in this section. The Career Forum analysis shows that “The difficulty level of this section is the same as that of last year. In Higher Maths, the questions were from Linear Programming and there were a couple of questions on matrices. All questions were in the form of caselets drawn from real life situations and were given specific titles. These could be solved using graphs and functions”.

Data Interpretation
According to TIME, “This section was very unlike the easy DI section of previous years JMET. Being different from what one was used to, the sets demanded intensive calculations which made this section moderately difficult”.

The expected overall cut-offs of IIT B-schools and all institutes IISC are:
Institute: TIME
IIT-Bombay: 50+
IIT-Delhi: 45+
IIT-Kharagpur: 40+
IIT-Kanpur: 40+
IIT-Chennai: 40+
IIT-Roorkee: 36+
IISC: 45+

Institute: Career Forum
IIT-Bombay: 61-63
IIT-Delhi: 56-61
IIT-Kharagpur: 53-54
IIT-Kanpur: 51-53
IIT-Chennai: 48-51
IIT-Roorkee: 46+
IISC: 54-56

IMS Learning is expecting overall cut-off of 50-55.

Just one girl in 10 students making it to IIMs: Survey

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New Delhi (PTI): Women MBA aspirants account for only 10 per cent of students joining the Indian Institutes of Management, as lower participation, coupled with relatively less business aptitude has limited their strength at these elite B-schools, a study says.

According to a study conducted by management education training institute Career Launcher, only one in three taking Common Admission Test, the gateway to IIMs, are women in Delhi, while the ratio for rest of India is even lower.

The female participation in CAT exams is itself lower, that added with their failure in group discussions lead to women filling in only 10 per cent of the total number of seats in the IIMs, Career Launcher’s Academics Director Arindam Lahiri said.

While most of them clear their written examinations, a less aptitude for business and management lead to their failure in group discussions, the study found.

The admission to IIMs are based on the scores in written CAT examinations, as well as group discussions and personal interviews.

“Girls are more emotionally inclined in answering questions compared to boys,” found the survey that involved around 12,500 students across 40 cities in the country.

“Girls tend to fare better in the English usage section as they are generally better read and tend to attempt more questions on Arithmetic in the Maths section, whereas boys tend to be a bit more mathematically sound overall and do well in the Algebra and Geometry sections of the paper as well,” Career Launcher faculty member Arjun Wadhwa said.

Number of CAT examinees jumped from 1,90,000 last year to 2,30,000 this year, with aspirants competing for about 5,000 seats available, the survey said.

Young managers going places

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The Faculty of Management Studies at Delhi University recently conducted summer placements for its students. With 70 leading companies participating, a whole lot of choices were available to the students.

The highlight was a 400 per cent increase in the number of international offers made by companies. While many new international companies participated in this year’s process, Indian heavyweights also made a host of international offers to studen ts for a variety of roles overseas.
As many as 20 international offers were made to the students pursuing the two full-time programmes: 91 in MBA, and 42 in MBA-MS (Management of Services).
The financial sector continues to lure students in large numbers and as much as 17 per cent of the batch opted for profiles with leading banks.

“The summer internship programme at FMS provides students with an ideal platform to explore the various verticals and domains. We help them make the right decision by offering them plenty of choices with respect to both companies and profiles. The summer placements at FMS this year have broken all past records. The number of international offers by multi-national companies and Indian ones has increased manifold,” said the convener of placements, Madhu Vij.

The FMS Dean stated that the summer internship was the “nursery for the future business leaders to bloom”.

“The type of assignments that FMS interns are being offered by the cream of the corporate world is quite astounding and reflects great faith in the capabilities of our students,” he added.
Vimal Thorat, a reader in the Hindi Department at Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi, has been appointed coordinator of the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development.

The broad objective of the Chair is to work towards dissemination of ideas and thoughts of Dr. Ambedkar in the areas of administration, Constitutional studies, human rights, religion and philosophy.

The Chair will also undertake research and development programmes in these areas and focus on developing appropriate methodologies to pave the way for Dr. Ambedkar’s ideas as policy instrument.

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, will be conducting a special workshop in December for middle and senior managers of corporate houses and government organisations on “Corporate social responsibility and sustainable business”.

This training will sensitise corporate managers to various issues of CSR and expose them to international developments in sustainable business management.

The workshop, to be held from December 18 to 20, will cover topics like Institutional Environment and Business, Concept of Sustainability: the new broad agenda, Dimensions of Sustainability, Business Ethics and Public private partnership.

The J K group of companies is the latest among corporate houses venturing into academics with the setting up of a Rs.45-crore B-school at Gurgaon.

The institution will initially take up MBA programmes and later expand to other areas like marketing, finance, information technology and international business.

It will also include short-term courses in diverse areas like logistics and supply chain, marketing of financial services, rural marketing, mall management, distribution and sales and brand management.

The wi-fi-enabled campus would also include a state-of-the-art library, computer centre, an auditorium and hostels for boys and girls.

Summer bounty for IIM-A students

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It’s not just the post graduate students (PGPs) who opt for summer placements in consultancy firms.

This year, 21 per cent of students at the Post Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management (PGP-ABM) at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) opted for consulting companies for the summers. The batch has preferred working with agri and food retail sectors in the past.

This year, consultancy major PricewaterhouseCoopers and knowledge banking and agri-consulting firm YES Bank came to IIM-A to offer consulting positions. A total of 17 companies participated in the summer placement process of ABM programme for a batch of 25 students.

Other new entrants this season were global agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus, Miebach Logistics, Glaxo Smith Kline, Aditya Birla Group for their retail venture, Britannia, Nandan Biomatrix and Claris Lifesciences.

Regular recruiters like RPG, Godrej, Marico, ITC, ICICI Bank and ICICI Prudential continued their association this year as well with the ABM students who undergo common academic module with the PGP programme for the first year of study.

Around 27 per cent of the students preferred retail companies, 21 per cent of the students opted for consulting, 21 per cent for supply chain, 13 per cent for finance while 4 per cent opted for market research.

“With RPG’s growth story and the retail expansion, we find very valuable talent for the future leadership positions from the students of IIM Ahmedabad Agri-Business Management,” said Arvind N Agrawal, president, Corporate Development and HR , RPG Group.

Lately, IIM-A agri-business managers have interested companies in the food retail sector. Projects offered to the students included positions in supply-chain management, retailing, agri and food consulting, finance, market research and strategy formulation. The students had, on an average, about 2 offers to choose from.

Piyush Kumar Sinha, chairperson, Placement Committee of IIM-A, said that a larger number of companies expressed their keenness to offer summer projects, and there was a hike in average stipend; but what delighted students was an opportunity to work on high profile live projects.

CATch the confusion

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Every year, Common Admission Test (CAT), for the IIMs and various other B-schools, manages to keep everyone wondering about the format of its question paper. Be it the total number of questions, marks allotted per question or varying difficulty levels of different sections, CAT has enough permutations to baffle aspirants. But it is not only the aspirants, even the four popular coaching institutes (IMS, PT, CL and TIME) are as puzzled. In a reality check done on November 19 to see what the answer keys of different coaching institutes had in store, presented huge variations in the answer keys.

These four institutes train more than half of the total number of CAT aspirants every year and therefore answer keys of these institutes were referred. This year’s CAT had 75 questions and when answer keys were compared it was found that answers for 19 questions differed. This accounts for more than 25% of the total number of questions. So a candidate calculating his or her CAT score will either have four sets of score cards, per coaching institute basis, or will simply not be able to get a final score. Of course there will be one answer key that will have minimum errors, or may be none, amongst the four in it but even then the other three will certainly have errors.

This is an area of concern and a pressing need to address this. Further analysis revealed that the language section had 14 such questions while Data Interpretation had four and Quant section had one such question (refer to the table). Pre-empting the pattern of the CAT paper has been the dream of every coaching institute and this is understandable considering the nature of the exam that emphasises on ‘on your toes’ thinking. But when it comes to solving a CAT paper and providing students with the right answer, isn’t it time that top brains of all these coaching institutes sit together to arrive at a consolidated answer key, after a thorough discussion and analysis. This will help lakhs of students strategising for their other examinations and will also put an end to this wide-spread confusion.

