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Belling CAT may get easy; Test to have only 2 sections

2011-07-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

This year'sCommon Admission Test (CAT) will have a new format. Candidates will not only have more time, but also a section less to attempt. The test will start from October 22 and continue till November 18.

According to theCAT committee, the computerbased test will now have only two sections with separate time limits. Candidates will also be given a 15-minute tutorial before the commencement of the main examination .

"The first section will focus on quantitative ability and data interpretation, while the second will be on verbal ability and logical reasoning . Each section will have 30 questions and 70 minutes will be given. Both sections will follow a sequence with on-screen countdown timers for each," said professor Janakiraman Moorthy of IIM-Kolkata and CAT 2011 convenor. Earlier, the test was divided into three sections with 20 questions each.

Under the new format, once time ends for the first section, the aspirants will move to the second without the option of coming back to the previous one. Although new in the computer-based version of CAT, this format was previously experimented with when it was still a paper-and-pencil test. Including the tutorial, the examination will be of two hours and 35 minutes duration.

CAT 2011, which will be conducted within a window of 28 days, will have 20 actual testing days, like last year. For the convenience of the candidates , three new cities - Bhilai , Jammu and Dehradun - have been added to the existing 33 test locations. Moreover , CAT brochures can now be purchased from 201Axis Bank branches. This step shall reduce the difficulties faced by applicants in registering for the test.

Moorthy said: "Considerable effort has been made to maintain similar level of difficulty across papers. A small number of statistically and psychometrically validated questions have been randomly inserted in each question paper as equating blocks. These will be used for establishing post test equality across the days."

The check-in procedure this year will start one-and-ahalf hours before the scheduled test time instead of two hours in CAT 2010. With this change, the afternoon session will have an earlier start time of 3.15pm.

ISB, IIM students place resumes on job portals

2009-04-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

It’s an unprecedented trend and a far cry from the days when B-schools students would change jobs a mere six months after being placed by their institutes.

The graduates of the 2009 batch from top B-schools, including the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and even the Indian School of Business (ISB), have a different story to tell this year as they continue to upload their resumes on portals even after they have secured jobs during the recently-concluded placements. Not happy with the placements they got this year, they are looking for better opportunities.

Job portals have recently been flooded with resumes, which comes as a surprise even for those who run those portals. Take for instance, iimjobs.com, which received over 300 resumes of 2009 graduates of premier B-schools recently. "Surprisingly, resumes are still pouring in after the placements have been declared over. This is unprecedented and shows that the students are not satisfied with the jobs they have received through the placement process. This trend can be observed across all business schools from across IIMs and ISB to XLRI, FMS and MDI," said Tarun Matta, founder of iimjobs.com and an IIM Indore graduate.

A student of IIM, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) said: “Usually most students from IIMs get good job offers and they take them up to move on to even better ones within six months’ time. But in the current meltdown scenario, many students from the institute have seen a dearth of good offers and taken up whatever average jobs offered. There is a feeling of insecurity and dissatisfaction, which has prompted most to rely on job portals like naukri.com, iimjobs.com and others and given the hope of procuring better offers."

For the students of the ISB, the plan B of posting resumes on job portals seems to be the ideal choice. "Our placements are still on and I have posted my resume on various job portals as a last resort with the hope that I would get at least something out of these portals. Although some students are getting foreign offers, they are shying away from foreign placements as it only gives more insecurity and raises anxiety," said an ISB student on conditions of anonymity.

Job seekers, who pursued a management degree from universities in the US or UK, are also looking for jobs in India. Job portals are said to be getting at least 15-20 per cent traffic from outside India. A student of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, who wished anonymity, said: "There are many students who have got interesting offers from foreign companies but have turned them down because there is a growing insecurity among the students about foreign placements. Also, gone are the days when big shot recruiters fat pay packets queued up at the institutes."

ISB extends placement season indefinitely

2009-04-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

Only 57% students placed so far.

For the first time since its inception, the Indian School of Business (ISB) has extended its placement season indefinitely. Only 250 of the 440 students (around 57 per cent) in the class of 2009 have secured jobs in the placement drive that began in early January.

Placements should have been completed by the end of March, and the campus would have been readying for graduation day in the first week of April. However, the slowing economy appears to have taken a toll on this prestigious B-school, which ranked 15 in the 2009 global MBA rankings released by the Financial Times. Over the years, the placement trends were analysed and results announced by graduation day, scheduled for April 4. This year, that is unlikely to happen. There are already hints of a fall in the annual average salary offers from Rs 18-20 lakh to Rs 13-15 lakh.

In 2007, 581 offers were made to 416 students. In 2008, 657 offers were made to 421 students.

The IT-ITeS, finance and real estate sectors combined made 280 job offers in 2008. This year, all these sectors have been hit by the slowdown. The school had, in fact, sensed this and started inviting new companies for campus recruitment around November this year.

Many students graduating this April will still have access to ISB’s resources and services over the next few months to find a job. The school will be in regular touch with students to help them find a suitable job that fits students’ profiles.

The school, however, has not fixed any timeframe for students to find jobs. “We will continue to explore avenues till all students find the right job in accordance with their qualifications and work experience,” said an ISB spokesperson.

The premier B-school had earlier announced that it would increase enrolments by 560 to 600 for the class of 2010. It did not, however, explain how it would raise the number of job offers if the job market did not pick up.

ISB has six months to plan for the placement of the new batch after collecting the profiles of the students, their preferences for a sector or function, location choices and so on.

IIM Bangalore hikes fees by 25000

2009-04-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has decided to increase the fee for its two-year flagship post graduate management programme by Rs 25,000 to Rs 5.25 lakh for this academic year. The fees will be further hiked to Rs 5.75 lakh for students who begin the two-year course in 2010.

Announcing the fee hike in Bangalore today, IIM-B Director Pankaj Chandra said the institute is increasing the fee as it is bearing additional cost with regard to wage increases brought in place following the Sixth Pay Commission. In addition to this, the institute is also paying increased pension to 200 pensioners.

Chandra said the institute is also taking up construction of building of hostels, class room, staff quarters to accommodate the increase in OBC quota and all these costs are forcing them to increase the fee.

IIM-B is also increasing the number of students on campus to 350 for 2009-10 from the current 270. "We are adding one more section to accommodate the increase," Chandra added. In addition to the flagship MBA program, IIM-B is also taking in 75 student for its executive post graduate management program, public policy programs and fellow programs. "Taking all these programmes, at the end of the admission cycles the total enrollment would be 1,200 students at the end of the ensuing admission cycle from last year's 962," Chandra detailed.

He also added that they are having to increase the fee for the student as during the past five years the Union government has not facilitated any grants. The institute is also adding 14 more faculty for the ensuing academic year.

IIM-L placement session ends, average salary drops 25%

2009-03-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Indian Institute of Management Lucknow completed its placement exercise with average salary figures dropping by as much as 25%, though the PSU sector and government banks bailed out the students from the otherwise grim job market scenario. The PSU sector was the highest recruiter at IIM-L which saw total number of international and domestic offers dropping drastically.

Though the IIM-L did not reveal the salary figures, Prof Sushil Kumar, Chairman Placements at IIM-L, said that the salary level has seen a decline. He pointed out that the decrease for the 2008-10 batch has been in the same proportion as has been witnessed in the other IIMs.

Sources at the IIM-L said that the tough job market scenario saw the placements exercise being extended, which could only be completed well after the annual convocation ceremony. Despite bearing the brunt of the global downturn, finance came out as the winner once again with 40% of the students opting for it as compared to only 31% last year. Sales and marketing also witnessed a larger number of students being placed, up from 18% last year to 31% for the batch of 2008-10. A total of 284 offers as compared to 496 last year, were made to 267 students of the graduating batch along with 25 pre-placement offers.

CAT enrolment sees 20% rise, GRE, Toefl fall 30%

2009-03-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

The global slowdown is taking a toll on the number of takers for international education training programmes. Enrolments for the Common Admission Test (CAT) at MBA test-preparing institutes, however, are in full swing.

Institutes confirm that student enrolment numbers for international education training programmes such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (Toefl) have fallen around 30 per cent so far. Enrolments for Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) have been stagnant.

The only exam to see a 20 per cent rise in the number of registrations is CAT — the gateway to Indian B-schools. CAT enrolments in test-preparing institutes continue till early September (the exam is held in November), but GRE and TOEFL tests are held round the year.

At the Hyderabad-based Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME), for instance, CAT contributes over 50 per cent to annual revenues. The institute also runs the popular Campus Recruitment Training (CRT) programme. “One would think stiffer competition would make more people enrol for programmes like the CRT or the GRE, but that is not the case,” said Jaideep Singh Chowdhary, senior manager-corporate planning at TIME.

“With people perceiving fewer opportunities, they are putting even their preparations on hold. This could explain the dip in enrolment numbers,” he added.

Delhi-based Career Launcher estimates that enrolments for GRE at the institute have seen a 20 per cent drop. “We will have to wait another quarter and see how the numbers pan out. So far we have seen some slowdown in the international education segment,” said Managing Director Nikhil Mahajan.

US-based ETS (Educational Testing Service), which conducts GRE and Toefl among other examinations worldwide, says that historically, it has seen increases in GRE during economic slowdowns and expects the same this year. However, David Payne, vice-president and COO, higher education, ETS, agreed that GRE volumes in India dropped in 2008.

Payne, however, is optimistic that GRE will have a robust year “because interest in graduate school increases due, in part, to the economy”.

CAT may not go online this year

2009-03-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Common Admission Test (CAT) this year too may remain a paper-pencil test. Last December, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) had floated a tender and shortlisted four companies to conduct CAT 2009 online. These companies include ETS Prometric, Pearson VUE, Eduquity Career Technologies and Mumbai-based Attest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptech.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) this year too may remain a paper-pencil test. Last December, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) had floated a tender and shortlisted four companies to conduct CAT 2009 online. These companies include ETS Prometric, Pearson VUE, Eduquity Career Technologies and Mumbai-based Attest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptech.

IIMs to review placement plans

2009-03-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

The falling job market is forcing the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to review their placement strategies. The options include doing away with Day Zero and reducing placement fees.

Day Zero is the name given to the day placements begin at IIMs. Day Zero and Day One are reserved for top companies like investment banks and consulting firms that confirm participation on campus.

The placement fees are higher on these first two days — each company pays Rs 1 lakh as participation charge and Rs 1 lakh as recruitment charge. These charges drop to between Rs 80,000 and Rs 50,000 each for participation fee and recruitment charges on the next few days.

OUT OF PLACE
* Day Zero could go
* Placements could be spread over a week or even a fortnight
* Placement fees could be reduced
* Special strategy being devised to attract government-owned companies
In good times, most students are placed by Day Zero and Day One, which means many of the smaller companies that come to campus later leave empty-handed.

To cope with what one IIM official described as “the madness around Day Zero”, the B-schools are exploring ways of extending the placement process to over a week or fortnight so that all companies have a better chance.

“We are going to re-examine the entire placement process, including the Day Zero strategy and look into what needs to be done for a long-term relationship with companies. So far, we concentrated on a very narrow segment and pool of recruiters,” said Samir Barua, Director IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the oldest and most prestigious of the IIMs.

IIM-A finished its placements last week and recorded a 32 per cent dip in its salary packages. IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) and IIM Calcutta (IIM-C), which have also completed placements, will make the results public on Tuesday.

IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), too, said it will re-examine its placement strategy in the next few days. “We know that the present placement system is an imperfect system. But among all imperfect systems, this is the perfect system,” said Sourav Mukherji, placement chairperson, IIM-B.

The institute has decided to rename its placement cell “career development and placement cell” and will recruit a new person dedicated to look at placement and career development-related activities and liaison with companies.

The IIMs will also look at a reasonable placement fee. This year, many domestic and foreign companies in banking and financial services, consulting and consumer goods had written to the IIMs, requesting them to waive or lower participation and recruitment fees. IIMs said they charge placement fees from companies to meet scholarship and other educational needs on the campus, since the fees for the flagship management programme is heavily subsidised.

Slowing economy may end IIM placements boom

2009-02-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

The economic slowdown has finally reached campuses of the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

This year, IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the largest and most prestigious of the institutes, has seen a 50 per cent slowdown in placements on the coveted "day zero" (the first day), probably for the first time since the dotcom bust in 2000.

Sources said only 18 to 20 out of 250-odd students were placed on day one yesterday, compared to 40 to 50 in a good year. Last year, when the economy was booming, more than 65 per cent (161 students) were hired by 25 firms on slot zero.

IIM Ahmedabad may have missed regulars like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch on day one of its final "placement week," but new companies from other sectors might save the day for the institute .

The placement procedure is expected to continue till late night on Thursday and sources maintained that sectors like general management, market research, FMCG and pharma will be among the new participants on day one. There is less enthusiasm from foreign firms this time, and it's the domestic ones that are more prominent.

This year, IIM-A has kept the placement development under wraps. According to Samir Barua, director of IIM-A, "There has been speculation in media about the placements. We are only into a day and a half of the placements and it is too early for us to comment."

Last year, 90 firms participated, offering an average domestic salary of Rs 17.85 lakh and an average international salary of $119,000. The highest domestic acceptances ranged from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh last year and the highest international acceptances from $280,000 to $360,000. The number of companies visiting campus on day zero this year could not be ascertained.

"It is evident that the economic downturn has affected placements this year. Nevertheless, it has opened up opportunities for organisations in newer sectors like market research and pharma. Investment banks and consulting firms did come on day zero as usual, but so did companies in the newer sectors," said a source familiar to the development.

Meanwhile, IIM Bangalore begins its final placements on Friday and students are keeping their fingers crossed. “The institute has had a subdued response to its lateral placements this year and says there is a lot of uncertainty over the number of companies that will participate in placements,” said a placement official.

The number of participating companies on the campus would come down to around 70 from about 100 last year. In 2008, investment bankers including McKinsey, Lehman Brothers, Boston Consulting, Goldman Sach and Merrill Lynch were leading in terms of placement offers. Most of these companies are not participating in the final placement this year.

About 250 students will sit for placements this year. IIM-B's summer placements were also not all that successful this time. Only 55 students of the 2009 graduating batch have managed to get pre-placement offers as compared to 110 students of the 2008 graduating batch.

Also, unlike previous years when each student managed to get at least four or five offers on an average, this year it might not be the case.

Although all the IIMs have contacted a number of new companies to increase the pool, they are hoping that there is no overlap of offers. “In over-lapping, a student accepts only one offer, the rest get cancelled and go waste. We are hoping this does not happen this year,” said a placement chairperson from one of the IIMs who did not wish to be quoted.

