Know your initial worth in market

For those mulling their first job offer and wondering if they are being paid right, here is a website that could give an indication.

After the successful launch of paycheck.in, a portal which gives transparent wage rates across sectors, cities and countries, the Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad (IIM-A), IT Professionals Forum-Bangalore and Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore are now planning to launch fresherpaycheck.in.

This would be one of the first websites in India providing salary information to companies hiring at entry-levels and to those without work experience, who want to know their professional worth.

fresherpaycheck.in would be a part of the WageIndicator Foundation, a non-profit organisation and a joint initiative of FNV (Dutch confederation of trade unions), the University of Amsterdam/AIAS (Institute of Advanced Labour Studies) and career website Monster. The portal would contain entry-level information for those wanting to apply across several sectors like IT, finance and services.

Like paycheck.in, visitors to the site will be able to fill up a short questionnaire pertaining to their current employment, salary, incentives and educational background, which would be added to the database. Companies will also be able to fill in details on their wage structures, making it easy for freshers to have an idea of what salary they can quote during interviews. To protect the identity of the users, the portal will have personal details like name and company under wraps.

“We are working on fresherpaycheck.in and will look to discuss more details with the Wageindicator Foundation in Amsterdam,” said Biju Varkkey, an IIM-A professor. He said the website was being planned to help young professionals and that nearly 1,000 hits a day were expected after its inception around July 2008.

Despite giving information on specific domains like womenpaycheck.in and ITpaycheck.in, Varkkey said most visitors to paycheck.in wanted to know others’ salaries and did not want to put their own salaries on the database. The website receives as many as 1,500 hits a day but just 300 or so fill up the salary questionnaire. To counter this, fresherpaycheck.in is looking at fewer questions so that the process would be simpler.

The questionnaire takes information relating to the user’s sector, geographical position, profile, salary package, perquisites and other wage-based information anonymously, which could be compared by someone interested in the same position.

To encourage visitors to fill up the questionnaires, prizes like a trip to Africa or an iPod are also being offered by paycheck.in and similar wage websites affiliated to the Wageindicator Foundation. The site also has a separate section called VIP paycheck, which gives details on salaries drawn by famous personalities like Pratibha Patil, Sachin Tendulkar, Serena Williams and Hillary Clinton.

Four new IITs, six IIMs to be set up

In a bid to give an impetus to the higher education sector, government today decided to establish four new IITs and six IIMs in various states besides upgrading some of the state universities to the status of Central Universities.

While the new IITs would be located in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh (Indore), Gujarat and Punjab, the IIMs would come up in Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Uttarakhand and Haryana.

These new institutions would be part of the eight IITs and seven IIMs proposed to be set up during the 11th Five Year Plan.

Government has already announced establishment of four IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh and one IIM at Shillong.


The location of the new higher education institutions has been approved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, HRD Minister Arjun Singh told reporters here.

In addition, he said the government proposed to convert the Institute of Technology of the Banaras Hindu University into an IIT. Admission to this Institute was already based on the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination.

Singh said it is also proposed to establish during the 11th five year plan period 14 Universities with world class standards and 16 universities in states which do not have a Central University at present.

Varsity to set up constituent college

Anna University-Tiruchi (AU-T) will shortly initiate the process of identifying land for setting up a constituent college in Nagapattinam district.

University authorities have planned to approach the district administration for earmarking a suitable site for the purpose. Of the three constituent colleges that will get functional under AU-T jurisdiction from the next academic year, as announced in the State budget last week, sites for two other colleges — one at Panrutti in Cuddalore district and another in Ramanathapuram district — have already been identified.

The alienation process is in progress for transferring to the university a 20-acre site belonging to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board at Panrutti and a 25-acre government land a few km away from Ramanathapuram town along Devakottai Road, Vice-Chancellor V. Ramachandran has said.

In subsequent phases, Anna University-Tiruchi will establish constituent colleges in

IIMB focuses on all-round development, says its medalists

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. But, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) makes its students work hard and also play hard, making them all-rounders was the unanimous opinion of its medalists for 2007-08.

For 23-year-old Sahil Barua, who bagged the gold medal for best all-round performance in the Post Graduate Programme (PGP), IIMB is unique because of its focus on all-round development of its students. “I do not think you could get a better peer group than this throughout the country or even abroad.”