Unfolding of an educational revolution

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Slowly but certainly a quiet revolution is taking place. India has experienced, encountered and lived with several revolutions. Beginning with industrial revolution about a hundred years ago, which today is thriving, to the green revolution, to the white revolution, to IT revolution to India standing at the threshold of educational revolution. Education for achievement and performance, to education as a means for job and occupation to now education as a learning process for a holistic development and growth of an individual.

In small ways beginning with and few learning institutions the focus is on perspectives in addition to skill building, philosophical understanding in addition to analytical abilities, a process of learning in addition to memorizing and exams and most important to engage and relate to the whole person. Here the student learns to integrate thoughts (knowledge) behavior (including emotions and feelings) and actions. (Educational institution of such a nature focuses on the processes of growth, makes the learning interactive and participative, involves the various constituencies viz students, teachers, administration, staff and the external environment in a coherence, convergent and vibrant setting. This means there is time space and people who discover values to live by, who engage with each other, groups and systems with respect and dignity, who learn to make tough choices and not compromises and who work with self discipline as well as rigor of learning which creates excellence in innovators and entrepreneurs. Such a process has begun in India.

Such learning institutions are taking small steps towards creating new knowledge relevant for times, evolving new frameworks and theories, understanding the global context and insights into the strengths of the socio – cultural collective psyche which can be mobilized for a learning process where the individual student and the teacher discover the magic of the learning experience and translate into wisdom.

CAT Cutoffs: What various institutes predict

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Soon after CAT was out of the bag, India’s top-tier management entrance institutes like IMS Learnings, Career Launcher, TIME and Career Forum got busy in making predictions on what cutoffs are likely to get you a call from the IIMs.

Overall Cutoff
IMS Learning Center : 100+
Career Launcher : 102-107
TIME : 88-92
Career Forum : 123+
MBA Guru : 96
Professional Tutorials : 105-115

Read More…

IIM-B completes Summer Placements 08; over 110 students to go overseas

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It just took four days for Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) to place its batch of 249 students for summer internships in some of world’s leading companies.

What’s more, over hundred IIM-B students will go overseas for their summer internships.
Informs IIM-B, “The entire batch of 249 students was placed within a span of just 4 days with 132 students (more than 50% of the batch) being placed in Slot 0.” Slot 0 witnessed firms offering profiles in investment banking, management consulting, private equity and general management. Major recruiters on Slot 0 included investment banking giants like Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Consulting majors like Bain & Co, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co, AT Kearney, etc.

Across all slots, the sector-wise breakup for students is Investment Banking (19%), Private Equity (11%), Management Consulting (15%), Financial Services (16%), Marketing and General Management (28%), Systems (8%) and Asset Management (3%). A noticeable trend in the summer placements has been the number of students interning abroad with the number crossing 110 (101 last year) this year.

IIM-B says that a significant feature this year has been the entry of Private Equity players at IIMB. Blackstone Group, one of the world’s leading Private Equity firms recruited from IIMB for the first time. Other PE firms flocking to campus include ChrysCapital, Greater Pacific Capital, Goldman Sachs PE, IDG Ventures, Temasek Holdings, etc. In addition to these, Asset Management & portfolio management firms like Franklin Templeton, Lotus AMC, HSBC Securities & Roulac visited IIMB to tap the potential of the Indian market.

Consulting majors like Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, CapGemini continued to visit IIMB. Arthur D Little visited IIMB for the summers for the first time. Strategic Management roles were offered by TAS, Lodha Group, Aditya Birla Group, Shell, IBM, etc.

Happy with summer placement results, IIM-B says, “The fantastic placements are a reflection of the diversity of students on campus. The institute boasts of students with prior experience in Investment Banks at foreign locations and leading consults like Bain & Co, Inductis, etc. Several students with prior entrepreneurial experience have chosen IIMB for honing their managerial skills. The recruiters were highly impressed with the entire placement process.”
Mr. Sharad, Managing Director of JP Morgan New York, commended the placement committee on the management of the entire process.

Stay-cool tips for all CATs

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The rigour is over, now relax till you get the test paper on Sunday morning.

In the countdown to Sunday’s common admission test (CAT) — the entrance test for the six Indian institutes of management (IIMs) and a host of other B-schools — the training institutes have issued a chill pill advisory to students.

“We are asking our students to take it easy before the exam,” said Kaushik Kapoor of Erudite, a training institute specialising in B-school entrance tests.

As de-stressing is a must in the last hours ahead of the two-and-a-half hour examination, Erudite is screening films — primarily comic films — in its classrooms.

With complaints of sleepless nights and nervousness pouring in at various training institutes, the faculty members are dishing out de-stress suggestions to students.

At the Triumphant Institute of Management Education (Time), students have been specifically asked not to spend excessive time with books.

“A movie or a game of cricket are great de-stressing tools at this time,” Jaydeep Singh Chowdhury of Time.

Vijay Mishra, a B. Com graduate — set to take his first CAT on Saturday — is following the instructions of his faculty members.

“I did my revisions today. Tomorrow, I intend going out and watching movies,” said Mishra, all set for the toughest test of his life.

Richa Malhotra is aware of the degree of difficulty in the test, where she will have to compete with over 230,000 students from across country. Around 11,000 students will write the test in Calcutta.

“I have spent a year preparing for CAT. So much has gone into the preparation. Obviously, I am a bit tense,” admitted Richa.

Unnecessary tension may affect performance, warned Kapoor. “Every year, there is some surprise element in the question paper. It is impossible to predict the pattern change. So, the best strategy is to keep your cool and deliver your best,” he summed up.

Take account: CAs close in on MBAs in salaries

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AHMEDABAD: MBA finance grads watch out, CAs are inching closer in terms of pay packages. In the latest round of placements of CAs, held last month, average salaries have shot up to almost Rs 6 lakh per annum. The average salary of CAs reached to a new high of Rs 5.94 lakh compared with Rs 4.79 lakh in February-March, 2007. Of late, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has been working hard to prepare its members to compete with MBA students.

The institute has also introduced changes in its curriculum to groom new students as per the changing scenario. In his recent message to its members, ICAI president Sunil Talati said, “I must say that the new breed of young students are so smart and intelligent that the number of students passing out in final examination and becoming our members is increasing every year. This is a good sign. It is not that the examination papers are easy, or results are liberal; it is in fact a sign that new young intelligent and talented students are joining our profession appreciating the new curriculum.” The campus placements were not limited to about 100-odd students like typical B-schools.

There were as many as 1,151 students recruited out of 1,823 students who participated in the September-October campus placements. There were 101 companies comprising 252 interview panels participated at 19 centres in campus interviews, organised by ICAI. “A number of students could not get the job profile and company of their choice since we do not allow students to appear in more than six interviews. However, they will be able to find the suitable opportunity through our online platform from where headhunters can access to our data base,” said ICAI chairman of committee for members in industry Uttam Prakash Agarwal.

Not only banks and financial institutes but a number of IT, energy, telecom, engineering, FMCG and aviation companies also participated. Landmark Gulf Group offered the highest package of Rs 12 lakh and recruited 17 CAs for international postings. Standard Chartered offered anywhere between Rs 7 and Rs 11 lakh to 11 CAs. Citi Bank, Britannia Industries, ICICI Bank and ITC too made some of the most attractive offers to fresh CAs. While ICICI Bank recruited as many as 303 students, Reliance Industries recruited 71, Infosys 47 and Vedanta 45 CAs. ICAI conducted campus placements at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Vadodara, Bhilai, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Ernakulam, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Pune and Surat.

Education should instill spirit of inquiry: Kalam

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Bangalore (PTI): The education system should instill in students’ minds the capacities of inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership, former president A P J Abdul Kalam has said.

Addressing 4,000 children from over 100 schools during `Rennaissance 2007-The New Generation Conference’, organised by the Rotary organisation, he said the “development of these capacities would produce the `autonomous learner’, a self directed, self controlled lifelong learner, who will have the capacity to both respect authority and question it”.