IIM Calcutta, which held the first phase of its final placements process between February 21 and 24, saw 207 offers to 265 students. Out of the 207 offers, 33 are for international locations with assignments in the US, UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific. India still remained the preferred destination most of the students. Around 56 offers are pre-placement offers (PPOs), made to students based on the summer internships. Some PPOs were rejected owing to the expected curb on H1B visas by the US and location preferences.

The institute said it has seen an increase of around 20 per cent in its salary level so far. Last year, IIM-C recorded the highest salary at $340,000 (Rs 1.36 crore). The institute will resume placements on March 2 after the final examinations.

IT companies keep away

2009-01-21T23:53:00.001-08:00

Lateral placements (placements for those with work experience of around 2 years) have begun in B-schools across the country. However, information technology (IT) firms seem to be keeping away from campuses.

“This year, placements have not been as easy as last year. Lateral placements, which began last week, have been slow. While other sectors have been coming in, IT services companies have been virtually non-existent,” said ND Sharma, placement co-ordinator, KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies. Of the 130 eligible students from the batch of 300 in his institute, around 95 students have been placed.

“Last year, TCS recruited around 10 students during lateral placements. This year, the company took only one student. Infosys is not even visiting the campus,” added Sharma.

Sourav Mukherji, chairperson (placements) at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, (IIM-B) said as a part of the cost cutting measures, IT companies are playing safe in case of recruitment. “Fewer IT companies are visiting our campus during lateral placements. Instead of recruiting an average of 10 students, they are recruiting around 6-7 students only this year,” he added.

At IIM Ahmedabad, which is tight-lipped about its placements this year, approximately 120 students are eligible for lateral placements. Last year, around 37 consulting, private equity, real estate, finance, information technology, general management and marketing companies made 103 offers to 112 students at IIM-A.

The institute, however, is moving away from conservative sectors like international banks and consultancy firms and looking at fresh sectors this year. “We are inviting many first-time recruiters to the campus. We are keen to look at new and challenging roles for students. Although firms like consulting firms are among our long-standing recruiting partners, we are looking at a diverse set of sectors and firms this year,” said Mihir Lal, student co-ordinator, placements, IIM-A.

At the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) University, Ahmedabad, around 120 offers from 33 recruiters have been received for 250 students. “We expect another 35-40 recruiters during the next couple of months. IT companies have shown a gradual decline over two years. This year, there is a definite downward trend. Banking has emerged as a prominent sector. The other sectors that seem promising are insurance, media, FMCG, analytics and pharma manufacturing,” said an ICFAI spokesperson.

“Post-recruitment training is getting more importance now. Unlike last year, when we were the beneficiaries of bulk recruitment, recruiters are very selective this year. Moreover, the expectations of companies are increasing and they require candidates who would be able to deliver on the job,” the spokesperson added.

Harvard's hard lessons

2009-01-21T23:45:00.000-08:00

“Do you need to get back to rigorous studies?” asked Patricia.”I am getting rusty, and this programme is for people with 20 years of experience,” I replied, hoping she would donate some savings to finance my re-education. She did not.

Anyway, I landed at Harvard, with 150 other managers, directors, army commanders, bureaucrats, from 55 countries, to school for eight weeks.

The first surprise: Young clergyman John Harvard, whose name the university bears, did not donate much money; he bequeathed £779 (50 per cent of his estate), but 400 books! Thus, the Harvard monogram proclaims, “Books Tell The Truth!”

The second surprise: Harvard is a monastery! Wake up at 5.30 am, exercise; breakfast at 7 am, classes from 8 am to 4 or 5 pm. Dinner at 6.30 pm. Then, living-group homework between 8 and 11 pm. Later, return to your room to revise the next day’s case studies.

Certainly the professors were brilliant. Professor Yoffie taught us to encompass the strategy of mega corporations like Microsoft in one simple line. Professor Furhan guided us through labyrinths of international finance.

Dean Light and Nobel laureate Robert Merton explicated the causes leading to the financial meltdown. Professor Vietor reduced complex country budgets to ordinary balance sheets. “Identifying a consumer need is the seed of successful businesses,” said professor Quelch. Professor Nabil unraveled the mysteries of hedge funds.

To sleep five hours was a pure vision. Weekends involved incremental classes, meetings, working-dinners. Professor Tushman used case studies on Nike, Airbus and Wal-Mart to usher reality in class. We read cases during mealtimes, in taxis, and even at the barbers’! It was an intravenous injection of concentrated knowledge.

Professor Kotter lectured a day on leadership, and counseled that though we may learn 7,000 new ideas at the course, on return we should focus on just two. His ultimate warning was: “If I meet you at some airport, five years hence, I will only ask you, ‘What are you doing in your life?’”

That was the pivotal lesson: What are we doing with our lives? Do we matter in the lives of the poor, weak, embattled? Marketing, finance and production teach us to sell shampoo, shoe polish, shaving cream. But is that our principal goal in life? How do we build a better community, and become leaders who make a difference?

Five weeks and 2,500 pages later, my eyes were red and swollen. I would sneak out and take long walks in the lush, manicured lawns of the campus, dodging darting squirrels and turkeys. It was fall time, dry brown leaves fluttered in the cold, freezing breeze. I ruminated on why some companies turned monolithic, others atrophied.

We pondered how our lives could have been, had we come to Harvard earlier. Harvard is a factory, producing presidents for countries and corporations — John Kennedy, Bill Gates, Rahul Bajaj, to name a few. Harvard is flush with endowments of $38.7 billion in the treasury. Its mahogany classrooms, carpets, art, living rooms, symposium halls would rate it a seven-star school.

In eight weeks, 150 students from multifarious continents stayed interwoven into a stout community. We willingly gave up preferred pleasures to keep the team bonded. The minds exercised, but the hearts ruled. We knew we could lean on each other, anytime, anywhere. Eight weeks and 900 hours of hard academic labour forged us into caring friends and alumni. I fantasised: cluster/insulate leaders like Obama, Brown, Bin-Laden, Manmohan, Zardari, Ahmadinejad, Peres, under a roof for two months to hammer out a “Peace Plan World 2009”. The Harvard Advanced Management module of work might deliver.

Folklore builds institutions. The myth around this programme is that, on completion, 60 per cent of the participants change jobs and 20 per cent change partners.

On my return, Patricia queried, “Have you been transformed? Are you promoted? What are your plans?”

I replied, “My plan is to sleep. I suffer from ‘acute sleep-deficiency’. Then, I will labour five years to return my bank loan of $70,000 for my management pilgrimage.”

“Professor Kotter will be desperately disappointed in you,” she ruled. Perhaps.

Rajendra K Aneja is the chief executive officer of a foods company in Dubai.

University of Cambridge offers new scholarship for Indians

2009-01-12T02:58:00.000-08:00

The University of Cambridge today announced a new scholarship programme for Indian students in honour of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to provide full funding, covering fees and means-tested maintenance, for undergraduate study in any subject at any of the colleges that are part of the University of Cambridge.

A 1.5 million pound (Rs 9.75 crore) fund has been set up to support the Indian students, including a half million pound endowment in perpetuity.

As the programme develops, there are expected to be up to ten Manmohan Singh undergraduate scholars studying at the University at any one time. This initiative will enable more Indian students to study at Cambridge.

The fund will be underpinned by substantial funding from Cambridge Assessment, a department of the University and the parent of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE).

Salaries drop at IIFT

2009-01-01T23:57:00.001-08:00

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade(IIFT),one of the premier B-schools in the country, has seen a 30 to 40 per cent drop in average packages offered at its lateral placements that concluded about a fortnight ago, and expects a similar trend in the upcoming fresher placements in January, owing to the downturn.

Around 50 students appeared for the lateral placements this year out of a total strength of 180 across the two IIFT campuses in Delhi and Kolkata and the institute has tasted 70 per cent success including pre-placement offers. "While the average package for lateral placements in the last academic session ranged between Rs12- 15 lakh per annum(pa), this year the average package offered is down to Rs 6 to 8 lakh pa. This could further go down during the fresher placements in January.", admitted K Rangarajan,head of IIFT Kolkata campus and Centre of MSME Studies at the institute. "As businesses try to focus on reducing overhead costs including expenditure on human resources, the package sizes offered have gone down.", he added. Sources in IIFT claimed that corporates are also trying to make the most of the current situation to avail cheaper manpower. Some students, it is learnt, have turned down offers.

"Around 40 to 45 per cent of the visiting companies are from the manufacturing sector this time.This is significantly more compared to other years when the balance was steeply in favour of service sector firms that comprised nearly 80 per cent of the portfolio.", Ranagarajan informed.

US universities sell executive courses in India

2009-01-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

Faced with a severe downturn at home, several US universities have now turned to India to sell their executive education programmes.

A team of professors from nine universities, including The Ohio State University, George Washington University and Northeastern University, is currently in the country to meet top companies for this purpose. Some of the companies this team plans to meet are Siemens India, RPG Enterprises, GlaxoSmithkline, Mphasis and Infosys Technologies.

“Our university has lost corporate clients to the slowdown. We are in India to build a relationship with the companies here,” said Professor Sumit Kundu, faculty director of E-MBA and coordinator (department of management and international business), Florida International University.

In the past, executive education programmes have been a good source of revenue for universities in the US. In some cases, their contribution to the annual revenue was as high as 40 per cent.

Until some months back, companies in the US used to fully reimburse the students who went for such programmes. Thanks to the meltdown, the same companies have now decided to slash the subsidy by 50 per cent and more. As a result, there are few takers for these programmes. “Certainly, revenue is suffering,” said Kundu.

India, to be sure, could be a good hunting ground for these universities as there is a shortage of executive education programmes in Indian business schools. Though there are over 1,500 business schools in India, only the Indian Institutes of Management and other quality B-schools offer such programmes. In contrast, around 500 universities in the US run executive education programmes.

“This serves as an opportunity for us to reach out to the business education market in India,” said V Kanti Prasad, Dean and Bostrom Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

The US universities however have not slashed the executive education fee, in spite of the slowdown. For instance, Florida International University charges around $50,000. It is looking at charging around $100 per hour as executive education fee from Indian companies.

It helps that six quarters of contraction makes it that much easier for a positive uptick since the base effect kicks in. There is, though, he admits, no one number that captures the shift in mood as yet – the unemployment numbers later this week could well show a hike.

Unlike former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan, who was featured in this space yesterday, Chaudhuri remains bullish on India and forecasts growth of a little over 7 per cent this year and a little under 7.5 per in 2009-10. The maths? Consumption demand, he asserts, is by and large unaffected except in segments like automobiles (more on that later); exports will continue to fare badly, but since imports will also fall because of the lower crude oil prices, the net effect on GDP growth will be negligible and may even be positive (think GDP=C+I+G+X-M).

Chaudhuri sees investment falling in the first half of 2009-10, but once confidence returns (aided by the fact that, once global markets revive, India Inc will find it easier to raise funds overseas), it will rebound in the second half. Don’t forget, he says, Indian companies are raising debt even now – and a very low Libor means, even at higher spreads, the rates are attractive. Debt, of course, is one end of the spectrum, and Chaudhuri acknowledges that unless markets revive, there will be no equity – so, return of confidence is the key.

What can the government do to raise confidence? Chaudhuri ticks off the usual infrastructure spending and lower interest rates; he then adds that RBI needs to ‘rebuild competition in the domestic credit sector’.

In a nutshell, the truck/construction-machinery/two-wheeler industry, for instance, is largely financed by NBFCs which are facing a liquidity problem thanks to the pressure on mutual funds –RBI has already taken measures to provide them refinance windows and needs to keep a vigil on this. “Once NBFCs are liquid, a large part of the demand will return.” A tenth of incremental credit in the economy comes from this sector. Chaudhuri doesn’t think there is any need for a large stimulus package of the sort several of his brethren are calling for, primarily since India’s fundamentals and demand remain intact and the corporate sector is in very good shape.

The joker in the pack is the next government. He is convinced, however, that even if the BJP or the Congress pre-election coalitions are unable to get enough seats, neither will extend support to a possible Third Front government, given the levels of tension with Pakistan and even the possibility of war. What if he’s wrong and a Third Front comes to power? Will India Inc still invest? “Tear up everything I’ve said on the economy, make a rocket and fly it.”

CAT-2008 result and scores

2008-12-23T22:18:00.000-08:00

* CAT RESULTS The results of CAT 2008 will be available from January 9th 2009 on the cat website: www.catiim.in. The scores can be accessed by keying in the test registration number and either the date of birth (preferred) or the cat application number.

* CAT-takers can also access their CAT-2008 scores by using SMS facility of mobile phones. For SMS, candidate can type ?CAT test registration number date of birth (ddmmyy)? or ?CAT test registration number application number? for example: ?CAT 5370082 030482? or ?CAT 5370082 123456? and SMS to ? 57333?.

* CAT RESULTS by E-MAIL: Candidates who wish to get their results by e-mail should register themselves between October 24, 2008 and November 30, 2008 by sending an SMS to 57333 as follows: ?CAT registration number date of birth (ddmmyy) email id? Please note that only one e-mail id will be registered against a test registration number. Example:If TRno is 1234567 & DOB is 20-Feb-1986, then the msg format will be: CAT 1234567 200286 abc@rediffmail.com

Please Note that the Date for Registering E-mail address by SMS is from 24th Oct 2008.

WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

2008-12-22T23:41:00.000-08:00

WHILE MY BUSINESS SCHOOL experience was certainly one of the most enriching, I have realised over time that life is a bigger teacher. My experiences, personal and professional, the people I have met from different walks of life as well as all the reading that I have done over the years have probably taught me more about business than my B-school education.Here are some of the things that I have learned over the years that help me with my everyday journey.

Think win-win: I believe that essentially people have two types of mindsets — one, of scarcity, and the other, of abundance. When you look at something from the first perspective you are playing a win-lose game, which always hurts in the long term. You may win a couple of deals but sooner or later the person who has lost will resent you. But if you look at things from the second viewpoint, you can build more lasting relationships. Win-win requires that you put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Understand before being understood: I read in a book once that being understood is a basic need of every human being. It is akin to the oxygen one needs to breathe to live. Therefore, when you simply start talking without understanding another person, it is like taking away that person’s oxygen. Much of business success depends on effective communication between teams and consequently having the ability to be understood.