Sahil, who plays the keyboard, guitar and was a member of the ‘TSEPAK’ (volleyball played with feet), feels the opportunities at IIMB “for a person to evolve are fantastic”. Sahil, who has received a job offer from Baine and Co. Consulting firm based out of Boston, has opted to work in their Gurgaon office as he feels “India is the place to be now”.

“It is an exciting time to be in India, the global focus is on India, salaries are good, working atmosphere is stimulating,” he said.

Son of Samir Barua, Director IIMA, Sahil has been working for a start-up Catalyst Ventures which is into micro venture capital funding for the last six months.

Amit Gupta, who did his mathematics and computing from IIT-Delhi, won the gold medal for obtaining the first rank in PGP. He opted to work for McKenzie and Co in their Gurgaon office, though he interned with Lehman Brothers in New York because he wants to give back to his country what the country has given him.

On his experience at IIMB, Amit said, “It was better than what I expected. I got to interact with a diverse age group, from people in their twenties to those in their late thirties. Opportunities here are umpteen for you to pursue co-curricular activities, which really develops you as a person.”

Abhishek Agarwal, who bagged the gold medal for securing second rank in PGP, has opted to work for Blackstone, a private equity firm based out of London and US.

“Though I have opted for the Mumbai office, the company has asked me to work in London for an year.”

“IIMB is the best place to be in as the focus is not just on studies but making you a well-rounded person, capable of facing any challenge head-on.” Abhishek, who interned with an investment banking firm, wants to be in his home country.

For 33-year-old Srisankar Swaminathan Kunniyur who has bagged the gold medal for obtaining first rank in PGSEM (Post Graduate Diploma in Software Enterprise Management) and he is working with Motorola, “The faculty in IIMB is great. It is on a par with institutes abroad. It induces you to put your best foot forward, making you an all rounder.”

Srisankar, who moved to India over three years ago after working in the US, wants to start a company of his own. “There are a lot of opportunities in India now. There is no need to go out. India is a happening place.”

For Amit Agarwal (30), who has bagged the gold medal for all rounder performance in PGSEM, is working in Infosys as chief solution manager, IIMB provided the best opportunities to evolve as a person. It is a very enriching programme.”

“I got the best support from my seniors at Infosys and also IIMB faculty,” he said. Amit, who is married, had to do quite a lot of balancing and time management since he got very less time to spend with family.

VGSOM students receive 30 per cent higher offers

Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM), IIT Kharagpur, recorded the highest domestic salary of Rs18 lakh per annum, while the average international salary offered was $70,000.

While the domestic average stood at Rs11.44 lakh per annum, the median was Rs 10.32 lakhs per annum, indicating a uniform placement performance across the batch.

With multiple offers made to students, VGSOM saw a 30 per cent increase in the average salary levels, notwithstanding the sizeable batch strength of 121 students.

Some of the roles offered were of global leadership, management consulting, investment banking, corporate planning and strategy, brand management, real-estate consulting, equity research, knowledge management, SCM consulting, treasury, risk management and product merchandising.

IIM-B hikes annual fee to Rs 4 lakh

The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore has hiked the fee for post graduate programme (PGP) from the existing Rs 2.5 lakh per annum to Rs 4 lakh per annum.

The decision to hike the fee, to be effective from the next academic year, was approved by the IIM-B Board of Governors meeting chaired by Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday here.

The decision to hike the fee was long pending as the premier academic institution was subsidising the education of the students.

According to IIM-B, the institute incurred an expenditure of Rs 5 lakh per student per year whereas the fee charged was just 50 per cent of it. The balance 50 per cent of the fee was being subsidised.

All incoming PGP students will pay Rs 4 lakh for the first year and another Rs 5 lakh in the second year. “Since the cost of the education per year per student is Rs 5 lakh, there is a proposal to collect the same. The IIM-B is planning to fix the fee at Rs 5 lakh per year from the 2009 academic year,” a spokesperson of IIM-B said.

Besides, the IIM-B was failing to attract faculty due to compensations that were not on a par with the private universities. “The hiked fee will go towards the functioning of the institute, improvement of infrastructure,” the spokesperson added. Though the number of full time faculty at the institute is 120, it has fallen below 100. The institute hopes to regain its full faculty strength.