“These are the leaders who would work together as a self organising network and transform India into a developed nation in a time bound manner”, he said at the conference, which aims at inspiring students to shape the future of India.

Setting a mission for students to participate in the environmental ecological upgradation, he said they could undertake “mapping of the neighbourhood”. Through mapping, the students could provide vital civic services information to the municipal and urban development authorities.

Spelling out the integrated action to transform India into a developed nation, he said there are five core competence areas for integrated action– agriculture and food processing, reliable and quality electric power, surface transport and infrastructure, education and healthcare, information and communication technology and self reliance in critical technologies.

“These five areas, if developed, can lead to food, economic and national security,” he said.

Education: Role of technology

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By: Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro One of the few things on which there is consensus across the entire ideological spectrum in economics and politics is that literacy and education are perhaps the most significant drivers of development and democracy. For societies to improve their literacy levels and the quality of their education, multiple complex factors must be worked upon. Information and communication technology (ICT) can facilitate improvement on several of these dimensions. To me, use of ICT for literacy is almost intuitive, given the challenge of reaching out to large numbers which a country like India faces. ICT provides us an effective tool for connecting with a large number of remotely located learners at a low cost.

My perspective on the use of ICT for education and literacy is based on our interaction with the parents and schools in over 1,300 villages in 2000, through the Azim Premji Foundation. Through these interactions we gained the following perspective: Parental feedback indicates strong demand for computers; they also consider computer interface as an enabler for knowing English; ICT can strengthen our efforts for universalising primary education and; ICT could also be the solution to a uniform high quality of instructions without replacing teachers. But more than that, we learnt that ICT also has a huge role in attracting children to the school, and creating excitement in and around the school.

To me ICT is not about the computers or the educational CDs or the Internet or the specific device or medium we use. It is really about a different process that we deploy for the purpose of enhancing the quality of education. It is about providing alternative learning experiences to the children who currently do not have options other than text book as a learning tool.

If someone asks me what we should try through ICT in the schools, I would have the following response: A change of culture – openness, responsiveness and opening windows for new thinking, an atmosphere of innovation; an alternative paradigm in pedagogy – interactive, away from the chalk and talk, self paced and contextualised learning; an attempt to achieve equity and; bringing excitement and motivation.

Mere introduction of ICT will not automatically create the kind of impact or change that we intend to cause. Technology will induce change only if accompanied by changes in ideas, processes and way of viewing things. Technology is likely to create bigger transformation where the current situation and culture are considered to need improvement.

Based on our experience with the schools, I would suggest that we must address the following critical issues to enhance the effectiveness of ICT in literacy and education.

First is the challenge of making teachers a partner in this effort. If teachers do not see that ICT is helpful in their work, there is no hope for it turning out to be an effective tool in our mission for education and literacy.

Second is the challenge of deciding what to, and what not to, deliver though ICT. The usual tendency is to try to deliver every learning item through ICT. It amazes me when governments roll out a large-scale programme to introduce ICT in schools and villages without an adequately thought out long-term plan of how it will be utilised. There is no point in using an expensive computer screen as a replacement for the blackboard.

Third is the challenge of enhancing the vision of a typical teacher of what learning experience could be. The challenge is to ensure that an average teacher relates to the broader definition of literacy and education, and not merely reading and writing.

Fourth is the challenge of building teacher capacity. For a teacher to translate vision into reality she needs to acquire capability in discipline area, teaching methods or pedagogy, and use of ICT. Our challenge is to build this capability in each of our teachers, which is a mammoth task given our large numbers. India has around 5.5 million teachers. Finally is the challenge of building teacher motivation. It is our challenge to create a motivating environment for them so that schools truly become centres of learning. I suspect that this is going to be our biggest challenge.

IIM-B to offer more executive MBAs

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The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore may soon add more executive management programmes to its already existing list. Also in the offing is an international programme called Advanced Leadership Programme (ALP), which will be jointly offered by IIMB with INSEAD-Singapore campus, Lancaster-UK, and McGill-Canada.

Speaking about the new initiatives, Prakash G Apte, director, IIM-B said: “We are planning some more executive MBA programmes for 2008 which will be partly delivered through the distance education mode and partly through a regular campus.” About the international ALP programme, he said that the programme is built around the fact that working executives need to stop and reflect about their growth and how to use their experiences to upgrade their skills. “With three international B-schools involved in its delivery, it makes it an international programme,” said Apte.

The director also informed that the B-school is working on a postgraduate programme in software, commencing from 2008, as well as expanding its students and faculty exchange and research work. Regarding the mushrooming of executive MBA programmes across all B-schools, Apte said that since there is an increase in demand for skill up-gradation in every sector, the demand for executive MBAs is rising gradually.

On quality of such programmes, Apte said: “While witnessing such growth, not all players would care for quality, but will rather focus on profit-making. This is unavoidable unless the government takes some steps to strengthen the university B-schools with good compensations for faculty and infrastructure development.”

The two private management schools doing well in India currently, according to Apte, are MDI Gurgaon and ISB Hyderabad. “The schools are doing well and setting standards for others to emulate.” On the overall education system in the country, Apte feels that a lot of targeted subsidies are necessary to develop the education system in the country. “Unless we improve access to quality school education and provide financial incentives for school education right from the village level and attract and retain teachers, the complete education system will fail,” he opines. He went on to add: “Instead of populist subsidies, we should give targeted subsidies like incentives to teachers teaching in village schools and its students.”

India facing shortage of skilled manpower- FICCI

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New Delhi: A recent study conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has revealed that brisk growth in the globally integrated Indian economy has led to a huge demand for skilled human resources. However, lack of quality in the higher education sector has become a hindrance in filling the gap.

The survey, based on a study conducted in 25 sectors, also showed that currently there is a shortage of about 25 percent skilled manpower in the Engineering sector.

Addressing a pre-summit press conference on higher education, FICCI Secretary General Mr. Amit Mitra said, “The present day higher education setup needs an urgent makeover and private sector involvement needs to be encouraged in this regard.”

“Apart from making a solo entry, foreign universities must look to form joint ventures with the Indian varsities. Moreover, a one year benchmark must be set for this task”, he added.
MARCH Consultancy and Research Director Mr. Sridhar Chari said, “Only one in ten people in India is able to receive higher education. The Government’s educational grants are being used in promoting primary education rather than setting up more higher education institutions.”

The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) for the primary education sector is 70 percent and 40 percent for secondary education. The figure is a dismal 11 percent in the tertiary or higher education area.

Global education and research

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India has a rich intellectual tradition of scholarship going back many thousands of years. India today encompasses not just science — the Indian space programme, atomic energy research, biotechnology — but also the social sciences and the humanities as well, including world-class centres of excellence in Indian universities and in the IITs. As in other markets, it is globalisation which determines the university education and research trends emerging today. We see greater student mobility. In 2003, global demand for international student places was 2.1 million; this will rise to 5.8 million in 2020.

For instance , the number of Indian students coming to UK for higher education has risen from around 4,000 in 1999 to 23,000 in 2007. Alongside this, we see the rise of transnational , or ‘borderless’ education, made possible by the huge advances in electronic media. Collaborative higher education provision is delivered in many ways: branch campuses set up by universities in other countries — even other continents; distance and e-learning , franchising and validation.

Pundits predict that the demand for such sources of university education will expand even faster than the increase in ‘international’ students. To date, some UK universities have set up campuses overseas — the University of Nottingham in Malaysia and China, for example, while Glasgow Caledonian has an engineering campus in Oman; the University of Liverpool has formed a partnership with Xi’an Jiaotong University to set up an entirely new institution in China.

Several US universities have established bases in London while Monash has campuses in South Africa, Singapore, the US and London. However, global education isn’t just about where students go to learn and the methods by which we teach them: it’s about what they learn and how equipped they are at the end of their degrees to enter the marketplace . Academic knowledge is no longer enough. We need to think seriously about developing our students’ employability, equipping them with the skills they need to succeed — and which their countries need to flourish — in the world of work. And yet, this too, does not go quite far enough — we need a new global knowledge infrastructure to encourage research, development and education.