Begin with the end: To begin with the end is to start with a clear idea of the goal. Once that is clear, you will have a better idea of the steps you need to take to get to that destination. Imagine the kind of house you would end up with if you started building it without a visual representation of what it should eventually look like. The same rules should apply in business. All too often I find people struggling with seemingly simple tasks — more often than not, they are not clear about what they are trying to achieve or somewhere along the track they lose perspective of their goals.

Build credibility: Real trust comes from developing a sincere interest in others and being committed to them. It comes from making only those promises that you can keep, even in adverse conditions. Life, especially in business, moves in circles rather than a straight line. You will meet the same people again, you will be faced with similar situations more than once, and you will be tested again and again. What will ultimately matter is your conduct and your final actions. People tend to trust people who have build credibility by doing the right things.

Anupam G Mittal graduated from Boston College in 1996

XIMB expects 25% growth in pre-placement offers (PPOs)

2008-12-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) is expecting over 25 per cent growth in its pre-placement offers (PPOs) this year, compared to last year despite the prevailing economic turmoil.

The premier B-school has already received 32 PPOs this year from top companies like Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Tata Group HR, JP Morgan Chase, Cognizant, Axis Bank, Hindustan Times, Godrej, Britannia and Genpact to name a few. More PPOs are in the offing as companies are expected to make offers till the end of this month. Last year, XIMB had bagged 32 PPOs.

Apart from PPOs, the management institute has also been able to secure summer internships for nearly 90 per cent of the first year students of its PGP (post graduate programme) in management. The institute is now gearing itself for Xuberance, the final campus recruitment programme for the 2007-09 batch of PGP students which is scheduled for January 15-22 next year.

Over 100 companies are expected to visit the XIMB campus during this year’s final placements as against 62 companies which visited last year. In last year’s placements, the recruiters across different sectors made a total of 218 offers for the 118 students. Last year, the highest international offer was $85,000 per annum and the highest domestic package stood at Rs 16.5 lakh per annum with the average salary on offer being Rs 10.12 lakh per annum.

Talking on the final placements for the current batch, Sabeeta Mohanty, head, placements committee, XIMB said, “The growth in average salary is likely to be stagnant during this year’s placements owing to the prevailing economic downturn. However, none of our regular recruiters have indicated that they will be hiring lesser students this year”. It may be noted that XIMB has recorded about 100 per cent growth in its average salary over the past three years.

“Many companies are yet to make any final commitment on recruitments as they have kept their fingers crossed over the impending third quarter results. This year, the banking and financial services sector is unlikely to emerge as the top recruiter and we are expecting more recruitment from other sectors”, she added.

FMCG tops students' wishlist

2008-12-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector has emerged as the most popular industry of choice for the 2009 batch of management graduates. The latest Nielsen Campus Track–B School Survey states.

Vatsala Pant, associate director, The Nielsen Company, said: “Preferences seem to have shifted in favour of large business conglomerates and the IT sector as a consequence of the current global financial turmoil. In particular, students are opting for FMCG companies over the financial sector.”

“Indeed, considering the current financial job market, the security offered by the FMCG industry has become a major attraction for graduates,” Pant added.

Management Consulting (35 per cent), Software/IT Consulting (23 per cent), Foreign Banks and Retailing (both 22 per cent) join FMCG as the five most popular sectors for students, reflecting a change in order of preference.

The survey interviewed around 1,311 management students from the top 40 management institutes. According to the Nielsen survey, a students’ dream company list includes the likes of McKinsey & Co, Google, HUL, Accenture and P&G. Almost 30 per cent of the students named Ratan Tata as their role model.

Personal growth and independence in decision-making are the top factors which students consider before joining a company. The other important factors for students before zeroing in on a company include take-home salary, reputation of the company and flexible working hours.

The average salary expectation of students from their dream company is Rs 14 lakh this year although more than half the respondents have mentally scaled back their expected salary because of the recent financial market environment, particularly those specialising in finance. Of the five most promising sectors for the future — Retailing (30 per cent) topped the list. Management Consultancies (27 per cent), Entertainment and Media (25 per cent), FMCG (21 per cent) and Investment Banking (19 per cent).

“The retail industry has been growing in popularity with graduates over the last few years. Changing government policies and the influx of foreign banners in the sector, along with the entry of big Indian banners, have combined to form a strong pull for the industry,” said Pant.

IIITs hit stumbling block; troubled IT firms may not fund

2008-12-15T22:46:00.001-08:00

Around 8 IT firms have withdrawn from partnering 11 out of the 20 IIITs, says govt.

The global economic slowdown is casting a shadow of doubt on the Ministry of Human Resources Development's ambitious plans to set up 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), even as differences over autonomy have been solved.

The idea of Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) was conceived to develop professional expertise and skilled manpower in information technology (IT) and related areas to meet the challenges being thrown up by the rapid global IT revolution.

Around eight IT companies had committed to partner the government to set up 11 out of the 20 IIITs but are now planning to back out since their own businesses are suffering, sources in the Planning Commission said.

“The support looks difficult to come by. We have already received intimation from a few companies in this regard," a Planning Commission member told Business Standard.

The member declined to name those who had withdrawn but added that they counted among the country’s top IT companies.

"Some had committed to setting up one IIIT and others had promised financial assistance for more than one institute. These companies had committed funds of over Rs 100 crore towards each IIIT," said a source, who is on the board of one of the IT companies that has committed to setting up an IIIT.

Sources said in the new IIITs, the government is considering a model in which the private sector and government will be equal stakeholders, investing Rs 50 crore each.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, sources said, was even planning to start classes from temporary campuses as it has done in the case of three new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) which are operating from make-shift campuses in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. They are being mentored by the older IITs — Delhi, Chennai and Bombay respectively.

The government has already set up four IIITs in Gwalior (1997), Allahabad (1999), Kancheepuram (2000) and Jabalpur (2005). Three others have been set up by the state governments in partnership with the private sector in Hyderabad, Kerala and Bangalore. The IIIT in Bangalore has Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy as the institute's chairman.

The plan to set up 20 new IIITs was proposed by IT industry body Nasscom in May 2008. The body presented a model Detailed Project Report (DPR) involving partnerships between the central government, the respective state governments and IT companies.

Last week, the government decided that while the new IIITs will enjoy autonomy, the government can question their functioning if the need arises.

A committee set up to examine the proposal has submitted its report suggesting that the Planning Commission should leave it to the state government to give land to identify the place and industry to support the ventures.

The committee has suggested that the government should give importance to north-eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir which does not have a single IIIT. The proposal will come up for Cabinet approval soon.

CAT's new structure may raise the bar for aspirants

2008-12-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

Thousands of students who took the Common Admission Test (CAT) this November fear the increased weight given to verbal questions may cost them their place at the top ranked B-schools.

Last year, there were 27 questions in the verbal section which has risen to 40 this year. This includes 20 questions on grammar and English usage and 20 questions on comprehension. The answers to these questions may not match the answer keys, soon to be released by the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), since verbal queries, unlike quantitative ones, are open to interpretation.

“Although we solved almost all the questions in the verbal section and believe the answers are right to the best of our knowledge, we are still unsure that they would be considered right by the institutes. Since questions in the verbal section are based on subjective interpretations, we are not sure whether our answers would be endorsed by the IIMs. Even a post-CAT discussion about verbal section among peers who took CAT led to a lot of confusion,” rues Sameer Pujar, a Bangalore-based IT firm employee who took the CAT this year.

The student concerns have been highlighted by MBAUniverse — a management information portal which analysed the answer keys released by MBA preparation institutes including IMS, TIME, Career Launcher and PT Education — which concluded that in nine of the 20 questions, the institutes had different answers. “We have found nine questions where experts from MBA preparation institutes have come up with different answers.

The answers will be released by the IIMs on January 9, but even then, we do not expect to get any explanations from the IIMs on why a particular answer is correct,” said an official from MBAUniverse.

Ajay Arora, Bangalore-based director of TIME, a coaching institute said that since CAT 2006, some questions — especially in the verbal section — have been found to be ambiguous every year. “We have seen that in a number of questions, at least two of the options could be interpreted as the right answer,” he said.

In fact, Gautam Puri — an IIM-Bangalore alumnus and MD of Career Launcher, a coaching institute — had filed an application under the RTI Act seeking solutions to questions in the English section of CAT 2006 after noting that some of the answers were disputable. However, the CAT group communicated to him that due to security reasons, CAT solutions are not preserved. “We have followed the procedure of not maintaining documents relating to CAT solutions to avoid leaks. We provide the answer keys for the benefit of students,” said an IIM admission official.

“It is unfortunate that a number of questions are interpreted differently by different people. There have been questions where students have been asked to state if a given paragraph is a fact, an inference or a judgement. Answers to some of these questions don't seem to correspond with the paragraph,” says Puri. Nevertheless, the 250,000 students who appeared for CAT 2008 will have to wait till January 9 for the answer.

2008 The Times Higher Education’s world university rankings

2008-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

1 HARVARD University United States
2 YALE University United States
3 University of CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom
4 University of OXFORD United Kingdom
5 CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Calt... United States
6 IMPERIAL College London United Kingdom
7 UCL (University College London) United Kingdom
8 University of CHICAGO United States
9 MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (M... United States
10 COLUMBIA University United States
11 University of PENNSYLVANIA United States
12 PRINCETON University United States
13= DUKE University United States
13= JOHNS HOPKINS University United States
15 CORNELL University United States
16 AUSTRALIAN National University Australia
17 STANFORD University United States
18 University of MICHIGAN United States
19 University of TOKYO Japan
20 MCGILL University Canada
21 CARNEGIE MELLON University United States
22 KING'S College London United Kingdom
23 University of EDINBURGH United Kingdom
24 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of T... Switzerland
25 KYOTO University Japan
26 University of HONG KONG Hong Kong
27 BROWN University United States
28 École Normale Supérieure, PARIS France
29 University of MANCHESTER United Kingdom
30= National University of SINGAPORE(NUS) Singapore
30= University of CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles (U... United States
32 University of BRISTOL United Kingdom
33 NORTHWESTERN University United States
34= ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE France
34= University of BRITISH COLUMBIA Canada
36 University of California, BERKELEY United States
37 The University of SYDNEY Australia
38 The University of MELBOURNE Australia
39 HONG KONG University of Science & Techno... Hong Kong
40 NEW YORK University (NYU) United States
41 University of TORONTO Canada
42 The CHINESE University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
43 University of QUEENSLAND Australia
44 OSAKA University Japan
45 University of NEW SOUTH WALES Australia
46 BOSTON University United States
47 MONASH University Australia
48 University of COPENHAGEN Denmark
49 TRINITY College Dublin Ireland
50= Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de LAUSANNE... Switzerland
50= PEKING University China
50= SEOUL National University Korea, South
53 University of AMSTERDAM Netherlands
54 DARTMOUTH College United States
55 University of WISCONSIN-Madison United States
56 TSINGHUA University China
57 HEIDELBERG Universität Germany
58 University of CALIFORNIA, San Diego United States
59 University of WASHINGTON United States
60 WASHINGTON University in St. Louis United States
61 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan
62 EMORY University United States
63 UPPSALA University Sweden
64 LEIDEN University Netherlands
65 The University of AUCKLAND New Zealand
66 LONDON School of Economics and Political... United Kingdom
67 UTRECHT University Netherlands
68 University of GENEVA Switzerland
69 University of WARWICK United Kingdom
70 University of TEXAS at Austin United States
71 University of ILLINOIS United States
72 Katholieke Universiteit LEUVEN Belgium
73 University of GLASGOW United Kingdom
74 University of ALBERTA Canada
75 University of BIRMINGHAM United Kingdom
76 University of SHEFFIELD United Kingdom
77 NANYANG Technological University Singapore
78= DELFT University of Technology Netherlands
78= RICE University United States
78= Technische Universität MÜNCHEN Germany
81= University of AARHUS Denmark
81= University of YORK United Kingdom
83= GEORGIA Institute of Technology United States
83= The University of WESTERN AUSTRALIA Australia
83= University of ST ANDREWS United Kingdom
86 University of NOTTINGHAM United Kingdom
87 University of MINNESOTA United States
88 LUND University Sweden
89 University of CALIFORNIA, Davis United States
90 CASE WESTERN RESERVE University United States
91= Université de Montréal Canada
91= University of HELSINKI Finland
93= Hebrew University of JERUSALEM Israel
93= Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
95 KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Scie... Korea, South
96 University of VIRGINIA United States
97 University of PITTSBURGH United States
98 University of CALIFORNIA, Santa Barbara United States
99= PURDUE University United States
99= University of SOUTHAMPTON United Kingdom

Central university in each state by 2012

2008-09-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

EDUCATION TO SPREAD ITS WINGS
Cities identified for locating 14 central universities during the 11th Plan
State City

Maharashtra Pune
West Bengal Kolkata
Tamil Nadu Coimbatore
Karnataka Mysore
Andhra Pradesh Vishakapatanam
Gujarat Gandhinagar
Rajasthan Jaipur
Bihar Patna
Madhya Pradesh Bhopal
Kerala Kochi
Punjab Amritsar
Orissa Bhubaneswar
Uttar Padesh Greater Noida
North Eastern Region Guwahati

The universities will be multidisciplinary with a national and international faculty pool. A common entrance test is also being planned. However, any decision regarding the universities concerned will be taken after they are up and running.

Bringing an ordinance in place is a necessary condition to facilitate the formation of these universities. Establishment of these central universities in the above states is subject to state governments offering adequate land at suitable locations and free of cost. Each state government concerned is being requested to offer land accordingly, says a professor familiar with the development.

Learning from life WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

2008-08-28T05:07:00.002-07:00

The degrees earned at business school are the ones that give you an edge, but there is more to it than that. There are vital lessons which you learn through the course of your life. These important principles in life have taken me forward in my profession and shaped my viewpoints.

Find a vacuum and fill it: Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. The first rule for a manager is to train himself to see vacuums, or gaps, in the market and then to fill them. Look around, it doesn’t matter how big or small your area of operation is. The principle remains the same: find that vacuum and fill it fast, before someone else does.

Embrace change as a way of life: The graveyard of business is littered with companies that failed to recognise the need to change. Be open to new ideas and anticipate constant change. Vigilance is a great asset. Always look for new ways to do things and believe that, once it works, it will soon be obsolete. Change is constant. Change is everywhere. Deal with it, or your business will die.

Measure for measure: Benchmarking is the cornerstone of continuous improvement. It makes you focus on basic issues as to how one can improve and how others are doing the same thing better. A good manager should always have a healthy disregard for the status quo. Benchmarking allows this dissatisfaction to be channeled into productive change. It should be a state of mind rather than a performance review.