IIM-B Director Pankaj Chandra said the institute provided financial assistance amounting to Rs 91.13 lakh to 49 students during the year 2007-08. “No student will be denied an opportunity to pursue the PGP for want of financial resources. Besides the financial assistance provided by the institute, several students won awards and merit and need-based scholarships,” he said in his report at the thirty-third annual convocation of IIM-B on Friday.

He pointed out that all 266 students were successfully placed with top Indian and international firms. “In order to encourage alternative career choices, IIM-B has become the only institution to allow students to defer placement by two years. Five students have taken advantage of this flexibility to pursue other interests. Two of them are looking to start entrepreneurial ventures,” Chandra pointed out.

Amit Gupta secured the first rank in the PGP 2006-08 batch. Mukesh Ambani gave away the awards to passing out students of PGP, Fellow Programme in Management, PGP in Public Policy and Management and PG Diploma in Software Enterprise Management. In all, 424 students passed out of the IIM-B.

IIT B-schools lack IIM allure

Despite being the leader in technical education in the country, IITs are still regarded less than first grade when it comes to providing business education.

Even as they work to create a pool of technical experts with good management skills, the most coveted engineering institutes of the country — the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — are not the first choice for management programmes.

IIT graduates, by virtue of graduating from the top institutes of engineering, aim for a management school which is equally high up in the rankings.

“These departments could be a choice for students who could not make it to the IIT at undergraduate level but not IIT graduates,” notes Arindam Lahiri, director (academics), Career Launcher.

Going by the perception of students aspiring for management education, these departments are definitely not their first choice, asserts Jaideep Singh Chowdhary, senior member academic team, TIME — a management entrance training institute, said.

As per the estimates by TIME, nearly 54 per cent of students across eight IIMs are engineers — of which around 20 per cent are IIT graduates.

“IIM graduates are taught industry strategies which reduces the burden of companies when it comes to training freshers. Management graduates from IITs, on the other hand, have education in a technical environment and are thus expected to do well in the technical department. Hence, they are given second preference which does affect the remuneration of these graduates,” explains Arvind Sehgal, director, New Era India Consultancy.

He points out that while the remuneration for IIM graduates typically averages around Rs 12-15 lakh per annum, a fresh management graduate from IIT pockets only around Rs 6-7 lakh.

Satya Narayanan, founder-chairman & director, Indus World School of Business, concurs that these departments are a notch or two lower than the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) — the premier institutes of management education in the country.

However, the management departments of IITs are slowly seeing an increase in remuneration packages. For instance, this year the average domestic salary at the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, increased by 44 per cent at Rs 13.96 lakh as compared to Rs 9.71 lakh last year.

The Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM), IIT Kharagpur, too recorded an average domestic salary of Rs 11.44 lakh per annum — a 30 per cent increase over last year’s average.

The gap, in any case, remains, as this is countered with a considerable rise in the salary of IIM graduates as well.

Apart from older IIMs, like IIM-Ahmedabad, where lateral placements recorded an increase of nearly 13 per cent in average salary to reach around Rs 18 lakh, newer IIMs like IIM Khozikode, too, registered an average salary of Rs 14.83 lakh per annum, a 16 per cent increase over last year’s figure.

“Of course, the IIMs are very good, but as such they cannot be compared to the management schools run by the IITs. We, in our own way, have been having good placements in recent times. Even though the IIT graduates go to the IIMs or even abroad, some of them do opt for management courses in these departments, especially in the dual degree programme which IIT-Kharagpur introduced two years ago,” said Probir Kumar Gupta, Dean, VGSOM.

“There are reasons to go into diverse fields and get a management degree from the IIMs but if one wishes to specialise in technical management a degree from IITs is a good option,” K Raman, executive director KPMG said.

The department of management studies came up with the objective of creating a centre of excellence in management education with emphasis on technology-driven and knowledge-based industries.

The oldest is at IIT-Kanpur, which came up in 1974. It is also engaged in a diverse set of activities including industry consultancy, management development programs, academic research, public sector projects among others.

Executive education on the rise

As the Indian executive education market increasingly recognises the value of world-class executive education programmes and is eager to invest in the same, several Indian and foreign B-schools are gearing up to offer tailor-made courses for the industry and academia alike. Deans and professors from the best business schools are jostling for appointments with executives and companies to offer tailor-made programmes.