For too long, I think, universities have operated as national servants to national ambitions . Today, however, it is only by ‘going global’ that universities can meet the challenges of globalisation and tackle the big issues such as energy, global security and the global environment. This requires collaboration and partnerships, especially in research. This is simply practical common-sense — this kind of vital research infrastructure can’t be set up in one university or even in one country

Appearing for CAT? You have a 1:100 chance

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If the numbers are any indication, more and more aspirants are lining up for a career in the managerial ranks instead of sweating it out on the shop floor.

Around 230,000 candidates are scheduled to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) — one of the most competitive exams in the world — next month.

This translates into a 21 per cent increase in the number of CAT aspirants over last year, when the total number of candidates stood at around 190,000. In contrast, the number of aspirants for the CAT exam a decade back was only 40,000.

The increasing numbers are indicative of the importance of CAT as the premier management entrance exam as well as the growing economy, which has seen an explosion in the creation of managerial jobs.

CAT VISION
Total CAT aspirants in 2007 : 230,000
Total CAT aspirants in 2006 : 190,000
Total number of seats available through CAT* : 5,000
No. of seats in IIMs* : 1,600
No of seats in 99 other B-schools* : 3,400
(* Figures are approximate)

The country’s seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) use only CAT scores to shortlist candidates.

The IIM’s annual intake is 1,600 students, including IIM- Shillong, which starts operations from academic year 2008.

In effect, the ratio of aspirants to the number of IIM seats available is 1:125. If one were to take the total number of 3,400 management degree seats available across schools (99, not including the IIMs) that use CAT scores to select candidates, the ratio stands at 1:59.

CAT is as competitive as the IIT engineering qualifying test, the Joint Entrance Examination, which saw as many as 200,000 candidates appear for just 4,193 seats spread across the seven IITs in 2007.

The numbers also hide the growing gap between the demand and supply of seats in the top management institutes across the country.

The top 10 B-schools accepting CAT scores, barring the IIMs, have a capacity of only around 2000 seats.

These include reputed ones like the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai, Mudra Institute of Communication (MICA), Ahmedabad and others. The ratio for them works out to 1:100.

“Competition is bound to remain fierce because of the increasing number of MBA aspirants. Even though, premier institutes like IIMs and others have increased the number of seats, it is not sufficient to meet the ever- growing demand,” said Sharad Awasthi, chief operating officer, Career Launcher, an MBA test preparing institute.

“Competition getting tougher has two reasons for it. First, people with experience know that they need to upgrade. These could be people who have spent three to seven years in industry and could either be looking for additional qualifications to switch to management, or may be even a second MBA. Secondly, people who earlier had never even heard of an MBA, today know what it is and what the ‘benefits’ of doing one are, increasing the sheer volume of people who take the exam,” added Jaideep Singh Chowdhary, senior member academic team, TIME, another test preparing institute.

Business India Rankings 2007: IIMs occupy top slots; ISB, XLRI and MDI shine

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After Outlook and Business Today magazines, its now turn of Business India to publish its B-School Rankings.
In the issue dated October 21, 2007 titled ‘India’s Best B-schools 2007’, Business India has ranked three IIMs in the top three slots. Not surprisingly, while IIM-A is on the top of the rankings, IIM-B and IIM-C occupy the #2 and #3 ranks respectively. Indian School of Business, Hyderabad is ranked at #4.

The survey ranks institutes into a total of 10 categories: Top 20, and then nine grades A++, A+, A, B++, B+, B, C++, C+ and C. The survey is based on evaluation of parameters like ‘intellectual capital’, ‘learning ambience’, ‘corporate networking’ and ‘brand value’. This is the eight such ranking by Business India and was led by Mr A. Thothathri Raman.

Several other prominent B-schools occupy places in the Top 20 list. XLRI Jamshedpur is ranked at #6, MDI Gurgaon is ranked at #7 and ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad is ranked at #8. (See table below)

The survey is upbeat about Indian management education. Writes Business India, “If there was a B-school index, it would be giving the Sensex a good run for its money. The stockmarket isn’t the only money machine to make crorepatis out of middle-class people. Indian B-schools are churning their fair share too.”

While the list of top 20 B-schools and A++ B-schools, which includes 21 other schools, is in sync with management experts, interestingly only one B-school from IITs makes the cut. SJMSOM of IIT Mumbai is included as A++ B-school while IISc Bangalore, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, and IIT Roorkee also offer Programmes in Management. Similarly many specialized institutes like MICA, Ahmedabad and IRMA, Anand don’t feature in top 41 institutes.

Apart from the Rankings, the issue covers management education trends in great detail. Several features like ‘Red Hot and Rising’, ‘Great Show, but more to do’, ‘Time to reform AICTE’ and ‘Wooing the campus’ offer interesting reading. The issue also features columns by several academicians including: Dr Bala Balachandran of JL Kellogg School of Management; Dr BS Sahay, Director, IMT; Dr C S Venkata Ratnam, Director, IMI; AK Sengupta, Director, SIES, Navi Mumbai.

Business India B-school Ranking 2007

Rank. Institute

1. IIM Ahmedabad
2. IIM Bangalore
3. IIM Calcutta
4. Indian School of Business Hyderabad
5. IIM Lucknow
6. XLRI Jamshedpur
7. MDI Gurgaon
8. ICFAI Business School Hyderabad
9. SP Jain Inst. of Management Mumbai
10. IMT Ghaziabad
11. Faculty of Management Studies Delhi
12. NITIE Mumbai
13. NMIMS University Mumbai
14. International Management Institute Delhi
15. Jamnalal Bajaj Inst. of Management Mumbai
16. Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar
17. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade New Delhi
18. SCMHRD Pune
19. Welingkar Institute Mumbai
20. LBSIM New Delhi

Source: Business India, October 21, 2007

Overseas offers pour in for FMS students

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NEW DELHI: With companies trying to make good the India opportunity as well as Indian companies announcing their arrival on the world scene, overseas offers are pouring in for students of the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

The summer placements have just been wrapped up and over 20% of the batch has got the opportunity to work abroad with around 20 students getting foreign offers as compared to only four last year. The highest stipend offered this year was Rs 1.44 lakh by FMC Technologies compared to Rs 1.25 lakh last year.

The average stipend was also up from Rs 22,000 per month last year to Rs 30,000 this year. A total of 73 companies participated in the summers making 170 offers to 91 students. Global companies such as Lufthansa, FMC Technologies, IKEA and KPMG Middle East participated in this process, while Indian heavyweights like Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Tata Administrative Services, ICICI Bank and IDG Ventures made a host of international offers for a variety of roles overseas. This was driven by the companies which are looking at an India entry in a big way and others which are on a huge expansion drive globally.

Seema Rao, secretary, placements, FMS, says: “Indian students are sought everywhere today. It’s only logical for Indian companies to offer them overseas placements in areas they are on an expansion drive. They have known them for years. Besides, foreign companies which aim to capture the Indian market are doing this as they want to build the employer brand in the country through these students.” Other companies which visited the campus for summers included BNP Paribas, Capital Lands, Singhi Advisors, Zeus Infrastructure Funds, Ranbaxy, Vodafone, Frost and Sullivan, Britannia, EXL Services, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Langham Capital, ABN Amro, Accenture, Motorola and Mercer.

A comparison according to the profiles, showed the highest number of students opted for marketing with 39% voting for it, beating finance which had the maximum number last year. This year 36% students took up finance in their summers. About 18% of the batch opted for consulting.

Tips for corporate recruiters and B-school graduates

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Here are a few tips for placement, which would help B-school graduates prepare themselves for corporate recruitment and help them get the best deals. It also tries to delve at what offers these young graduates expect from corporate recruiters.