Chase quality, not quantity: Perhaps it is a gift rather than a quality — a gift of being able to distinguish between what is ordinary and something that other people recognise as outstanding, as exceptional. Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives. If you want to compete with the best, you have to worry about every detail. Competition is tough, but if the standard of service and attention to detail exceeds expectations, you are halfway to winning customer loyalty.

People build brands, brands do not build people: A brand is only as good as the people behind it and their passion for excellence. Even dominant brands also must be constantly reinvented through infusion of fresh ideas. While a powerful tool, a brand is only as good as the people using it — and if you have chosen the right people, they can just as easily create a new brand and even, in some cases, fashion a better one if asked. In a nutshell, people build brands, brands don’t build people.

Be prepared for anything:
We can’t control every event but we can control our response to it. As a business we need to be lean and strong. If we are not, we will not be able to go through a crisis in case it hits us. You have to win — so many people are depending on you. That is why you have to be prepared for any type of emergency and be able to adapt to it on short notice.

The Author : "Rahul Nath"-> graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1987

Preparatory schools go the IIM way

2008-08-28T05:07:00.001-07:00

Leading institutes line up large investments to give online training.
With the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) mulling to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) online in a couple of years, MBA test-preparing institutes like Career Launcher and TIME are also preparing to get their online act together.

Career Launcher, for instance, plans to invest around Rs 3 million across its centres to provide computer terminals for its students. “CAT online means taking a test on the computer which serves questions from a local server. We are working towards equipping ourselves with training and putting our methodology in place,” says Shiva Kumar, Director, Career Launcher, an MBA-test preparing institute.

TIME, on the other hand, says it could tie-up with a network of colleges or companies like Reliance Infocom to facilitate online training for its students. “We are looking at tying up with computer training institutes or a network of colleges with computer labs at various centres to conduct computer-based training sessions,” said Jaideep Singh Chaudhary, product manager — CAT, TIME. TIME has around 169 offices across 81 cities and it trains over 50,000 students for CAT exam alone.

Online testing could allow a host of flexibilities like convenience of testing across various centers, conducting test at any time of the year in a phased-out manner over a span of 30-odd days and validity of scores beyond a year — to the IIMs admission committee and the students.

According to sources, IIMs have already invited tenders for conducting the test by parties or companies with ability to put up infrastructure that can handle the exam on such a large scale. The CAT exams could be formatted on the lines of the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) so that the scores are valid for a year or two.

Meanwhile, the IIMs are considering online CAT to counter the burgeoning number of CAT applicants each year. The numbers have moved from 90,000 aspirants to 2.3 lakh aspirants (in 2007) over a span of four years. This year the number of students to appear for CAT are expected to go up to 300,000 students. In comparison, a decade ago, the number of CAT applicants was somewhere around 35,000.

Industry players are also expecting that an online exam could reduce the number of questions. “The number of questions in CAT has been reducing constantly. In the past two years, there have been 75 questions in total. It is 45 per cent of the total number questions that came in CAT 1998. Interestingly, there are around 75 questions in GMAT which is on-line too,” adds Kumar.

Online CAT would mean that comfort with working on and reading from the computer is a must for students. Part of the practice for students will shift to the computers. “Though the fundamentals would remain the same, people could be more willing to learn through computers,” adds Kumar.

While there are concerns about security breaches to the test process, industry players say CAT online can look at BITSAT—graduate admission exams being successfully applied by BITS, Pilani.

“The BITSAT model has an outsourced partner who has built the testing engine, which generates tests based on a tagged database supplied by the authorities. For BITSAT, BITS Pilani conducts tests at designated centers over a span of 40 days. Students book the time slot when they would want to take the test.

While students who take the tests in a particular time slot would similar papers, candidates in different time slots get different papers,” says a professor from a management institute which takes CAT scores for admission. The number of students who took BITSAT last year was 90,000 and is expected to touch 1.3 lakh this year.

The good news for students, however, could be that though these institutes are looking at upgrading their infrastructure to meet the needs of online CAT, they do not plan to pass on the cost to the students, at present. The fee that these institutes charge from students varies between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 per year for tier I towns and Rs 18,000 for tier II towns.

Dotting the 'I' WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT BUSINESS SCHOOL

2008-08-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

Having started to build a company just a year after my graduation, I had no idea that my business school education would come in so useful at every step of the way. Yet there are such critical aspects in building and running a company that cannot be learnt in a classroom.
First is the importance of building relationships. Anyone that was part of the first “sale” by a company will vouch to the critical role that the relationship and trust built with the customer by the founder and the sales team played in landing the sale. Our company was able to successfully execute four strategic M&As in the last two years and the clinching point for each of these was the mutual trust and good faith that we shared with the sellers.

People work with people, and managers need to learn to invest in building these relationships over a period of time and not always look for immediate return on time and effort spent. B-schools tend to overlook this critical human aspect when they teach sales and marketing, strategy and negotiations.

Crisis management is another area where we learn very little in business school. Most companies, especially in their early years, face crises of various types and magnitudes — cash flow situations, senior management attrition, market turmoil and so on. Learning to deal with and overcome these crises is critical to survival and success. At one level, this involves addressing the immediate issue at hand, but at another, it requires re-building of confidence and re-commitment to the strategic direction, which is lost sight of in a crisis.

Third, most management programmes encourage students to take a high-level perspective of things, and less attention is provided to dotting the “I”s and cross the “T”s. It is dangerous for senior management to take their attention away from the detail. A strategy that’s not grounded in basic details may be disconnected from the reality.

Fourth, on a related point in strategy formulation, while it is critical for senior management to stay focused on the strategic direction at all times, they also need to be dynamic in learning from the market, and be pragmatic in refocusing their direction when necessary. The ability to know when to stay on the chartered course and when to change direction based on market responses can be cultivated only from years of experience and is not something that can easily be taught in a classroom.

Finally, most MBA graduates are hard-wired towards success and are not effective in dealing with failure. Personally and professionally, it is when one learns to deal with and learn from failure that the fear of failure vanishes, and innovation and risk-taking start taking root.

The Author:"Kami Narayan" graduated from Harvard Business School

Learn to sell WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

2008-08-05T02:55:00.001-07:00

Let me preface this column by saying that B-school education is extremely useful and important for people wanting to succeed at business in these competitive times. However, there are a number of essential skills and topics that I believe are not taught at B-school, but are critical in making a person succeed at the highest level.

First, the most basic but immensely practical subject is that of “administration”. Much of the young graduate managers that pass out of B-schools are not taught the basics of good administration. In the initial part of their careers, the lack of administration skills cause them to stumble and take hard knocks where none were necessary.

I am amazed how smart, intelligent graduates falter at basics like time management, filing, the simple yet effective art of “follow-ups”, taking notes for research and presenting crisp, complete memos and “bulletin” or a “scoreboard” of the task at hand. Many of these may be thought of as old-fashioned, but I think our fathers and grandfathers were more effective at these and did better with paper and pencil than today’s B-school grads with their laptops.

The second thing that I find most B-schools don’t teach is that one thing that makes or breaks a business or takes an already running business to the next level — “selling”! It is seen to be infra dig and almost looked down upon with contempt. I think that is deplorable because businesses thrive on cash-flows generated by selling products and services.

Nothing is more injurious to the financial health and morale of the company than poor sales. Other subjects are given far more importance than sales. But in reality, selling is an essential skill for all people wanting to run a business.

B-schools encourage competition and don’t teach young, aspiring leaders on how to collaborate rather than compete. In the real world, the people who collaborate with their team-members and outside stakeholders (clients, partners and distributors) do much better than highly intelligent and capable managers who are seen to be “selfish” and/or “solo-performers”.

Last, the more senior one gets in the company, what matters is “who you want to become” rather than “what you will do”. Let me explain — people are not clear whether they want to be great marketers, great systems analyst or maybe even start-up specialists.

That is where one should be honing their skills and art. Instead, people’s decision-making is more reliant on what others are saying or doing, what is currently a “hot” industry or trend, or a lot of times — what pays more. That approach can carry you to some extent, but ultimately to be “great” at anything, you need clarity of who you want to become and what you will be known for, that is, your legacy. That is the ultimate question.

Rajiv Jamkhedkar graduated from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University

Package to woo retiring IIT faculty mooted

2008-07-31T23:35:00.000-07:00

Retired IIT professors and government scientists as well as bright students on the verge of finishing their Ph.D could soon become the target of IIT faculty recruitment, with the government suggesting a special package to woo them.

As the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, kicked off its golden jubilee celebrations on Thursday, the spotlight shifted from the achievements of the past to the challenges facing the elite technical institutions in the future.

With the mushrooming of engineering institutions, including six new IITs being launched this year, “shortage of faculty is an area of acute concern,” Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari, said at the inauguration function. “The quality of their graduates would depend on the quality of their teachers… Compounding this problem is the fact that there is a drain from teaching and research into other, more lucrative fields.”

One way of dealing with this problem would be for the IITs to “consider providing a special package for those faculty members retiring at the age of 65 as well as for eminent scientists retiring at the age of 60 from CSIR laboratories, DRDO laboratories or some private corporations,” said the Minister.

She also suggested that the IITs take a proactive approach and compile data on potential young candidates available abroad. If the IITs could recruit students on the verge of completing post-doctoral research either in India or abroad, once they were earmarked as potential faculty, they could be given support to continue post-doctoral research in any premier institution of their choice, she said. “The IITs can also consider employing adjunct faculty from the ranks of those working in industrial R&D establishments as well as faculty members of Indian origin working in American and European universities,” she added.

The IITs should look to retain the 1,000 Ph.D scholars passing out of their own institutions every year, as well as attract the 50,000 Indian students doing their Ph.D. abroad, said R.P. Agrawal, secretary, Higher Education, in the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development. He said the Ministry was aware of the questions of quantity trumping quality arising as the new IITs opened their doors.

“There are concerns about the new IITs … that brand equity will get diluted. We are alive to these concerns and are taking measures to ensure that quality does not go down,” he said. “The challenge is to expand with equity and excellence, to retain our core values while being open to the healthy winds of change.”
For a curious mix

IIT-M has attempted to keep that mix of tradition and innovation throughout the last 50 years. It was inaugurated as India’s third IIT on July 31, 1959, with West German cooperation.

The German links are still alive, testified German Ambassador to India Bernd Mutzelburg. One reason why so many German companies had invested in Tamil Nadu was the IIT connection, he said. “It has become, in some sense, the pride of Germany as well…The most important investment we ever made [in India] was into IIT-Madras, because it was into the brains and hearts of Indians. It pays out now in so many ways for our strategic interests.”
Human resource

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said IIT and other high quality educational institutions were responsible for the vast pool of trained human resource that made Tamil Nadu such an attractive State for industrial investors.

He invited the IIT faculty, students and alumni to become part of the Information Technology Academy being launched by the State government to improve the quality of technical manpower.

IIM-A students set up PE, VC interest club

2008-07-30T02:30:00.001-07:00

Five post-graduate programme (PGP) students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have set up a Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) club to help students get hands-on experience by involving PE/VC players from India and abroad. Unlike finance clubs run by most B-schools in the country, this club exclusively focuses on PE and VC funding.

The lack of opportunities and experience in the PE and VC space led five students to set up the club called 'Leverage'. With around 50 students interested in being members, the club will be a forum for students interested in all aspects of private equity and venture capital.

"We came up with an initial skeletal structure of the PE club by looking at institutes like Harvard and others from the Ivy League. But the end product has been entirely our idea of how a PE club should be. Although we prefer to call it an interest group for the time being, we plan to run a full-fledged club with more activities soon," says Anirudh Singh, a member of the club.

"PE as an industry has boomed in India and we plan to invite speakers to the campus, hold conclaves, workshops and other events to provide a platform for the students and corporates to interact. Also, we are looking forward to hold intra-institute events, where the students can write an investment proposal and a panel of faculty members can judge them.

We have no restrictions when it comes to corporates as we would be involving both top- and middle-level players to encourage more and more activities in the field of PE and VC," says Gagandeep Singh, another member of the club.

As part of formalising the club, the students are holding the first intra-institute event called the 'Zen of Investing', where the club plans to invite alumni working in the area of private equity, besides involving the faculty and students for the activity.

The club also has plans to tie-up with Post-Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) students to getter a better perspective of private equity. "The PGPX students would be able to share their experiences about private equity and with their support, we plan to involve ourselves with the corporates in a deeper way through various activities, including projects and case workshops," adds Anirudh Singh.

The club is in talks with a few corporates, who have shown interest in sponsoring the club.

"We are considering more options for funding besides the institute and the corporates we are in talks with. Currently, we are in the stage of gauging the responses from the people about the club," says Anirudh Singh, before adding, "Although we have started out PE and VC, we may consider branching out to other areas like micro finance later."

Learning the ropes WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

2008-07-22T01:13:00.000-07:00

B-school education is certainly a quantum jump over the education that one obtains at a typical arts, science, commerce or engineering college in India.

However, there are certain areas that at times get left out. These do not relate to academic inputs, including latest case studies, but to certain other points which do not get considered.

Negotiation and the zero-sum game: Lessons learnt from our elders in the art of negotiation dictate that we must win in the negotiation game, and win at any cost.

This game is frequently played out with hapless street vendors who are vanquished and exploited. It is dangerous to bring this attitude to the corporate sector, where you need partners to support you in the long run, and not the equivalent of the street vendor, who has been pushed into the red through robust and relentless negotiation.

The nuts and bolts of business: This may be a broad generalisation, but I find young B-school grads reluctant to spend their first few years learning the ropes of how a business runs.

Any opportunity to rough it out and spend some time on learning the basics of selling, financial accounting, programming, handling in-coming calls must be welcomed with certain humility.

There are hundreds of valuable lessons that one learns in the first five years of work. Even if you have had work experience, you will find it valuable to start at a grass-roots level. This helps you to have a fresh look at various aspects of a business.

Soldiering on when the chips are down: Businesses have many ups and downs and the lessons learnt in a downturn or startup are very valuable.

While turnaround stories are the stuff of many case studies, there is often not much romance when one starts working on a turnaround. These are usually stories of sweat and toil and of getting little things done with a lot of discipline, logic and self-belief.

The lessons from karma yoga: One needs to maintain and enhance self-esteem at all times, and explain the rationale behind one's action.

Work without attachment to the fruits does not mean that one is not goal-oriented, but that one does not get so obsessed with the results that everything else becomes secondary. Building the right culture is one of the greatest challenges faced by a leader today.