Institutes like IIT-Kharagpur and XLRI Jamshedpur, for instance, offer around 30 executive education courses per year. Till a few years ago, the figure was half of that. A key factor that has made B-schools flexible is that the price per programme has gone down by 60 per cent, while the bigger challenge is keeping the content relevant.

“In the face of rapid technological advancement around the globe, it is important for engineers and scientists to continue to learn new technologies, update and upgrade their knowledge, much after completing formal education in the college,” said a professor of IIT-Kharagpur.

Moreover, as an IIM-Calcutta professor pointed out: “There is a shortage of 20-40 per cent in the leadership positions across sectors. Although many companies have found internal training to be a substitute, after a point it becomes expensive.”

The seriousness with which Indian companies are taking executive education can be measured by the demand for customised programmes and partnerships with B-schools in co-designing curriculum.

And that too at competitive prices. Harvard Business School (HBS) just completed its first five-day executive education programme in Hyderabad. If a similar course was taught at the Harvard campus, it would have cost $10,000 (around Rs 400,000) upwards. However, an Indian executive gets it for as low as Rs 180,000.

At IIT-Kharagpur, XLRI Jamshedpur, and IIM Calcutta, around 200 executives take the executive education programmes every year, with course fee ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs 35,000, while a few courses could cost up to a couple of lakhs. For example, the Danish embassy of Dhaka had sent people for a four-month management course at IIT-KGP at a cost of approximately Rs 60 lakh.

The level of importance of executive education has reached outside profit-oriented companies too. The Ranchi-based Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS) too is in the process of drawing up a calendar of topics for training of non-government organisations (NGOs) keeping in mind the priorities of small and middle level NGOs.

“Every year we draw up a number of new courses for executives and managers as well as NGOs and social activists. These courses are either suggested by XISS or designed on requests from companies, NGOs, state government, funding agencies and other organisations,” said R K Biswas, dean of XISS.

XISS executive education courses, usually range between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000, and address current topics and concerns ranging from general management to specific functional areas that include human resource, rural development, information management, marketing and finance.

CIMA courses now at IIMC

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has entered into a collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), London to establish a Centre for Management Accounting at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta campus.

The centre will work to create and disseminate knowledge to change management accountancy practices in India and other countries.

This will also foster the inter-disciplinary research in IIMC and other academic institutions in India. A Memorandum-of-Understanding (MoU) between the two institutes has recently been signed. According to this CIMA will sponsor the Centre and a CIMA Professor of Management Accounting for an initial period of three years.

The governance of the Centre will be facilitated by the creation of a Centre Advisory Board.

The board will have a chair person, who will be a person nominated normally by CIMA and IIMC by rotation and approved by the other partner.

The centre would hold conferences and seminars on a regular basis, at least once a year.

CIMA will arrange to pay the travel cost of foreign experts, who will speak at the annual conference to be organised by the Centre. IIMC will undertake the research to act as an Academic Host to the Centre.

The scope of the research is international and will include investigations relating to the professional development of management accountants throughout their careers as well as other contemporary issues linked to CIMA’s Centre of Excellence based at the University of Bath School of Management in the UK.

IIMC and CIMA will publish results arising from the research and organise internal seminars for students to encourage this.

After CAT, it is RAT at IIM, Bangalore

Test aimed at strengthening research programme; scholars to be paid more





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It will make the job of candidates and the institute simple

Engineers, science, arts postgraduates are eligible


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In an attempt to strengthen its research programme, the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) is all set to introduce the Research Aptitude Test (RAT) for its fellowship programme in management on the lines of the Common Admission Test (CAT) amid plans to double its intake, increase the stipend and attract more corporate sponsorships for doctoral fellows.

In an attempt to strengthen its research programme, IIM-B will conduct RAT, which will be modelled along the lines of CAT in terms of content and format, and the subsequent interviews are scheduled to be conducted on April 10 and April 11.

Previously students had to write the CAT, GRE or G-MAT and these scores were mandatory.

IIM-A keen to enhance knowledge bank

When Samir K Barua took over as the director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) in November 2007, he had listed knowledge creation, hiring and retention of faculty members and increasing contacts with the industry as his priority work areas.

Four months on, Barua is planning a number of initiatives in the upcoming academic year towards achieving his objectives.

Keeping with his focus on knowledge creation for the institute, the director is thinking of making case study writing a must for every student who completes the post-graduate programme (PGP). What’s more, Barua would like the case studies to be focused on social issues.