IN THIS WAR for hiring from the B-schools (Business schools), most of the corporates want to hire the best from the talent pool. Here are some parameters on which the B-school graduates should work on to have cent per cent chances of being absorbed in the best organisations.
The B-school graduates need to keep a check on the increase in competition, which has made the hiring arena difficult. One should look at the number of colleges, students and then the number of jobs. More emphasis should be placed on the quality of students graduating than the quantity of students. Some of the graduates have unrealistic aspirations. They think that getting into a B-school guarantees a challenging career and lots of money, but they are missing out on one part of the story - the competition that they would have to face once they pass out with other B-school batchmates.

The graduates need to first understand that MBA / PGDBA is only an entry ticket and not a means of getting guaranteed success in an organisational set up. They need to understand that their performance would be measured initially, no matter which B-school they belong to. What lasts long is individual performance, skill set and knowledge that an individual has. It cannot be stolen. One needs to establish a bond and gel in with the organisation - the people, resources, culture and its character. To be spotted, the trainees need to have qualities like being humble, modest and being patient. They should develop a habit of making good and positive suggestions and make their way through instead of complaining and cribbing about the prevalent circumstances.

Some TIPS / Qualities

Out of the Box: A term that is very hot during the placement season and otherwise also, with all B-schools. This quality could be coupled up with common sense, which they say is uncommon. Something which is so unique and transparent but not cashable by others and thus helps you stand out of the crowd of graduates.

Dare to be Different: Every individual has a unique persona and qualities, which he / she is scared to tap or even explore. To discover it, one has to break the chain of routines and be different. One may conduct a very well known simple SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis.

Etiquettes: The way you present yourself - the way you talk and walk - makes a lasting impression wherever you go. One needs to polish oneself. Not talking too much and at the same time, keeping good body language to pass on the right vibes, helps the corporates in remembering you.

Unrelenting Drive to Win: A drive to win and win only should be cultivated, with no iffs and buts. The habit of being the best in whatever you do would helps you to make your mark and thus you would win the game whichever it may be.

Attitude - from ‘not possible’ to ‘Let’s make it happen’: Most of the B-school graduates have the so-called casual attitude and they are constantly complaining that the things are not possible or cannot be worked out. They need to cultivate a positive outlook and strong work ethics. They should strap them with loads and tons of adaptability, and have a proactive and open approach, with a desire to learn towards their job. They should remain focused and should not break under pressure.

Multitasking: Business today cannot be compartmentalised; it is an integrated unit. Managing multiple departments and multi tasking is always applauded. More departments would add on to more people within each department. Therefore to cut into this one could combine time management skills with efficient networking and reporting, which would rule out the physical presence of the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) everyday in the company.

Creativity: Add some creativity to your daily routine and make it more joyful and entertaining. This could be tapped immensely through your hobbies, which you inculcate as stress busters.

Work Experience: A B-school graduate who is already exposed to the business environment has an advantage. Plain graduation can never give them that edge. A good amount of work experience in the business environment would help the corporate know on which skills he could cash upon, for maximum returns to the organisation as well as the individual.

Waiting for the Ideal Job! You would miss the bus then: Like all other careers, one might not get what one demands right at the start. Therefore, sitting and waiting for the ideal job to fall into your lap would make you miss your bus. Take up whatever comes your way and then use that experience to specialise and move towards what you want to do.

Neither the industry nor the B-schools are doing a favour to the students by inducting them as trainees. It is the need of the industry, and B-schools are helping them by providing them with a pool of resource. However, this resource is not ready for deliver from day one.
Therefore, it is an investment made with great potential for future returns.

What the B-school graduates want from the corporates?

What does the B-school graduates want from the Industry when they come for campus placements during the season of placements.

In the globally competitive world when every year new B-schools are being added to the existing ones, the competition becomes more fierce than ever. Everyone wants the best of talents available. Some of the things, which the B-school graduates feel, should be incorporated during the Placement season are as follows:

Make a common process for selection for all B-schools: Whether it is a new B-school or one existing for long time, let both be given equal opportunity. This happens in the placement process for MCA (Master of Computer Applications) and Engineering. The companies call up all of the Engineering colleges under one roof and conduct a common placement. Here the companies could decide on the cut off percentage. There would be huge pool of students with diverse skill sets available for the selection process and obviously the best would get the opportunity. This would help the new B-schools enter the competition. Also, it would make the grading depend upon the capabilities and competence, and the talent showcased.

A professional approach, which is transparent and clean:

The industry needs to have a more transparent and clean process, when conducting the recruitment drive in terms of job profile, designation, salary, probation and training. Students do not want the rosy picture of CTC (cost to company) and designation and later find the opposite to be true.

Reliable Placement Process:
Whether the interviews are conducted on campus or off campus, the whole process needs to be professionally coordinated. When the industry expects the graduates to be punctual and have professional etiquettes, then the students at their end have the right to expect the same. The industry can -
a) Call or send an email to the concerned college by stating the company’s profile, manpower requirement in concerned area of specialisation, job profile, location, designation, pay package, how many rounds of interview would be conducted during the selection process, and whether the company would be interested in conducting a Pre-placement talk in the campus.

b) Resumes could be asked for in soft / hard copy, they could be screened and only the short listed names could be called for an interview at their place or at the campus on a particular day. Though the resumes are being sent, the resumes are constantly being asked for again. This increases the time span of the process.

c) Following etiquettes of time and discipline at both ends.

d) Finally the offering - through the offer letter, after the selection process comes to an end, intimate or put an email to the B-school to make them understand who is being offered the positions.

Keep the Promises!
During the placement weeks, firms that participate in the process should keep up their promise, or refrain from painting a rosy picture.

Industries should follow the ‘3 C’s’(clear, concise and concrete) when making promises.
Probably, by following these broad principles, we could ensure a placement process that is reliable and would also leave a lasting impression in the minds of the students (practice what you preach), as the taste of professionalism for the students would begin here.

Summer Placement scene hots up at JBIMS

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Summer placement activity at the Mumbai based Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) is in full swing.

The coming week at JBIMS would be packed with activity related to summer placements for the junior batch. Institute expects that this year’s summer stipend to touch an average of Rs 100,000 in comparison to last year’s highest stipend of Rs 60,000.

This year so far over a hundred companies have already registered for the placement process for the batch of 120 management graduates. In comparison, last year, only 60 companies participated in summer placements at JBIMS.

Sharing information with MBAUniverse.com, JBIMS says, “This year’s summers are expected to be dominated by consulting majors and investment banks such as KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers and Ernst & Young. The institute is also set to have international offers this year.” It adds, “Closer home, the FMCG companies like P&G, HUL, ITC, Nestle, Colgate Palmolive, Coca Cola and Cadbury’s are expected to participate.”

Calling JBIMS as preferred choice by leading banks and financial services media representative at JBIMS said, “JBIMS continues to be a favourite amongst leading banks and financial services with companies such as Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and ICICI confirming participation for the process.”

"CAT is the toughest, but not the only one," TIME Education advices students not to lose a year

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Some aspirants who are not finding their CAT 2007 preparations up to the mark are getting nervous and searching for experts help.

When their mock-test scores are not shoring up, they are asking: “should I start preparing for CAT 2008.” Mr Sai Kumar, Course Director at Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME), one of leading MBA test prep companies, answered this query and said, “Students should realize that what they are working towards is a seat at a top notch B-School and not necessarily ‘doing well in CAT’. CAT is the toughest B-School test anywhere in the world, but it is not the only one!”

Given that there is no guarantee for doing well next year, Mr Kumar advices students not to give up on CAT 2007 and wait for next year. Said Mr Kumar, “The moot point is that one should not lose a year in the hope of doing well in CAT 2008. Rather one should take the best possible option available to them currently as one can never predict that performance will ‘certainly’ improve in the next year.”

A few top B-schools other than Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), who run their own entrance tests, are also offering good quality education to the students. Emphasizing this point, Mr Kumar says, “The so called ‘gap’ between the world class IIMs and the other top 20 B-schools in the country is decreasing year after year and currently all of them are within striking distance of the IIMs.”