An MBA gets into a position of leadership very quickly. What must be the attitude of a leader, how would he approach work, success or failure, which includes his own failure, and his team's failure, are all moot points.

At a collective level and at an individual one, there is a need for a value system, a philosophy of life and attitude to work.

D Rajiv Krishnan graduated from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1984

Professionals across streams enrol for MBA

2008-07-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

The trend of doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants and even journalists doing an MBA — to help them change professions mid-stream or increase their job market value — continues this year too with professionals from disciplines like medicine, fashion technology etc. taking up courses at premier B-schools like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Xavier Institute of Management and Indian School of Business (ISB).

B-schools are also encouraging professionals from diverse profiles to do an MBA.

Bhuvana Ramalingam, senior director of communication, ISB, says: "Anyone can do an MBA. Earlier, engineers made up a chunk of MBAs. Today, it's people from backgrounds as diverse as journalism and defence. Diversity is important in business education as it enhances discussions in the classroom."

KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai, has changed the selection criteria to incorporate as many disciplines as possible. Unlike last year, when 95 per cent of students came from engineering backgrounds, this year only 60 per cent of students are engineers.

A consideration of 12.5 per cent on past academic records is now applicable to students from all the disciplines under the revised selection criteria, as against last year when only engineering students received this consideration.

The institute has also cut down the consideration on work experience from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent, and has broadening the eligibility to include aspirants from other disciplines as well.

Satish Deodhar, chairperson, admissions at IIM, Ahmedabad, said: "Another trend in IIM-A is that of Chartered Accountants (CAs) doing MBA. Earlier there were many economic students opting for MBA. But today, they have been outnumbered by engineers and CAs as there is more scope for economic graduates in the field of BPO or hospitality."

The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar, (XIMB), has more than 60 per cent of engineers this year.

Many feel that an MBA is a favoured programme for all as offers a complete learning experience. But why switch career for an MBA degree, especially when you are in a good profession, already?

The answer seems to be the competitive advantage the programme confers.

"Management education gives students a jump start. The salaries are attractive after an MBA, for instance the average salary for an MBA from IIM is 10 lakh. There could be other reasons for opting for an MBA like tedious jobs, the urge to break the glass ceiling and to broaden the niche market for one's own profession," explains Deodhar.

A section of MBA aspirants feels that the course helps them bridge the gap in their established domain of education.

Mukesh may foot intl faculty salaries at IIM-B

2008-07-17T09:14:00.001-07:00

Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani is understood to have expressed interest in footing the salary bills of international faculty at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore.

A source said Ambani, who is on the governing board of the premier IIM, had emphasised that the institute should recruit international faculty to become world class at the institute's recent board meeting.

"The board discussed hiring international faculty but we have not yet worked out a detailed plan on this front. We will be taking a call on the issue in the next couple of months and could put a proposal in front of all board members," said a board member.

The institute could also approach the board members to raise funds for the purpose.

Last year, Mukesh Ambani, who is also an alumnus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), had sponsored a GSB and IIM-B student exchange programme under which 16 students of the institute visited Stanford on a seven-day trip.

"Sponsoring the recruitment of international faculty could be another step towards raising IIM-B's international portfolio and international research," added the source.

None of the seven IIMs has international faculty on their rolls. Last year, IIM-Ahmedabad was in talks with an international professor but the deal fell through.

For IIMs, recruiting and retaining international faculty is a challenging affair.

"Though we always welcome visiting faculty, we find that they do not want to stay on a permanent basis on campus. However, NRI faculty, who have been working with universities abroad do show interest in joining us," said a professor from IIM Calcutta. Two new NRI professors have joined IIM-C from the UK.

A major hindrance in attracting international faculty to IIMs is the salary. At any IIM, an assistant professor's monthly income is anywhere between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000 (it varies depending on the consultancy fee from corporate assignments). An associate professor's monthly income is Rs 40,000-45,000 and a professor's around Rs 54,000.

Conservative estimates peg a professor's salary in the US at anywhere between $4,000 (around Rs 1.8 lakh) and $5,800 (around Rs 2.61 lakh) per month. This income is over and above consultancy fees from corporate assignments.

Asian School of Business to set up own campus

2008-07-17T09:13:00.001-07:00

The Thiruvananthapuram-based Asian School of Business (ASB) is investing Rs 63 crore to set up its own campus near Technopark.

G Vijayaraghavan, member-secretary, ASB, said 16 acres of land at Pallipuram, near Kazhakoottam where Technopark is located, has been identified for the new campus and the plan is ready.

"An investment of Rs 63 crore is envisaged and the B-school will move out of its leased premises at Technopark as soon as the first phase becomes operational," he said.

Spread over three phases, the first phase of the campus will be completed by the middle of next year. It is expected to incur a cost of around Rs 30 crore, he added.

Work on second and third phases is scheduled to begin by the last quarter of 2009 and early 2011 respectively. While the second phase is estimated to cost Rs 12 crore, the third phase would involve Rs 21 crore.

On completion of the first stage, the ASB campus will have 1,20,000 sft of space and comprise a conference hall, library, hostel to accommodate 150 students, guest house, cafeteria and recreation facilities. It will accommodate 200 students.

LIST OF AXIS BANK BRANCHES: CAT 2008 APPLiCATION FORMS

2008-07-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

ANDHRA PRADESH: Chittoor (Prakasam High Road), Hyderabad Main (Begumpet Road), Hyderabad (Kukatpally), Secunderabad (Rashtrapati
House), Secunderabad (Tarnaka) Kakinada (Subhash Road), Kurnool (Railway Station Road), Vijayawada (Rajagopalachari Street),
Vishakhapatnam (Dwaraka Nagar), Warangal (Station Road); ARUNACHAL PRADESH: Itanagar (Teli Plaza); ASSAM: Guwahati (Dispur), Jorhat(A.T. Road); BIHAR: Bhagalpur (Patal Babu Road), Muzaffarpur (Club Road), Patna (Boring Road), Patna (S.P. Verma Road); CHATTISGARH:
Bhilai (Off. GE Road), Bilaspur (Near New Bus Stand), Korba (Power House Road), Raipur (Jeevan Bima Marg); DELHI: Delhi Main (Barakhamba
Road), Daryaganj (Netaji Subhash Marg), Defence Colony, Greater Kailash-II, Janakpuri, Karol Bagh (Padam Singh Road), Malviya Nagar, Mayur
Vihar (LSC), Paschim Vihar, Rajouri Garden (Vishal Enclave), Sector 7, Rohini (Main Road), Shakti Nagar (G.T. Karnal Road), Swasthya Vihar
(Vikas Marg), Vasant Kunj (Nelson Mandela Road); GOA: Panaji (Dr. Atmaram Borkar Marg); GUJARAT: Ahmedabad Main (Ellisbridge),
Ahmedabad (Maninagar), Ahmedabad (Vastrapur), Baroda, (Race Course Circle – North), Bhavnagar (Waghawadi Road), Rajkot (Kalawad
Road), Surat Main (Ghod Dod Road), Vallabh Vidyanagar (Near HM Patel House); HARYANA: Ambala Cantt. (Jagadri Road), Gurgaon (Sector-
14), Faridabad (NIT), Kurukshetra (Railway Road), Panipat (GT Road), Rohtak (Delhi Road); HIMACHAL PRADESH: Shimla (Kasumpti);
JHARKHAND: Dhanbad (Bank More), Jamshedpur Main (Bistupur), Jamshedpur (Sakchi), Ranchi (Main Road); JAMMU & KASHMIR: Jammu
(Rail Head Complex); KARNATAKA: Bangalore Main (M.G. Road), Bangalore (J.P. Nagar), Bangalore (Jayanagar), Bangalore (Koramangala),
Bangalore (Marathahalli), Bangalore (Malleswaram, Sampige Road), Bangalore (Vijaynagar, West of Chord Road), Bellary (Main Road), Belgaum
(Congress Road), Davanagare (PB Road), Gulbarga (Super Market), Hubli (Deshpande Nagar), Karwar (Green Street), Mangalore (Bunts Hostel
Circle), Mysore (Temple Road); KERALA: Kochi (Rajaji Road), Kottayam (Near YMCA), Kozhikode (YMCA Cross Road), Thiruvananthapuram (MG
Road), Thrissur (City Centre); MADHYA PRADESH: Bhopal (MP Nagar), Gwalior (Madhavrao Scindia Marg), Indore (Main), Indore (Sapna Sangita
Road), Jabalpur (Shastri Bridge Chowk), Satna (Rewa Road); MAHARASHTRA: Ahmednagar (Tilak Road), Amaravati (Near Jaistamb Chowk),
Aurangabad (Adalat Road), Kolhapur (Station Road), Mumbai (Main Fort), Mumbai (Andheri West), Mumbai (Bandra West), Mumbai (Borivli West),
Mumbai (Mulund West), Mumbai, (Powai), Mumbai (Shivaji Park), Navi Mumbai (Nerul), Navi Mumbai (Vashi), Nagpur Main (Sitabuldi), Nashik
(Sharanpur Road), Pune Main (J.M.Road), Pune (Camp), Pune (Kothrud), Pune (Pimpri Chinchwad), Pune (Sahakar Nagar), Thane Main (L.B.S.
Marg); MANIPUR: Imphal (Thangal Bazaar); MEGHALAYA: Shillong (Jail Road); MIZORAM: Aizwal (Charmari); NAGALAND: Kohima
(UT Complex), ORISSA: Angul (Main Road), Balasore (OT Road), Berhampur (Ganjam), Bhubaneswar (Kalpana Square), Bhubaneswar
(Satyanagar), Cuttack, (Badambadi) Rourkela (Kachery Road), Sambalpur (VSS Marg); PUNJAB: Amritsar (Court Road), Jalandhar (Mahavir
Marg), Ludhiana Main (The Mall), Patiala (Rajwara Road); RAJASTHAN: Ajmer (Kutchery Road), Bikaner (Rani Bazar Road), Jaipur Main (Ashok
Marg), Jaipur (Tilak Nagar), Jodhpur (Chopasni Road), Kota (Shopping Centre), Udaipur (Chetak Marg); SIKKIM: Gangtok (MG Road);
TAMILNADU: Chennai Main (Mylapore), Chennai (Adyar), Chennai (Annanagar), Chennai (Annasalai), Coimbatore (Avinashi Road), Madurai
(Goods Shed Street), Salem (Omalur Main Road), Tiruchirapalli (Salai Road), Tirunelveli (East Car Street); TRIPURA: Agartala (HG Basak Road);
UTTARANCHAL: Dehra Dun (Rajpur Road), Roorkee (Civil Lines), Rudrapur (Nainital Road); UTTAR PRADESH: Agra (Sanjay Palace), Aligarh
(Ramghat Road), Allahabad (MG Marg), Bareilly (Civil Lines), Gorakhpur (Bank Road), Jhansi (Civil Lines), Kanpur (The Mall), Lucknow Main
(Ashok Marg), Lucknow (Hewett Road), Lucknow (Indira Nagar), Meerut (Boundary Road), Noida (Sector 16), Noida (Sector 18), Varanasi (Shastri
Nagar); WEST BENGAL: Burdwan (GT Road), Durgapur (City Centre), Kharagpur (Malancha Road), Kolkata Main (Shakespeare Sarani), Kolkata
(Behala), Kolkata (Dalhousie Square), Kolkata (Golpark), Kolkata (Lake Town), Kolkata (Salt Lake City), Kolkata (Shyam Bazar), Siliguri (Sevoke
Road); CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh (Sector 17B), Chandigarh (Sector 34A); PONDICHERRY: Pondicherry (Bussy Street). JAMMU & KASHMIR:
Srinagar (Lal Chowk, Vijaya Bank).
Wherever location of the Axis Bank Branch is not indicated, please approach the Main Branch of Axis Bank in the city.

CAT-2008 scores

2008-07-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

CAT-2008 scores

* CAT RESULTS The results of CAT 2008 will be available from January 9th 2009 on the cat website: www.catiim.in. The scores can be accessed by keying in the test registration number and either the date of birth (preferred) or the cat application number.
* CAT-takers can also access their CAT-2008 scores by using SMS facility of mobile phones. For SMS, candidate can type ‘CAT test registration number date of birth (ddmmyy)’ or ‘CAT test registration number application number” for example: “CAT 5370082 030482” or “CAT 5370082 123456” and SMS to “57333”.
* CAT RESULTS by E-MAIL: Candidates who wish to get their results by e-mail should register themselves between October 17, 2008 and November 30, 2008 by sending an SMS to 57333 as follows: ‘CAT test registration number date of birth (ddmmyy) email id’ Please note that only one e-mail id will be registered against a test registration number.

CAT 2008 Schedule

2008-07-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Important Dates

* Issue of CAT Bulletins by Axis Bank STARTS :
JULY 14, 2008 (Monday)
* Issue of CAT Bulletins by Axis Bank ENDS :
AUGUST 8, 2008 (Friday)
* Issue of CAT Bulletins by IIMs ENDS :
AUGUST 13, 2008 (Wednesday)
* Last date for receipt of completed CAT Applications by the IIMs : SEPTEMBER 5, 2008 (Friday)
* COMMON ADMISSION TEST :
NOVEMBER 16, 2008 (Sunday)

IIM-A ropes in MIT hand to promote innovation

2008-07-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

An innovation expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be visiting the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), in November to promote the importance of user-based innovations in creating successful companies.

"India and Indians residing worldwide have a wonderful record as innovators and entrepreneurs. I believe users tend to be the real developers of many important products. Recently, research by my colleagues has shown that many new companies are started by users who become entrepreneurs. Learning about how user innovations foster the creation of successful new companies will be very useful information for IIM students and others in India," says Eric von Hippel, professor and head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management and professor of Engineering Systems at MIT.

It will be his first trip to India, which he also intends to use "to forge closer contacts with my colleagues at IIM-A, who have very similar research interests".

The lecture is part of a two-week long 'Inventors of India' workshop by the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A. About 70 inventors and innovators of all ages and technical background are expected to be present at the event. Premier institutes could also be called to participate at the workshop.

"Eric will participate and may give the inaugural address at the workshop. In addition, he will interact with the faculty and students and explore possibilities of collaborative research. Apart from visiting some grassroot innovators, he will interact with our incubatee companies as well. Several things are being planned and we are quite excited about his visit. Also, we may ask institutes like National Institute of Design (NID) and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), to pitch in," says Rakesh Basant, chairman of CIIE and a professor at IIM-A.