“We are thinking of an initiative to make case study submissions compulsory for every student. This would add value to the students’ work at the institute and would also help create knowledge resources for IIM-A,” Barua told Business Standard.

He added that case studies in the social sector and concepts like social entrepreneurship would be explored.

Having seen recruiters from varied sectors evince interest in hiring students, the director is keen on introducing new courses in the real estate and insurance sector as part of the PGP’s electives.

Also, incoming batches of students will also be trained in management of luxury products. “The management, marketing and overall business scenario for luxury products is very different from other products. They have to be looked at from a totally different perspective considering the market they are targeted. For this, we will look at starting a course on luxury products,” said Barua.

To tackle the problem of lack of quality faculty members, the director has already sent out offer letters to a number of qualified candidates and is expecting close to 25 of them to join the institute by March 2009. The institute has 84 faculty members currently.

Admitting that he was ‘apprehensive’ about placements this year due to the sub-prime crisis, Barua said most recruiters had been attracted towards the ‘value proposition’ offered by the institute through five different programmes this year.

Other than the flagship two-year PGP and PGP-Agri Business Management programmes, IIM-A had the second batch of post-graduate programme in management for executives (PGPX), first batch of post-graduate programme in public management and policy (PGP-PMP) and the certificate course in business administration for officers of Indian Armed Forces sitting for placements.

Following the footsteps of PGPX, the second batch of PGP-PMP has had a fee hike from Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 12 lakh and is expected to go up to Rs 15 lakh for the third batch. The batch size will go up from 33 to 45.

IIM-A student gets intl offer of Rs 1.44cr

This year’s final placement surprise has once again come from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

The premier institute recorded the highest-ever international offer of $360,000 (around Rs 1.44 crore) made by a financial conglomerate (markets) to a Post Graduate Programme (PGP) student.

The offer has broken records set by the institute’s earlier batch, which got between $250,000 and $300,000 (depending on bonuses).

It also beats its own Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) programme, which recorded the highest salary of $250,000, and the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad's $269,000.

IIM-A Director Samir K Barua, said, “The highest international acceptances at IIM-A range between $280,000 and $360,000, of which the actual salary on-hand will depend on the bonus component, which will only be known after one year, based on the performance of the students.”

On the other hand, the highest domestic acceptance is in the range of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh, which again beats the packages bagged by ISB and PGPX students last year of Rs 60 lakh. Average domestic salary is Rs 17.85 lakh — a 30 per cent jump from last year's figure of Rs 13.7 lakh. Average international salary has touched $119,000 compared with last year's $115,300.

"We were apprehensive about placements this year due to the subprime slowdown, but it went very well. In fact 113 students out of the batch of 255 will be joining the financial sector this year," added Barua.

This year, like last year, consulting has emerged as preferred recruiter among students, with over 30.89 per cent opting for it. Around 19.11 per cent of students opted for finance-markets, 10.98 per cent chose finance IBD, a similar percentage chose finance-general, 6.10 per cent opted for Marketing, 6.91 per cent opted for general management while others chose finance-PE, real estate, operations, entrepreneurship and IT-ITeS.

Continuing with last year's trend, 76 per cent of students chose domestic offers, 11 per cent took up offers in the Asia-Pacific, 7 per cent in Europe, 4 per cent in the US and 2 per cent in the West Asia.

Around 11 students opted out of the placement process this year to start their own ventures. Major recruiters from the banking sector included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Consulting majors Monitor Group and Oliver Wyman were new recruiters this year.

Similarly, the institute's PGP-Agri Business Management Programme (ABM) saw 30 companies visit the campus for 30 students. Average salaries increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12.30 lakh.

Consulting attracted 28 per cent students followed by marketing (21 per cent) and finance (17 per cent). Profiles offered by SEWA, FINO and Suminter Organics were at the senior management level.

Salaries for IIM-A graduates up by 20 p.c.

76 p.c. accept offers to work in India





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Highest international salary accepted was Rs. 1.44 crore per annum

30 per cent to join consulting sector, 11 to start their own ventures


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AHMEDABAD: Contrary to the apprehensions of a general slowdown in the international economy affecting management institutions, students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, fetched an average of 20 per cent higher salaries this year compared to last year.