Apart from CAT, its time aspirants also put other entrance exams into their plans to hedge their risks. Said Mr Kumar, “Students should hedge their risks by also writing other major entrance tests in India like Xaviers Aptitude Test (XAT) for XLRI, Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) for Symbiosis Group of Institutes, National Management Aptitude Test (NMAT) for Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test (IBSAT) for ICFAI Business School etc. These exams are not as difficult as the CAT and as such students tend to perform better in these tests. Thus more opportunities open up to the students who diversify their risk!”

Students can appear in other important management entrance exams include XAT on January 6, 2008; FMS Entrance Test for Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University on January 13 2008; IIFT Admission Test for Delhi based Indian Institute of Foreign Trade on November 25 2007; Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) for Indian Institute of Technology (IITs B-schools) on December 9 2007; NMAT on December 30 2007; SNAP and IBSAT on December 16 2007.

Emphasizing the importance of not losing a year, Mr Kumar says, “Thus aiming to get into a good B-School in 2007 itself should be the aim and any thought that one entertains of cracking the exam in 2008 would only weaken the preparation and not strengthen it.”

Concludes Mr Kumar, “The way forward is to steel yourself and take CAT 2007 as if it is the only attempt you have got in your life!”

Final Placement ‘08: IMI Delhi bags 9 PPOs, expects increase in international companies

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Delhi based International Management Institute (IMI) has set its placement process rolling with 9 Pre Placement Offers (PPOs) from five leading companies: Genpact, Asian Paints, Dr. Reddy’s Lab, DSCL, Grail Research, MB Holding ( Oman).

IMI is expecting more PPOs in coming weeks. Says Mr Amrish Sharma, Administrative & Placement Officer, IMI Delhi, “We have already received 9 PPOs. We expect 7 to 8 more companies, including International Companies, to make PPOs to our students.”

At IMI, the placement season will formally begin from January 3, 2008. The placement process is divided into two phases: lateral and final placement. The lateral placement process will start on January 3, 2008, while the general placement process will be held between January 15-19, 2008.

Some of the companies that are expected to visit IMI for final placements ‘08 include RPG Group, ITC Ltd, UBS, HSBC, Asian Paints, Jumbo Electronics ( Dubai) and MB Holding (Oman).

Overall batch strength at IMI is 186 students. Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) has 112 students, Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource (PGDMHR) has 44 students and Executive PGDM has 30 students. According to IMI, 54 % students in PGDM batch are of engineering background while 22% of commerce background.

Use engineering strategies for management goals

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BHUBANESWAR: The management professionals of today should think and rethink on pioneering engineering strategies for optimum utilisation of resources, said experts at a management seminar organised by city-based Asian School of Business Management here on Saturday.

Inaugurating the seminar, advisor to Prime Minister’s National Advisory Council Swamy Parthasarathy stressed development of intellectual capital through promotion of puritan and value-based model in place of globalised business model.Managing Director of State Bank of Indore C.Narsimhan emphasised on the changing priority of the banking sector addressing both internal and external customers through emotional engagements.

Parthasarathy’s book titled ‘Practice of management in the light of Bhagabat Gita’ was released on the occasion.Institute’s founder director Prof. Biswajeet Pattnayak, MP Prasanna Patsani and others also spoke. The seminar was based on sub-themes like value creation through HR, financial performance and e-governance. Heads of several corporate houses attended the technical sessions.

Pre-placement offers for IIM students touch new highs

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MUMBAI: During the placement season in March 2006, Bangalore-based software company Reach Technologies pitched hard to hire some students from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), offering starting salaries of over Rs 8 lakh per annum. Yet, Reach, which specialises in software for the garment industry, found it tough to get even one student. These days, even marquee names like Ashok Leyland and L&T sometimes find no takers at premium institutes because they don’t pay enough to make the cut.

A fast-growing economy and the spurt in new businesses started by foreign firms are driving up demand for management graduates and raising the bar for high salaries. Pre-placement offers (PPOs) in the middle of a term have now become the norm to net students before they are snapped up by competitors. They are offered on the basis of a student’s performance during a summer internship which students undergo after the first year of the MBA programme. The brightest are thus being booked with offers of well-paying associate positions by August-September.

“It’s one of the best ways to secure quality people,” said a faculty member at IIM-B. While IIM-A has so far received nine associate positions from investment bankers for the class of 2008, IIM-Calcutta has received five such offers, up from the three associate positions they got last year, said Pratyush Mulukutla, a placement committee member. An IIM-A official said, “To date, nine students have been extended associate offers this year__the highest across all B-schools in the country. With more than six months to go for actual placements, this number represents a record of sorts.”

The number of associate offers during final placements 2007 at IIM-A was eleven. While the IIMs refused to give out information regarding compensation, it may be noted that students of the class of 2007 at IIM-C who received such offers were offered salary packages of over Rs 1 crore. “While two students were offered US $2.5 lakh, the third student joined a UK-based firm where his compensation amounted to Rs 1.1 crore (converted),” added Mulukutla. One IIM-C student has also been offered a position by UBS at its London desk.

He is the only student from any Indian B-school to have been made an offer so far. At IIM-B, placement officer Sourav Mukherji said the class of 2008 with a strength of 250 had already received about 70 PPOs. Besides, Vikram Balan said all 17 students who interned with top-notch firms like McKinsey & Co, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Co, A T Kearney and Triology have been offered PPOs.

IIM-A`s 2008 batch bags 79 pre-placement offers

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The placement season has begun early at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

With five months still to go before the placement day, pre-placement offers have begun to pour in for the batch of 2008 at IIM-A. There have been a total of 79 offers so far with nine students being extended associate offers.

Also, in a new move, the institute is allowing exchange students from other countries to sit for placements.

Top consulting firms like McKinsey and Co, and Bain and Co along with others in the investment banking industry, such as Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, have extended fulltime offers to students who interned there.

Diane Gabriel, an exchange student at IIM-A, said, “As a French IIM-A-ESSEC dual-degree student, I intend to sit for placement at IIM-A because it offers great professional opportunities both in India and abroad. The companies that come to the campus are among the world’s best and the roles that they offer are as diverse and challenging as they come.”

Last year, 11 students decided to become entrepreneurs and not sit for placements. The trend is set to repeat this year.

Kunal Upadhyay, who heads the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A, said, “In recent times, the focus of students has risen above PPOs, job offers etc to start their own ventures.”

To encourage the trend, IIM-A is providing such students with the option of coming back to IIM-A for placements within two years after graduation.

B-schools expect over 150% rise in pre-placement offers

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IIM-Bangalore, which has received around 70 offers so far this year, leads the pack.

Indian B-schools are all charged up for the pre-placement season, with some expecting an increase of over 150 per cent in the pre-placement offers (PPOs) made to their students when compared with last year’s figure.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore, for instance, has received around 21 PPOs so far as compared to a total of 22 last year.

The institute expects the offers to go up to 55 this year — an increase of around 162 per cent. IIM-Indore has, so far, got offers from FMCG majors, IT companies and banks. “We are expecting more than 25 offers from banks alone,” said an IIM-Indore placement executive.

The institute, however, is keeping its PPOs open till it begins its final placements in February. PPOs usually flow in from the month of September (after the first year students finish their summer internships at companies) and go on till December or January.

Most B-schools close their PPOs by the end of October (or by early November) as they want to give the students ample time to decide on which company to join.

At the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, two PPOs have flowed in so far but the institute expects the offers to cross 50 this year. Last year, the institute had 32 offers in total. It expects a jump of around 56 per cent in the PPOs made this year.

“This year, we are expecting the offers to go up because our batch profile is different. More than 50 per cent of our students have over a year’s experience,” said Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, placement chairperson at IMT Ghaziabad.

IIM-Bangalore, however, leads the pack in the number of PPOs any B-school has received so far. The institute is said to have got around 70 PPOs till now — an increase of around 16 per cent as compared to the total number 60 PPOs it notched last year.

However, the institute expects the number of PPOs to go up, as many companies are in the process of evaluating the candidates. The interns who have bagged the offers worked with various companies in different locations across the world — San Francisco, Australia, London, Texas, Singapore and Brussels.