An expert in Principle of Developing Economics, Eric has made two of his books available openly on his website at no cost to the reader: Democratising Innovation, published in 2005 by the MIT Press, and Sources of Innovation, published in 1988 by Oxford University Press. Leading companies in the world have used practical methods based on his research.

Hippel is also expected to meet grassroot innovators at SRISTI, an NGO founded by Anil Gupta, a professor at IIM-A. Incidentally, Gupta too would be lecturing at MIT as part of the Amy Smith's International design and development course on July 16-17.

IIM-A to get 4 new subjects

2008-07-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

In a regular course committee meeting held at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) for Post Graduate Programme for Agricultural Business Management (PGP-ABM), the members approved at least four subjects for the fifth term beginning from end of September.

Students of PGP-ABM will now get to learn subjects like negotiations in agriculture, information technology (IT) for agriculture development, inclusive agriculture business, and agriculture and rural policy design, said a senior faculty member at the institute.

"The subjects are a result of several recommendations that the institute received around the year from faculty members, subject experts and students at the institute. While the committee has approved these subjects for the fifth term, the implementation will depend upon the instructors as well as students," he said.

Implementation of the subjects approved by the committee depends upon the number of registrations received from the students.

"There is an upper and a lower limit for registration of these subjects. If the registration doesn't fall in the limit, they are taken up as projects instead of subjects," added the faculty member.

IITs set to implement quotas for faculty positions

2008-07-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — for the first time since their inception — have begun drafting plans to implement the quota for faculty members from this year onwards, despite protests from the IIT student community and opposition from some professors.

A few IITs are calling a board meeting next week to discuss the issue and chalk out a plan to this effect.

The HRD ministry has, meanwhile, assured the country's premier technical institutes that they can de-reserve the posts after a year if vacant till then.

IITs, according to a Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) directive, are expected to reserve 15 per cent quota for SCs, 7.5 per cent for STs and 27 per cent for OBCs in faculty positions.

However, till date, they only have had reservations for backward category candidates in administrative posts. They had not implemented quotas in faculty positions till date for "lack of a written directive", and neither had the HRD ministry clamped on them so far. Sources in the HRD ministry, however, allege that the IITs "skirted the issue till date".

The ministry has now written to the IITs asking them to furnish faculty data of the past three years. "We have given the details to the MHRD. We did try recruiting SC/ST faculty but could not do so as we could not find anyone with the required qualification," explains an IIT Guwahati professor.

"IITs always had quota for faculty. We, however, did not have a written directive from the MHRD on this issue. Besides, the clause that IITs can de-reserve the posts after a year, helps us put the quota in place," says an IIT director who did not wish to be named.

However, the severe faculty shortage issue at IITs may not get solved since "there being a dearth of quality faculty, the faculty seats anyway go vacant at the IITs. By reserving the seats for quota, it will not be much of a difference," said another IIT director. IIT Guwahati, for instance, had invited applications from candidates for the SC/ST faculty seats earlier.

It shortlisted four candidates, but could not recruit any as they did not match the qualification criteria.

Incidentally, last week, the IIT directors met in New Delhi at the meeting of the standing committee of the IIT council and requested that they should be exempted from making reservations for faculty like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Centre and the University Grants Commission (UGC) on a petition challenging the policy of extending reservation for the OBCs to faculty posts in the IITs, the Indian Institutes of Management, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences.

How to build teams, groom individuals

2008-07-11T01:39:00.002-07:00

The two years I spent at IIM-Calcutta were arguably the most important and formative years of my life. From engineering to management is perhaps more than mere education or a simple branching out, as some of us wrongly assume.

It can be, and in my case, certainly was, a transformation that prepared me for the challenges that life in the corporate world throws up. While acknowledging the rigour, discipline, and breadth and width of academic knowledge that one was subjected to at this premier management school, I must also talk of what work teaches us, or more aptly, has taught me.

Starting out in office equipment sales and moving on to IT services, I have a few observations, which are worth considering, about the value of practical experience that no classroom, however well-equipped, can ever hope to offer.

You are only as good as your team: Management education and theory emphasise on execution and attention to detail. Successful managers, we were taught, are those who are able to get things done. But there is a small and yet vital difference when it comes to the practice of this theory.

How do managers achieve results at the work place? Managers and leaders get things done through others or more simply get their team members to deliver. So a leader's most critical job is to build a team comprising individuals who have their strengths and also the capability and competence to combine to work strategically and synergistically as team members to further the organisation's gains. This skill is built through live experiences at the work place.

Building a successful team: We have read about teamwork in successful global companies. The challenge here is to create our own success story. It starts with identifying the right talent. Often, the best of talent may not want to join your company and herein lies the first practical challenge for managers.

How do you motivate the prospective employee to be part of your dream? While the value of money as a motivator is often overemphasised, I think the greatest challenge is to sell the job. Can you get your people to share your dream of success?

It is also important that we don't oversell the job, the environment and the opportunities and ensure that we set the right expectations. So it probably makes sense to under-promise and over-deliver on employee engagement, just as much as we do with customer service.

It is important to remember that successful managers know that the individuals they recruit come with skills that are different from their own. Look for skill sets that are diverse and complementary to yours while recruiting subordinates. If you are a strategist, find someone who is strong on execution and so on.

Having a team in place is the first important step but there are miles to go before we deliver as a team and as an organisation. Teams that are motivated, charged and empowered will deliver even against odds and superior competition. It is the job of the leader to tell the team that each one of the team member has a role to play in the success of the company.

Often, the individual's role in the success of the company as a whole has to be reiterated and reinforced. They also need to realise that their tasks and goals, however mundane, have a larger implication in the context of the company's growth plans.

Creativity matters: Individuals have an innate capability to be creative. Organisations often do not provide an opportunity for individuals to continue to be creative, think out of the box, or offer innovative solutions. It is the duty of the manager to provide an environment where every individual can contribute with ideas.

EDI plans Rs 16 crore expansion

2008-07-11T01:39:00.001-07:00

Taking a cue from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) is all set to introduce two year Post Graduate Programmes (PGPs) into its curriculum.

The move is a part of the institute's expansion plans for the upcoming academic year at an investment of Rs 16 crore.

While two of these programmes including PGP for Executives (PGPX) and PGP for Corporate Entrepreneurship will be introduced for the first time at the campus, the institute has sought an All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approval to convert its one-year Post Graduate Diploma in NGO Management and Post Graduate Diploma in Business Entrepreneurship into two-year full-fledged courses.

"We are planning for an expansion at our Gandhinagar campus and will soon be inviting applications for these courses. While we have a faculty strength of 35, the institute is inducting 15 additional faculty members this year," said Dinesh Awasthi, director of EDI.

OBC quota for faculty posts in IITs challenged

2008-07-09T07:34:00.001-07:00

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and the University Grant Commission on a petition challenging the policy of extending reservation for the Other Backward Classes to faculty posts in the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. A Bench consisting of Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justices P. Sathasivam and J.M. Panchal issued the notice on the petition from Citizens for Equality contending that implementation of reservation in posts at the level of associate professor and professors would amount to diluting teaching standards to accommodate the political mandate.
“State onus ignored”

Senior counsel K. K. Venugopal, appearing for the petitioner, said these measures were sought to be substantiated solely on the principle of amelioration of the backward classes while ignoring the onus on the state to develop centres of research excellence and merit.

The petitioner said the measures adopted by the government as well as the Central grant-in-aid institutions to introduce and further reservation in the faculty posts up to and including the professorial level were reprehensible. The JNU, which was an institution based purely on merit and excellence, should now dilute its high standards to accommodate the political mandate.

The petitioner questioned the UGC direction to implement 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in all grant-in-aid-institutions, except minority institutions, funded by the Centre.

There could be no quota in institutions of excellence in research and super-specialisation, where the sole criterion was merit.

IIM-B asks for Rs 114 cr, gets only Rs 33 cr

2008-07-03T00:39:00.000-07:00

The premier management institute, IIM-Bangalore, is in a bind. It had asked for Rs 114 crore to build infrastructure to accommodate additional students under the OBC quota.

However, the Centre has sanctioned only Rs 33 crore. IIM-Calcutta, too, had asked for around Rs 200 crore. It's awaiting a response.

Moreover, since the funding will come to IIM-Bangalore in phases over five years, this could seriously affect its plans for more classrooms, hostels and upgradation of IT infrastructure, according to IIM-B Director Pankaj Chandra.

"For the last three years, we had not asked the government for a single paisa. Since we can't wait for government funds to reach us, we are initiating expansion plans from our internal funds earmarked in the annual budget," Chandra told Business Standard.

Chandra explained that the implementation of the 27 per cent OBC quota would result in a 54 per cent increase in the number of seats for the flagship two-year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP). The number of seats will increase by 130 over the next three years to reach 340 seats in the next three years.

Country's seventh IIM starts tomorrow

2008-07-03T00:32:00.001-07:00

The first academic session of the country's seventh IIM, the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM) in Shillong, will begin tomorrow.

Meghalaya chief minister Donkupar Roy will inaugurate the first batch of Post Graduate Diploma in Management in the presence of Chairman, Board of Governors, RGIIM, Prof R N Dutta, Chairman Headstrong Inc USA and founder member of HCL Arjun Malhotra and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister T K Nair, the institute's Director Prof Ashoke K Dutta said.

Dutta said the institute will commence its first academic session in the Mayurbhanj Complex in Nongthymmai, which previously housed the North Eastern Hill University. Work will soon commence on a 120 acre site for the permanent campus.

The Institute offers the Post-Graduate Programme in Managment [PGP], which is a two-year full time residential programme for graduate students from all disciplines wanting to choose a career in management.
The Institute envisages for its flagship programme, namely, Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), an annual student intake capacity of 60 in the first year.

This is planned to be increased to 120 in the third year and 180 in the sixth year.

The institute will conduct courses with Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management, fellowship programme in management, management development programmes, tourism and hospitality management, tele-services and telemedicine, information systems and technology and subjects of local relevance such as tourism, horticulture and hydel power.

IIT faculty too will have quota

2008-07-01T10:33:00.001-07:00

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will introduce reservations in faculty positions for the first time since their inception. A Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) directive mandates that the apex technical institutes will have to reserve 15 per cent quota for SCs, 7.5 per cent quota for STs and 27 per cent quota for OBCs in faculty positions.

The IITs so far had claimed that they have been granted exemption from reserving faculty positions. MHRD sources, however, say that the IITs have been violating regulations so far. "They have never been granted exemption from quotas for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and Other Backward Classes.

They have just been skirting the issue for a long time," said a source from MHRD. The IITs, hence, will have to implement the quotas in all future appointments. The decision was taken at a meeting of the IIT standing committee in May where the government was of the view the institutes will have to enforce quotas with immediate effect.

The government had introduced 22.5 per cent reservation in administrative jobs at the IITs for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes following amendments to the Constitution in 1951.

Based on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission report, the quota was extended by 27 per cent in the early 90s to cover the Other Backward Classes.

ICFAI launches MBA-CFA dual degree

2008-06-26T10:11:00.002-07:00

ICFAI University, Tripura launched MBA-CFA, a dual degree programme. The course would be completed in 27 months instead of two years normally taken for each module.

Graduates with 55 per cent aggregate are eligible for the dual degree programme. CA/CWAs are eligible for waivers in four subjects. The course would have 32 subjects including 20 for MBA and 12 for CFA (financial analysis).

The students would have to choose four electives in MBA. The programme is based on self-study and examinations. The varsity would provide a study plan, books and e-learning package.

ISB scouts for more intl students

2008-06-26T10:11:00.001-07:00

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, rated 20 in the global B schools league this year, is now looking to tap new markets - in terms of both student intake and companies that come for campus recruitment.

Towards this, the B-school is planning to conduct road shows in Moscow, Paris, Madrid, Zurich, and Milan among others in Europe. It is also visiting Australia for the first time this year in July.

Apart from these, it is also focusing on West Asia, particularly Dubai, where there is a high concentration of NRIs and international students.

Speaking to Business Standard, VK Menon, senior director (admissions and financial aid and career advancement services), ISB, said the institute was looking to tap new markets as it would increase the intake from the present 440 to 560 for the class 2010 (the admission will begin in 2009).

The exercise is in line with the efforts to have "a truly international mix of students."

This year, at least a third of the batch comprises NRIs. There are 20 international students.

"We are looking to double the international students strength," he said. The outreach programmes started three years ago but are now being pursued with renewed vigour due to the international ranking, he said.

The number of international offers is expected to increase to 150 for this batch from 110 in the last academic year, which saw as many as 60 companies from 23 countries.

According to Menon, ISB will also explore the Asia Pacific countries. There are students in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, who have academic qualifications and are looking for a value-addition to their careers. It will also conduct similar programmes in the neighbouring countries - Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

"We will foray into the Chinese market gradually," he said, adding some companies there too had shown interest in the ISB students.

The US, however, will remain a potential market. "The US, which has a large chuck of students is an important market," he said, adding the H-1B visas though are a problem with the US companies.

Nevertheless, a significantly number of US-based companies offer employment to the ISBians. The admission process would be the same for all students except that the international students would be given more time to apply.

"We expect at least 1,500 students to apply for the ISB after we conduct the information sessions," Menon said.

Institutes, students take to dual degrees

2008-06-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

International exposure and the opportunity to learn things not usually taught in a single institute make double degrees valuable.

A management degree is no more complete with the stamp of just one good Indian or international college on it. With recruiters preferring students with diverse education profile, quite a few institutes are offering dual-degree or double-degree programmes in collaboration with foreign institutes. The programmes allow the student to complete the first year in India and the second year at a foreign institute.

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, (IIM-A), for instance, launched its first dual-degree programme in partnership with Essec Business School, Paris, in 2006.

IIM-A has now signed up for a dual-degree programme with Italian Bocconi University and is close to doing so with University of Texas.

Academicians say the growing interest towards dual-degree programmes is not surprising. A student earns two management degrees from top management schools in the world. The exposure of both national and international markets is valuable, they add.

IIM-Lucknow (IIM-L) was one of the early readers of this trend. It launched a dual-degree programme with European School of Management (ESCP-EAP) in 2003. At least six students graduate from the programme every year.

According to Devashish Dasgupta, chairperson, Financial Aid and International Linkages at IIM-L, students are selected on the basis of academic performances in first year, potential to emerge as an ambassador for the institute and on the basis of prior international exposure.

"While top six of our students are selected for the dual degree, ESCP-EAP sends between one and three students. Students are supposed to complete three terms before the award of the degree. The biggest advantage in such partnerships is that students tend to get international exposure and learn things usually not taught in their respective institutes," said Dasgupta.