With the campus placements of the two-year Post-Graduate Programme in Management, Post-Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management, and the newly introduced one-year Post-Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy completed successfully, a happy IIM-A director, Samir Barua, said at least his institution was not impacted by the economic crisis.

‘Most preferred institute’


He also said that the IIM-A continued to be the most preferred institute for recruitment not only in terms of the diversity of the organisations that participated in the recruitment process but also by the offers made by them.

Prof. Barua declined to draw any comparison between the IIM-A and other management institutions in the country on the issue of salary and said that he was not aware what “bonus” components, which mark a bulk of the total salary package offered by international and Indian companies, had been incorporated in the total average salary in the placements conducted in the campuses of other IIMs .

He also said it would be wrong to judge the performance of the students and the standard of the institutions solely on the basis of the highest salary offered instead of going by the average salary offered to the entire batch by the different companies.

The highest international salary accepted in this year’s campus recruitment went up to Rs. 1.44 crore per annum as against Rs. 1.20 crore offered last year. Even the average international salary offered this year was about Rs. 47.60 lakh , against Rs. 36 lakh last year.

Domestic salary


The average domestic salary jumped up by about 30 per cent from Rs. 13.7 lakh last year to about 17.85 lakh this year while the highest domestic salary accepted was about Rs. 70 lakh.

The chairperson of the IIM-A PGP placements committee, Piyush Sinha, said that though the financial sector was supposed to have been hit hard by the economic slowdown and many companies had imposed “hiring freeze,” as many as 113 of the 255 students of the 2006-08 batch would be joining the financial sector.

Recruitment


The major banks to recruit the graduates included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Barclays .

While about 30 per cent of the students would be joining the consulting sector, about seven per cent would go to general management and over three per cent to operations.

At least 11 students in the current year’s batch have already opted out of the placements to start their own ventures.

Pointing out that 76 per cent of the students accepted offers to work in India and another 11 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region, as against the total of 77 per cent last year, Prof. Barua said for the first time a French student, Diane Gabriel, doing her dual degree programme from both the ESSEC business school and the IIM-A, had preferred to stay back in India and would be joining a local company after completing her degree.

Similarly in the Agri Business Management Programme, the average salary offered increased from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 12.30 lakh .

For a batch of 31 students, 30 companies participated in the placements which for the first time also saw consultancy and other peripheral companies vying with agro-based industries to recruit the IIMA PGP-ABM students.

Of the first 33-students batch of the PGP-PMP, mainly coming from the government and other public sector organisations for a one-year stint in public management and policy, nine students would be returning to the parent organisations who had also sponsored their IIM-A studies. The salary offered to the remaining 24 students, having an average 12 years of work experience, ranged from Rs. 15 lakh to Rs. 40 lakh per annum with an average of Rs. 24 lakh per annum. Prof. Barua said the batch size for the PGP-PMP course for the next year would be expanded to 45 students.

3 IITs, 16 universities on the anvil

Education remained the focus of the Union budget for the third consecutive year with increase in allocation of 20 per cent for the sector.

The government also announced schemes to start pre-primary education in government schools, scholarships for higher education as well as science education. The budget also includes funds for opening 6,000 schools, 16 central universities, three IITs and two schools of planning and architecture.

A slew of scholarships have been announced to check dropout rates. There would be a new central scheme to extend scholarship to at least two per cent of students passing out of schools for pursuing higher education in colleges and universities.

Students from Classes IX till XII will also get scholarships from the next financial year for which Rs 750 crore has been earmarked.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also announced a programme under which a student interested in science can go for a government scholarship from 10 years till 32 years of age. Called Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research, or Inspire, the scheme will have separate scholarships for young learners in the age group of 10-17 years, scholarship for continuing science education from 17-22 years and opportunities for research careers from 22 to 32 years.

The HRD ministry got a 20 per cent increase in its budget to Rs 34,300 crore for the financial year with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan getting Rs 13,100 crore and the mid-day meal scheme Rs 8,000 crore.

There is also allocation of Rs 2,011,221 crore for two new schemes - the Universal Access and Quality at the Secondary Stage and Incentive to Girls for Secondary Stage.

The budget for higher education has been increased by about 90 per cent from Rs 6,397 crore to Rs 10,852 crore with allocation for opening the 16 central universities, three new IITs � in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh � two Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and two schools of planning and architecture.