Companies which have made offers are Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, HSBC, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, HLL, P&G and Marico among others.

Eight companies have approached the Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIM-B), with PPOs so far. While the institute received around 30 pre-placement offers last year, its conservative estimate is over 30 offers this year.

Companies which have evinced interest so far in recruiting students from the campus include Tata Corporate HR, Dr Reddy’s, Vedanta and Future First.

The institute is expecting a lot of new companies on the campus this year. “The focus of 60 per cent of the students is on finance and banking,” said an XIM-B student.

IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K) has bagged 17 national and one international pre-placement offers. It expects the offers to go up to 70 — an increase of over 35 per cent as compared to 52 (50 national and 2 international) it received last year.

Companies which have made offers include KPMG Dubai, Hindustan Unilever, Horizon Asset Management (for its new hedge fund), ITC, JP Morgan, Marico, and Cognizant among others.

A placement official at IIM-K said, “Recruitment scene at the institute will be as good as last year.”

While companies flocking to management schools in big numbers is not new, the institutes are attributing this increase in offers to the booming economy and an equally vibrant jobs market.

An IIM professor said, “Companies have always looked at PPOs as an effective placement option. Summer internships help companies ascertain students’ calibre. Also, students get to know the organisation’s work culture, which helps them in taking a decision.”

Fancy pre-placement offers for IIM-B graduates

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BANGALORE: Jobs chase them half way through the course. Most IIM-B Bangalore grads get excellent job offers midway.Presently, recruiting companies are going a step further to ensure they reserve their candidates in time by making pre-placement offers (PPOs) to several of these students after their first year itself.The trend is gaining favour across companies in different sectors. The Student Media Cell of IIM, Bangalore, is getting excellent pre-placement offers (PPOs) from various companies with whom they had done their summer internships at various locations across the world.

All major consultancy firms and investment banks, which together form the most coveted group of recruiters these days, have offered PPOs to IIM Bangalore students.Spokesperson of IIM-B Bangalore said that although PPO as a concept has been known for long but this year has seen a significant rise in the number of offers made to IIM-B students. All the consulting firms that recruit from IIM Bangalore in Slot Zero includes firms like McKinsey & Co., The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Co., A T Kearney and Trilogy.

They have given PPOs to all of the summer interns they hired from the IIM-B campus last year. To the credit of IIM Bangalore, this remarkable feat is unparalleled. Rahul Jain, principal, BCG believes that the diversity among students of IIM-B is a major contributing factor to this.The quality and diversity of students are truly exceptional, he said. The students had worked with these companies in different locations like San Francisco, Australia, London, Texas, Singapore, Brussels and India.Investment banks too have made offers for final placements to a large number of interns from IIM-B.

Companies like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, HSBC, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital and Citigroup have all made final offers to their interns who worked across locations like London, New York and the Asia-Pacific.Companies are increasingly finding the PPO route to final selection more useful as they get to take a closer look at the candidates during the summer internship.

“The summer internship process at A T Kearney gives us an opportunity to evaluate interns rigorously and assess within the organization.We are very pleased with the summer interns from IIMB this year and have decided to extend Pre-Placement Offers to them,” said Vishal Kaushal, principal, A T Kearney.

AICTE cracks whip on defaulting B-schools

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Unapproved institutes, many of the country’s leading ones, will be closed, says the All India Council for Technical Education.

Seven months after the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) served notice to 273 institutes running technical programmes without the regulating body’s approval, a mere 32 institutes have sought the necessary approval.

Renowned technical education institutes like — Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; Kirloskar Institute of Advance Management, Karnataka; Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India Institute of Hospitality Management (FHRAI), Noida; Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai; ICFAI Business School, Gurgaon and Chandigarh; Sikkim Manipal University, Bangalore and TASMAC Institute, Pune — still figure on the defaulters list.

In March this year, the AICTE had issued notices to these institutes asking them to comply by its norms to operate in the country. In June, the regulating body sent them final reminders and finally in July, decided to seek the state governments’ help in shutting them down. “We want to safeguard the students from falling prey to some fly-by-night operators. Many of these institutes run programmes ranging from masters in management, engineering, hospitality management and diploma in fashion technology. We receive numerous enquiries from anxious parents and students everyday and thus we have decided to clamp down on these institutes,” said an AICTE official.

Institutes which have got the AICTE approval include the Christ Educational Society, Bangalore; Bharat Institute of Aeronautical Engineering and Technology, Pune; Adroit Engineering Institute, Mumbai; NIIT, Bangalore; Academy of Pharmaceutical Management, Mumbai; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s PDN College of Communication and Management, Mumbai; Delhi Business School, Delhi; HR College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai and five technical colleges run by Mumbai Education Trust, Mumbai.

The AICTE says, it’s firm on its stand to approach the state government to shut these institutes down. “We will be talking to the state governments on this issue. The AICTE approval is a must and no institute can run a technical course without it. Institutes which have the state government’s approval to run the course will also have to take AICTE’s approval. However, some colleges affiliated to state universities could be exempted if they fulfill the necessary formalities asked by AICTE,” said an AICTE official.

Unapproved institutes are classified in two categories — those which run technical unapproved programmes in collaboration with foreign institutes and others which have not sought the AICTE’s approval at all for running their technical programmes.

For instance, Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management (KIAM) in Karnataka, run and governed by the Kirloskar Group of Companies, one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates, has got into a tie up with Kishore Biyani promoted Pantaloon Retail. But the institute apparently has not sought permission from AICTE for the same. It offers a post graduate diploma in management. Other management institutes which figure on the list are— Training and Advanced Studies in Management Communication (TASMAC institute), Pune; Mumbai-based Weigan and Leigh College and Welingkar Institute of Management Development.

Mumbai Education Trust’s (MET’s ) five institutes— MET Asian Management Development Centre; Institute of Distance Learning; Institute of Software Development and Research; Insitute of Mass Media and Institute of Medical Sciences— sought clearance from the AICTE earlier this month.

Says Sunil Karve, founder trustee and vice chairman - MET league of colleges, “Getting an approval from the AICTE has cleared a lot of unnecessary misunderstanding in the minds of our stakeholders. The AICTE wanted to know if the activities at MET were within the purview of the AICTE norms. They wanted to be sure that none of the activities were violating the norms.”

The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, has also applied for an AICTE approval. Said an Indian School of Business official, “We did receive a letter from the AICTE asking certain clarifications and our relationship with our partner schools— Kellogg Graduate School of Management and The Wharton School. We have furnished all the details to AICTE”.

B-schools show quality gaps despite upgrades: Survey

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The big B-school event of 2007 was not just the battle over autonomy for management institutions or the huge salary hikes for MBAs.
Rather, it was the significant improvement in the number of middle-rung business schools in the country.

This is one of the key findings of the 2007 annual B-school survey of the All India Management Association, published by Indian Management, a Business Standard publication.

An overview of the ratings shows that there are significant changes in many of the categories.
For instance, the number of institutes in the A category has come down from 37 last year to 23 this year. The biggest change, however, has been in the middle segment, where in the B+ category, while there were 40 institutes last year, the number has shot up to 61.

The ratings focus on five core parameters: intellectual capital, interface with industry, governance, admissions and placement, and infrastructure.

The survey expectedly brings out the huge gap in quality among schools in the various categories.

For example, if you take the intellectual capital parameter, the average super league school (the top-rung) has around 54 PhDs in their faculty. At the next level, the figure drops to 37. Then it crashes steadily all the way to C category schools with just three PhDs apiece.

Again, if you were to take the average number of titles published by the Super Leaguers, it is 26. The A-plus schools (below the super league) also did a respectable 25. But by the time you get to the C schools, it’s practically negligible.

There is also a vast difference in the average Indian salary paid to MBA graduates. While it is about Rs 10 lakh per annum for the super leaguers, it is just Rs 1.58 lakh a year for the schools in the C category.

The survey highlights some key challenges that B-schools face across the country. For one, research is clearly at a premium in most B-schools.

Second, the huge teaching loads inflicted on faculty particularly in the lower-rung schools highlight an acute shortage of teachers.