The tuition fee under such a programme is usually worked out between the two institutes, making it an attractive proposition for the student. Meritorious students can also bag full or partial scholarships for such programmes. The Institute of Business Management and Research (IBMR), a rapidly expanding business school in the country, will launch a dual-degree programme with University of Stirling, Scotland.

Lovely Professional University (LPU), Jalandhar, has tied up with the University of East London (UEL) and offers a dual-degree in computer sciences, management, biotechnology and applied sciences.

The trend has caught on in other disciplines as well. The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has signed up for a dual-degree programme with the National University of Singapore. Likewise, The Institute of Clinical Research is offering a dual-degree programme with the Cranfield University, UK.

IITs, IIMs to reward professors with more faculty chairs

2008-06-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

he Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have decided to create more chairs in the institutes to help professors top up their salaries. The money that comes to these chairs from corporations will be the additional incentive for the professors.

IIT-Bombay plans to increase the number of faculty chairs to 50 from the current 20 by the year-end. Each chair, the institute estimates, can provide a top-up salary of Rs 20,000 per professor. Recently, Rahul Bajaj and Naushad Forbes committed one chair each at IIT-Bombay. The institute already has chairs from Larsen and Toubro and ICICI Bank among others.

"There are only two ways of increasing the salary for the faculty: either the human resource development ministry increases it or we have new means of creating chairs. We have decided to go the other way. Earlier, we used the chair money to give salaries to the professors. But now we use it to give their top-up salaries," says Ashok Misra, director, IIT-Bombay.

In order to attract and retain quality faculty, the institute will provide a ‘signing bonus' of Rs 3 lakh over three years — Rs 1 lakh over each year to its new professors. The professors would have to sign a three-year bond with the premier institution to avail of the same. Faculty members who joined the institute from January 2008 will also be entitled for the signing bonus.

IIM-Calcutta will be creating some chairs in the institute shortly for the first time. "The due diligence with some corporate houses is on. We are looking at several proposals," said an IIM-C professor. He, however, does not agree with the view that these chairs provide top-up salary of the professors. "The chairs are primarily for research and business ideas," he added.

IIT-Madras is looking at taking the number of chairs to 25 from the current 6.

Companies create chairs in the various B-schools with the objective of using the services of the chair professors to do research on problems areas identified by the sponsoring company.

Sponsoring research is another level of industry-academia interaction apart from the internship at corporate houses. Indian companies have started setting up excellence centres and giving research projects to academic institutions. "This trend however, is stronger in IITs than in B-schools," says a professor.

While research helps the academia gain real world insights by solving real world problems, the industry benefits by receiving knowledge created by the academic research. The institutes are also looking at this option to counter offers to their faculty from the private sector.

India third most popular country for sourcing talent

2008-06-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

India is the third most popular country for sourcing foreign talent after China and the US, a survey by global recruiting firm Manpower Inc released Tuesday said.

The Borderless Workforce Survey conducted in 27 countries also showed India received the highest remittances ($27 billion) from nationals working abroad.

It is closely followed by China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion) and the Philippines ($17 billion).

'The demand for Indian skilled labour is the highest in the US followed by the Gulf. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for engineers in the oil and gas sector and aviation,' said Manpower India managing director Naresh Malhan.

Others in demand are nurses, drivers and construction workers, he said.

The survey also ranked India third in the list of the top 10 countries considered an economic threat to other nations.

Of the 26 countries surveyed other than India, all countries with the exception of Costa Rica and Peru believe that India provides competitive threat to their own country's ability to compete economically.

So far as Indian employers are concerned, they consider China, the US and the UK as the biggest competitive threats.

According to the survey, Chinese employers - followed by those in India - were the least concerned about migration of talents to foreign countries.

In India, employers in public administration, education, services, finance, insurance, real estate and manufacturing are most concerned about this, while those in wholesale and retail, transport, utilities, mining, oil and gas sectors are the least bothered.

"While it's true that we need to do more to keep our most talented workers, we must also consider how we can strengthen our collective employer 'brand' to attract talented workers from overseas," said Malhan.

Some of the key findings of the survey:

. India is the third most popular country for sourcing foreign talent; 11 of the 26 countries surveyed other than India sourced foreign talent from India.

. India receives the highest remittances ($27 billion) from nationals working abroad, followed by China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion) and the Philippines ($17 billion).

. India has the highest percentage of nationals working abroad with tertiary education. Of the nearly 2.2 millions of Indians working abroad, 53 percent have acquired tertiary education.

. India ranks third in the list of Top 10 countries believed to be an economic threat to other nations.

. Indian employers are second least concerned about government and businesses not doing enough to slow the outward migration of talent.

IIT Bombay appoints CEO to further its incubation cause

2008-06-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

In a bid to increase private sector investment for its incubation projects, the country's premier engineering institute — Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay — has recruited an investment banker as Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), its incubation centre.

All the seven IITs have incubation centres but only IIT Delhi had a Managing Director so far to oversee its unit. Now it's the turn of IIT Bombay.

Sushanto Mitra, the newly-appointed CEO of SINE, has spent several years as an investment banker. His earlier stints include working at Techcap India and Meghraj Financial Services India. "We are looking at a plan that will institutionalise private sector investment into these companies," says Mitra. IIT-B Director Ashok Misra expects SINE to contribute Rs 4-5 crore to the institute's exchequer.

Currently, SINE's corpus has been contributed by IIT-B, the government of India and IIT alumni. With participation from the corporate world, SINE wants to increase this corpus to Rs 10 crore. This will then allow the centre to invest at least Rs 40 lakh for each firm. SINE invests Rs 10-12 lakh in each company currently.

The incubator is also expanding its portfolio from its current 17 companies to 50 over the next two or three years. Since its inception in 2004, 32 companies have incubated at IIT-B, of which just four have folded up. IIT-B's incubation model is equity-cum-royalty based.

The institute takes an 8 to 10 per cent stake in each of the firms that it incubates. Once the company gets funding, IIT-B liquidates part of its holding. In case of a product, once the company is formed the patent is then transferred to the name of the company. Each company is allowed to operate from SINE premises for three-years.

"So far we have been self-sufficient. IIT has created enough money to sustain SINE. While we do get Rs 10-30 lakh through the equity sale once in a while, I am hopeful that we will also have a firm that will make SINE earn in crores," said Misra.

Apart from primary funding of Rs 10-12 lakh, SINE provides incubating companies with subsidised infrastructure — at one-third the market price each firm gets a set-up of six PCs. IIT Delhi, too, has a managing director who oversees the institute's Technology Business Incubation Unit which was founded in 1998. The institute invests around Rs 15 lakh for an incubating IT firm and has a corpus of around Rs 2 crore. Students from the institute get most of their ventures funded through government programmes.

IIT Delhi picks up stakes of 5-10 per cent in the incubating companies and exits after five years. So far, around 19 companies have begun operations at IIT Delhi with another five in the offing. "The institute is looking at creating separate funds for separate ventures. For instance, IT projects will have separate funds for themselves," said a professor from IIT Delhi.

Indian students among the best, says Patten

2008-06-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

Have won more scholarships than Chinese

University may increase number of scholarships

Oxford: The Oxford University considers Indian students among the best in the world and would like more of them joining its campus, Chancellor Chris Patten has said.

The university, which produced the likes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has presently 257 Indian students on roll. But it is one-third the number of students from China.

“We want more Indian students because we want the best in the world to come to Oxford,” Mr. Patten said. Most of the Indian students are in the Said Business School.

“About a quarter of the students are doing MBAs...but I would like to see more in social sciences and humanities, doing both under-graduate and post-graduate work,” he said.

Though Indians are less in number, they have won more scholarships than the Chinese.

Last year, they won 54 different scholarships, including the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, according to an Oxford journal. “They [Indians] probably got more than China,” the Chancellor said.

He said the number of scholarships may go up as the university improves its financial position.

“I hope as we develop our endowments we will be able to offer many more [scholarships] to post-graduate students in the next few years,” Mr. Patten said. The university has developed a Master’s programme in South Asian studies.

For a one-year MBA programme, it could cost as much as Rs. 40 lakh, including the cost of tuition fee, boarding and lodging and the out-of-pocket expenses.

“It is a different world out here...We are gaining immensely,” said Karandeep Singh Vohra, pursuing MBA at the Said Business School.

IIM-A maps global pathway

2008-06-23T08:58:00.001-07:00

The institute is sure to figure in the top bracket on the FT MBA global rank list for B-schools after its executive programme completes three years in 2009.

In late 2007, when the Financial Times (FT) released its annual ranking of the best business schools in the world, there was an uproar in Indian B-school circles.

While the Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad's one-year Post Graduate Programme for executives made it to the 20th position in the FT Global MBA 2008 ranking list, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A's) Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) was not included.

Next year, IIM-A could use the same ranking to gain a global footprint.

Having entered its third year, the PGPX will now be eligible to be listed for the FT MBA rankings.

The FT MBA ranking is considered one of the most prestigious B-school ratings in the world and uses over 20 parameters to determine the rankings. The criteria include weighted salary, placement success rank, alumni recommendation rank, international mobility rank, doctoral rank and research facilities.

To be eligible to participate, a business school must be internationally accredited by a body such as the AACSB, Amba or EQUIS; it must have a full-time MBA programme operational for at least five years; and its first class must have graduated at least three years ago.

When PGPX did not find a place in the FT MBA list, institute director Samir Barua had written an e-mail to all alumni members.

In the email, he said: "If the same criteria were to continue for inclusion in the list for ranking MBA programmes, the PGPX would qualify only in 2010. Till then, no programme of IIMA would qualify for ranking of MBA programmes by the FT.

For the PGP, the Institute has been informed by the FT that the programme qualifies for inclusion in the list of programmes for ranking as Masters Programme in Management. If the institute decides to participate in this (Masters Programme in Management) ranking by the FT, then the PGP will be included under this category."

The institute has just bagged the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation, the international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business formed by the European Foundation for Management Development (EMFD), becoming the first B-school in the country to have obtained the same.

"Since we are completing three years of the PGPX programme, we will be eligible for the FT-MBA global rankings. Once listed, we are confident of placing the programme on a global map," said Arvind Sahay, chairperson, PGPX, IIM-A.

IIM-A had also taken up internet marketing initiatives considering that for most executives across the world, the web would be the first information access point. It had also designed separate brochures for Indian and overseas students.

An all-girl IIT will face faculty issue

2008-06-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry's proposal to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) exclusively for girls has intrigued the faculty and management of existing IITs.

However, sources in the Planning Commission say they have not received any formal communication from the HRD Ministry to allocate finances for the an all-girl IIT. "The project could be at the concept level. We have not received any communication from the HRD ministry so far on this subject," said a Planning Commission member on condition of anonymity.

HRD minister Arjun Singh recently indicated his consent for a girls-only IIT named after Indira Gandhi, with support from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the project. The move is in sync with President Pratibha Patil's suggestion to the government on March 11 to set up an IIT exclusively for girls. She had also suggested that the all-girls IIT be built in Amravati (Maharashtra), her former Lok Sabha constituency.

Patil's proposal in March suggested that the all-girls IIT offer only 'integrated' courses so that students immediately after school can join the institute and pass out with post-graduate degrees after five years. Currently, the existing seven IITs have some five-year integrated courses on offer, but Patil wanted to make them mandatory across all streams.

B Schools Ranking India

2008-06-13T01:13:00.000-07:00

Top Ten: Physical Infrastructure Index
Rank Schools Score (Max. 100)
I IIM, Lucknow 100.00
II IIM, Calcutta 97.50
III IIM, Bangaloree 96.25
IV IIM, Ahmedabad 91.25
IV IRMA 91.25
VII NITIE, Mumbai 90.00
VII S.P.Jain, Mumbai 90.00
IX IMT, Ghaziabad 87.25
X IMS, Indore; MDI, Gurgaon; R.A. Podar; LIBA; FMS; M.S Patel, Baroda 85.00

Top Ten: Academic infrastructure index

Rank Schools Score (Max. 150)
I IIM, Bangalore 148.5
II IIM, Lucknow 139.5
III IIM, Calcutta 136.0
IV VGSOM, IIT-Kharagpur 134.5
V IIM, Ahmedabad 122.5
VI Fore School of Management, New Delhi 117.5
VI XLRI, Jamshedpur 117.5
VIII IIFT, Delhi 115.0
IX MDI, Gurgaon 114.0
X IRMA 113.5

Top Ten: Financial Management index

Rank Schools Score (Max. 100)
I XLRI, Jamshedpur 100
II A.V.College, Hyderabad 92
II Dept. Management Studies, REC, Trichy 92
II IIM, Indore 92
II JBIMS, Mumbai 92
VI B.K. School of Business Mgmt., Ahmedabad 88
VI UBS, Chandigarh 88
VIII IIM, Ahmedabad 80
VIII VGSOM, IIT-Kharagpur 80
X Sri Siddhartha Institute of Mgmt. Studies, Tumkur 77

Top ten: Intellectual Capital index

Rank Schools Score (Max. 120)
I IIM, Ahmedabad 112.5
II IIM, Calcutta 106.5
III MDI, Gurgaon 101.5
IV IIM, Lucknow 97.5
V IRMA 95.5
VI IIM, Bangalore 93.0
VII VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur 86.0
VIII NITIE, Mumbai 85.5
IX IMI, Delhi 77.5
X FMS, Delhi 74.0

Top ten: Governance index

Rank Schools Score (Max. 30)
I Institute of Management in Kerala, Trivandrum 30.0
II Rajagiri School of Management, Kalamassery 29.0
III Abdul Qadir Jeelani Centre, Vishakapatnam 28.5
IV IIAM, Vishakapatnam 28.0
IV Sri Sringeri Sharada Institute of Mgmt., Delhi 28.0
VI B.K. School of Business Management, Ahmedabad; Delhi School of Commerce; Graduate School of Business & Admn., Ghaziabad; IIFT; L.N. Welingkar, Mumbai; MDI, Gurgaon;SMS, Cochin; S.P. Jain, Mumbai 27.0

Top ten: efficiency index

Rank Schools Score (Max. 200)
I IIM, Bangalore 161.50
II IIM, Lucknow 154.00
III IIM, Calcutta 153.00
IV S.P.Jain, Mumbai 147.00
V IIM, Ahmedabad 145.75
V K.J. Somaiya Institute of Mgmt. Studies, Mumbai 145.75
VII Loyola Institute of Business Admn., Chennai 145.00
VIII FMS, Delhi 142.75
IX Bharathidasan Institute of Mgmt., Tiruchirapalli 140.50
X Symbiosis Institute of Business Mgmt., Pune 139.00