Third, particularly for those MBAs graduating from B and C category schools, employability and job-fit remain an issue.

However, despite these issues, B-schools continue to get a growing number of applicants every year.

Institutions are also revamping their courses and curricula to suit the changing needs of students and industry.

The top rung B-schools in particular are on a global drive with many of them setting up campuses overseas, establishing exchange programmes with international institutes, inducting summer trainees and students from overseas, and having companies from abroad coming to them for placements.

Of the roughly 1400 B-schools approved by the All India Council for Technical Education, 201 participated in the AIMA survey conducted by IMRB International.

Of these only 194 were rated as others did not qualify or sent in their questionairres late. The full listing and related stories appear in the September edition of Indian Management.

Outlook B-School Survey 2007

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Leading news magazine Outlook released its annual B-School survey, conducted by research firm Cfore.

For the first time, the survey has classified B-Schools into four categories: Government/ PSU B-Schools, Private B-Schools, University Departments and Sectoral B-Schools. The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A); XLRI Jamshedpur; Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies (FMS); and the Indian Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) have topped respective league tables. The survey notes that while IIMs are still on top, many aggressive private B-schools are fast catching up. Says the Survey, “The most important development has been the initiative of private institutes in critical areas such as research, entrepreneurship and innovation. Although some are still behind the top IIMs in terms of overall scores, non-government schools are catching up fast.”

In the government-assisted B-Schools, IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C, IIM-L and Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon have grabbed the first five slots. Mumbai-based NITIE, Delhi-based IIFT, and IIT Mumbai’s SJM-SOM are other B-schools to find place.

It’s in the Top 10 private B-schools table where the competition is intense. XLRI tops the list; Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and NMIMS are followed by IMT, Ghaziabad and Hydeabad-based ICFAI Business School (IBS). XIM-Bhubaneshwar, IMT Delhi and Symbiosis Pune too find places in this table.

Delhi University’s FMS tops the University Department based B-schools. Mumbai-based Jamna Lal Bajaj Institute of Management (JBIMS) and University Business School (UBS) Chandigarh are the other top B-schools in this category.

The Survey provides rankings to 14 government institutes, 50 private B-schools, 10 University departments, and 7 sectoral B-schools.

While the overall ranking tables are presented by institute classifications, the Survey offers some insights into how top B-schools stack up when compared across the spectrum. IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C, XLRI and MDI, for instance, are ranked as top five B-schools on the ‘Industry interface’ parameter. On the important parameter of ‘Placement Performance’, IIM-A, IIM-C, IIM-B, XLRI and IIM-L are ranked on top.

English: Is it the language of success?

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INDIA HAS INHERITED a multicultural and multilingual society where bilingualism and multilingualism have become the order of the day to be a part of the main-stream. While mother tongues and regional languages were part of the curriculum from the beginning, English made inroads into our educational system as a second language. Slowly, realising the importance of English as an international language, many schools upgraded it as first language in the curriculum. Little information is available, however, on the number of people who “know” English and the extent of their knowledge or even on how many people study English at school. According to the 1981 census, 202,400 persons (0.3 percent of the population) admitted to English being their first language.
Less than 1 percent admitted to English being their second language while 14 percent admitted to being bilingual (in two of India’s many languages).
The Fifth All-India Education Survey conducted in 1992 explored the avenues for studying English in India. According to the survey, only 1.3 per cent of primary schools, 3.4 per cent of upper primary schools, 3.9 per cent of middle schools, and 13.2 per cent of high schools use English as a medium of instruction. Schools treating English as the first language (requiring ten years of study) are only 0.6 per cent of rural primary schools, 2.8 per cent of rural high schools, and 9.9 per cent of urban high schools. English in India is offered as a second language (six years of study) in 51 per cent of rural primary schools, 55 per cent of urban primary schools, 57 per cent of rural high schools and 51 per cent of urban high schools. As a third language (three years of study), English is offered in 5 per cent of rural primary schools, 21 per cent of urban primary schools, 44 per cent of rural high schools and 41 per cent of urban high schools. These statistics reveal a strong desire to study English on the part of people exposed mostly to vernacular education, even in the countryside.

English continues to be the premier and prestigious language in higher education because the resource and guidance available in this language are abundant compared to that available in the regional languages or even the national language. Careers in business and commerce, government positions of high rank, and science and technology which attract the brightest, continue to require fluency in English. English is another passport and provides the visa for overseas study.

English is reckoned as a prestigious language and the tongue of first choice and continues as medium of instruction in elite schools at every level. Private English medium schools are mushrooming in all large cities and many smaller cities. Even government schools run for the benefit of senior civil service officers, use English because only that language is the acceptable medium of communication throughout the nation. It serves even better while one migrates to exploit opportunities and Indians are constantly shifting base within the country. Our cities reflect this reality.

The working-class, comprised of rural and urban migrants and who perhaps are bilingual in their village dialect and the regional language, perceive English as the tool for their children’s advancement. Schools in which English is the medium of instruction are a “growth industry.” The English speaker also commands more respect and draws courteous responses in some situations than does a speaker of an indigenous language.

However, in recent times in the global marketplace, Indians have become the obvious choice of the knowledge-based industry because of their sheer knowledge of the English language and the ability to effectively use it on the job. The trend is showing positive and upward growth and even the European and American companies have been showing greater interest in offering jobs to Indian professionals. Not all credit is to be given to English alone; knowledge of the subject is important too; yet expression and communication are being powered by English. There is no denying this fact.

Realising the importance of this imported language which can bring benefit to the society and the nation, the National Knowledge Commission of India has proposed to the government of India to strongly recommend the inclusion of English from Standard I in the school curriculum. The Commission is of the opinion that “in the 21st century marketplace, languages are the new bargaining chips. They are tools of trade, no less or more; that is precisely why we must embrace them.” The learned scholars do feel that “linguistic proficiency is the key to unlock the door of opportunities in a world where borders are blurring in the blink of an eye.”

Business Today- AC Nielsen B-school Survey ‘07

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Leading business magazine Business Today has come out with its annual B-school survey – India’s Best B-Schools. The survey is conducted by market research agency AC Nielsen. Survey puts IIM-A, IIM-B and IIM-C in top 3 slots.

IIM-L and IIM-I are stacked at no 5 and no 6 slots. While this may sound predictable, the surprise comes from the strong showing from Mumbai based NMIMS and Hyderabad based ICFAI Business School. NMIMS has moved up the rankings rapidly to get 10th slot. It was pegged at no 17 in last survey. ICFAI Business School moved up by 4 ranks to be pegged at no 9 this year.

In a marked departure from other B-school surveys, the BT-AC Nielsen survey is based on a ‘poll’ of MBA-stakeholder. Says the survey, “We poll all the stakeholders of a B-school, comprising MBA wannabes, recruiters, young executives, current MBAs, and functional heads. Therefore, we don’t try to quantify debatable parameters such as the number of academic papers written by B-school faculty or how many books it has in its library.” Most other B-school surveys are based on data collected on parameters like institute’s infrastructure, intellectual capital and placement records.

Noting that Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is a winner by far, survey says, “Broadly speaking, there are two dimensions to IIM-A’s success as a premier B-school. One, the quality of the institute’s faculty and students. Two, the academic freedom the institute has enjoyed over the decades that has led to incredible innovation”.

How can aspiring B-schools move up the pecking order of BT survey? Survey offers some clues: “Apparently, placements, quality of infrastructure, reputation, and specialization. While MBA wannabes put placement and reputation ahead of other factors such as faculty or teaching methodology, the recruiters valued infrastructure, specialization, and teaching methodology, which includes things like faculty-student ratio, counseling and industry exposure.”

Survey is based on Nielsen’s proprietary ‘Winning Brands’ model. This considers eight different attributes- reputation, teaching methodology, infrastructure, placement, admission eligibility, faculty, specialist units, and quality of placements. The survey is based on data collected from 592 respondents in 12 cities.

How top 10 B-schools stack up in BT survey ‘07:
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Source: Business Today, September 23, 2007