Top ten: perception index (overall)

Rank Schools Score (Max. 300)
I IIM, Bangalore 279
II IRMA 276
III NMIMS 263
IV Xavier Institute of Mgmt. & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore 261
V Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar 249
VI Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD, Pune 248
VII Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad 243
VIII Fore School of Management, Delhi 238
IX IIM, Ahmedabad 236
IX T.A.Pai Management Institute, Manipal 236

Top ten: Perception index (recruiters)

Rank Schools Score (Max. 200)
I IIM, Bangalore 200
I IRMA 200
I NMIMS, Mumbai 200
IV ICFAIN Business School, Hyderabad 175
IV Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar 175
IV Xavier Institute of Mgmt. & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore 175
IV XLRI, Jamshedpur 175
VIII Fore School of Management, Delhi 172
IX Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad 170
IX Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD, Pune 170

Top ten: perception index (Alumni)

Rank Schools Score (Max. 40)
I MDI, Gurgaon 40
II IRMA 39
III Bharathidasan Institute of Mgmt., Tiruchirapalli 38
III IMI, Delhi 38
III Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar 38
VI K.J.Somaiya Institute of Mgmt. Studies, Mumbai 37
VI Loyola Institute of Business Admn., Chennai 37
VI Symbiosis Institute of Management and HRD, Pune 37
IX Indian Inst. of Social Welfare & Bus. Mgmt., Calcutta 36
IX Xavier Inst. of Mgmt. & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore 36

Top ten: Perception index (faculty)

Rank Schools Score (Max. 30)
I T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal 30
II Xavier Inst. of Mgmt. & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore 28
III IMI, Delhi 26
III S.P.Jain, Mumbai 26
V MDI, Gurgaon 25
V SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore 25
VII IIM, Calcutta 24
VII K.J.Somaiya Inst. of Mgmt. Studies, Mumbai 24
VII M.S.Patel Institute of Mgmt. Studies, Baroda 24
VII Vellore Engineering College 24

IIMA now EQUIS Accredited

2008-06-13T01:09:00.001-07:00

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), has been
accredited by EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System), the
leading international accreditation body for International business
schools. The EQUIS accreditation has ensured IIMA’s place as the
first and the only business school in India to obtain international
accreditation. IIMA becomes one among the 113 EQUIS-recognized
schools in the world, from 33 countries to have attained international
accreditation, making it a truly Global Business Management School.
EQUIS is the leading international system of Quality Assessment,
Quality Improvement and Accreditation of Higher Education
Institutions in management administration. The EQUIS Scheme has
been designed with special focus on all the activities of business
schools that aim to meet international standards of quality. The
fundamental objective of EQUIS is to raise the quality of management
education worldwide.
While accrediting management schools, EQUIS looks for balance
between high academic quality and the professional relevance
provided by close interaction with the corporate world. A strong
interface with the world of business is therefore, as much a
requirement as a strong research potential. Its scope covers all
programmes offered by an Institution, from the first degree to the
PhD, including non-degree programmes.

IIM-A wins global accreditation

2008-06-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been accredited by EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System), a leading international accreditation body for business schools.

Aid for visually-challenged Nalgonda-based IIT topper

2008-06-07T22:17:00.001-07:00

The travails of an IIT topper ended on Saturday when the State government offered to meet the entire expenditure for his professional education and released Rs. 40,000 towards tuition fee, to begin with.

Rapolu Ratan Kumar (17) is a visually-challenged student from Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district belonging to a backward community. He secured the first rank in IIT-JEE 2008 in the physically-challenged category and plans to opt for IIT Mumbai.

A cheque for Rs. 40,000 was handed over to Ratan by Minister for Disabled Welfare N. Rajyalakshmi in the presence of his parents and officials, at a press conference in the Secretariat on Saturday. The government has extended assistance on learning about Ratan’s plight from reports in the media.

Ratan bagged 116th rank in EAMCET and scored 935 out of 1,000 marks in Intermediate and 561 out of 600 in SSC (Miryalaguda).

Ratan said he suffered from poor vision (50 per cent), a disability which did not allow him to read books beyond seven hours a day.

Yet, he worked for more than 10 hours a day and completed SSC in Telugu medium. The department’s munificent gesture had come like a bolt from the blue, he said.
Free coaching

The Minister said the parental upper income limit for reimbursing tuition fee in case of disabled students had been raised from Rs. 12,000 to Rs one lakh per annum. She said free coaching would be offered to disabled students appearing for Group I & II services and other competitive exams.

Govt begins work to add IIT label to new engg colleges

2008-06-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Brushing aside objections over brand dilution, the government has reportedly begun work on modifying the IIT Act, 1961, to ensure that the eight new engineering institutes it is setting up come under the premier Indian Institute of Technology umbrella.

With the government's plan to set up engineering institutes in Rajasthan, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab — besides converting the institute of technology at Banaras Hindu University into an IIT — the total number of IITs will increase to 16.

NITIE 2008 PGDIM PROVISIONALLY SELECTED WAIT LIST 2

2008-06-03T11:18:00.001-07:00

PGDIM - 2008
CATEGORY - GENERAL
Sr. Appl Candidate's Name Cat No.
No. No.
1 72739 RAJA KULDIP MISHRA 5610191
2 72106 DEEPESH DADLANI 7310110
3 71340 DASHANI DHRUVIN RAJESHBHAI 4160020
4 74526 CHEVOORU S K RAGHUVEER 5200630
5 74553 ANJANEYA TIWARI 7320190
6 73275 SUBHAJIT DAS 5190952
7 73992 K YASHWANTH KUMAR 5460860
8 71869 MOHIT JAIN 7500241
9 71615 SARATH BABU UNNI 4140706
10 72823 RATHOD AADITYA NANDKISHORE 5720447
11 75562 AYAN KUMAR GHOSH 5700531
12 71073 MANOJ JOSHI 9110615
13 71215 SNEHA RAMESH GOEL 5700613
14 74707 VISHAL SINGH 7441187
15 75188 CHAVAN ESHA MANGESH 4650789
16 74858 PRANAY RANJAN 9150553
17 72619 SAURABH DAHIYA 6230319
18 71553 VARUN KU SINGH 7230119
19 73837 MAHIMA 5211066
20 73852 MANUJ BANSAL 6280322
21 73043 SHREYA 5160785
22 71317 KAPIDHWAJA PRATAP N SINGH 9440049
23 71814 SUMIT SHARDA 6260302
24 74343 SHAH NISHIT RAKESHKUMAR 5610882
25 72829 PARIKH HITESH ASHWIN 4630056
26 72249 AYUSH VAISH 5480546
27 72090 TUSHAR MEHTA 216748
28 72504 PALLAV CHATURVEDI 6610422
29 73570 NIKHIL KEDAWAT 6121163
30 74219 R BALACHANDRAN 279213
31 73555 VISHAL VERMA 5460913
32 72275 ARPAN SHARMA 4730323
33 73519 ABHINAV GUPTA 9170111
34 73926 GOPAKUMAR P 5230854
35 72701 HANUJ GUPTA 7441409
36 72107 TARUN KUMAR JAIN 208203
37 74285 S. AKSHAY 5460494
38 72472 ARPAN GHOSH 9170067
39 74097 VIKRANT BHALLA 5240643
40 74718 SATYENDRA PRATAP SINGH 5210601

NITIE 2008 WAIT LIST 1

2008-06-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

CATEGORY - GENERAL
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Sr. APPL C A N D I D A T E 'S CAT
No. NO. N A M E NO.
--- ------ ---------------------------- --------
1 75103 FERZAND F K 8420373
2 70122 SOUMYA GUPTA 9450685
3 72833 SANKHA SUBHRA BANERJEE 6751727
4 70681 PRITHVIRAJ DEB 5270098
5 71455 NEHA ANAND 5150036
6 73424 GAUTAM 4520448
7 73124 RAMANATHAN V 4550039
8 75082 VAISHNAOVI 5290056
9 75190 HRISHIKESH KASHYAP 5260455
10 71793 ABHIJIT KUMAR 6610298
11 75197 NINAD MANDE 4671142
12 74466 JAMGAONKAR ALHAD P 4530038
13 73348 VARUN ARORA 7220150
14 74594 HARSHITA MISHRA 5410804
15 75719 DILIP S 5240672
16 75586 ASHUTOSH KUMAR JHA 7210949
17 71423 KHANDELWAL MAYANK RAMESHWAR 5290006
18 72812 SHIVA RAMA KRISHNA 5270311
19 73108 SOMANSH GARG 6220974
20 73987 AJEETA KAHALE 5150906
21 75143 S.VIJAY 5280340
22 73896 KRITIKA LATH 5130989
23 71981 CHANDAN VARSHNEY 6690406
24 73671 PEEYUSH ANAND 6210213
25 73873 KAMATH AKSHATA DAMODAR 4540905
26 71112 MOHIT MITTAL 9290607
27 71658 VIKASH SHARMA 6680563
28 74767 MANABESH PRADHAN 5630287
29 73731 MANISH MALOO 4370660
30 74159 HIMANSHU 6300551
31 75760 GHEVARGHESE DANIEL 5620504
32 75521 RAM GANESH MATHUR 4390280
33 74797 JAYARAM K 266002
34 71802 ANKIT BAJAJ 5130306
35 72040 SAURABH RAI 7151186
36 71436 RAJAT MAHAJAN 5790065
37 75151 ABHISHEK TOMAR 7470699
38 75263 AYUSH GARG 7460332
39 72531 AMAN GOEL 9250673
40 74112 TIWARI RISHI SADGURU PRAKASH 4610217
41 73056 GUNJAN SABOO 5630500
42 74021 GOENKA VISHAL OMPRAKASH 4510501
43 71918 PRAVEEN PANDEY 6920499
44 74075 BHUPENDRA NATH JHA 5121667
45 72540 S ASHWIN 5790159
46 70669 VENKAT SIDDARTH GUDISEVA 5190065
47 71829 GUHAN M 283419
48 72775 VIPUL VOHRA 7230511
49 71803 PRABHJOT SINGH 6220542
50 73388 NIDHESH JAIN 5640612
51 13055 SADAF MOHD. ILIYAS SIDDIQUI 4610092
52 73922 RAVI HEDA 8161344
53 75020 OMESH GAHLAWAT 9150096
54 74242 RITESH KUMAR SINGH 9550198
55 72227 RAVI MEHTA 8151311
56 75319 PAVAN KUMAR GOYAL 9130917
57 70091 P PAVAN KUMAR REDDY 5441301
58 72007 M KARTHIGEYAN 8170180
59 73144 AMIT JAIN 5290112
60 73055 SHILPI GUPTA 6630353
Category - SC
Sr. Appl Candidate's Name Cat No.
No. No.
1 72233 SHASHWAT PRAKASH 312779
2 73313 RAHUL SAGAR 9371122
3 74213 SUMIT 9460305
4 75144 AVINASH ARYA 7410193
5 71898 NEHA PATIL 209193
6 74272 SACHIN KUMAR 9620122
7 75093 ABHIJEET MONDAL 5160408
8 74288 MAKWANA KIRANKUMAR SHANTILAL 5420009
9 74679 DINESH KUMAR 9460594
10 72204 TAPASE AKSHAY MADANLAL 9530820
11 73333 VIRAPANDY T 8151165
12 70591 SONU PAHARIYA 305125
13 73500 MOHIT BHAGAT 9130608
14 73167 KRANAL DONGRE 7330723
15 73106 SUMIT RATHORE 9110991
16 74817 KAMBLE VISHAL LAHU 5660544
17 72945 SANDIP KUMAR 4310997
PGDISEM - 2008
CATEGORY - GENERAL
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Sr. APPL C A N D I D A T E 'S CAT
No. NO. N A M E NO.
1 75425 ASHISH RANJAN 8140562
2 74881 VISHAL GOEL 6300633
3 74088 RAJEEV RANJAN 4540480
4 75590 DEEPIKA ARORA 6271825
5 72413 ANKUR GARG 5130166
PGDITM - 2008
CATEGORY - GENERAL
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Sr. APPL C A N D I D A T E 'S CAT
No. NO. N A M E NO.
1 73497 ATUL BHARGAVA 4350209
2 72086 POKHARKAR AJIT BALSHRIRAM 4590617
3 75366 SAYANTANI 6630343
4 71749 KUMAR GAURAV BUBNA 7240135
5 71222 RAHUL KUMAR 9410359
6 72069 MISTRY PARTH SHAILESHKUMAR 7330937
7 73971 DIGVIJAY SINGH YADAV 5730016
8 75223 VAIBHAV PRASHAR 9271073
9 73943 RAVNEET GILL 7440531
10 74057 AYLMER FRANCIS COUTINHO 195560
11 73908 PEEYUSH RAZDAN 9200929
12 10104 HIMANTIKA SAHNI 9141182
13 71870 SOURABH AGRAWAL 5120277
14 71351 SIDDHARTH YESHAWANTH MALLYA 4660372
15 74167 HARLEEN KAUR KOHLI 9330537
16 73040 TARUN GUPTA 7441406
17 71411 ARPIT PANDYA 6271642
18 71735 DSOUZA KEN LEON 4620056
19 73159 SANJOY KHAN 5480969
20 72677 KANIKA NAGPAL 9140184

NITIE PGDIM - ADMISSIONS 2008 FINAL LIST

2008-06-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

CATEGORY - GENERAL

~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

Sr. APPL C A N D I D A T E 'S CAT

No. NO. N A M E NO.

--- ------ ---------------------------- --------

1 71031 ABHISHEK GROVER 9270185

2 74291 ABHISHEK KRIPALANI 4600539

3 74647 ACHLESH SOOD 6271422

4 73158 ADAMYA GARG 9390486

5 70179 ADITYA JAISWAL 5680327

6 74009 ADITYA KHEMKA 6760154

7 72687 AGARWAL ANKIT RAKESHBHAI 5130871

8 75616 AKASH TIWARI 7240332

9 71940 AMIT KRISHNA MISRA 5220091

10 74842 AMIT KUMAR 5170263

11 72764 AMIT KUMAR AGGARWAL 7210861

12 13001 AMOGH ARVIND BHOLE 4670823

13 74332 ANAND GOYAL 5160591

14 71935 ANKIT GUPTA 6300336

15 73152 ANKIT MAHESHWARI 7160287

16 13061 ANKUR AHUJA 4640272

17 75152 ANKUSH SAMANT 7500135

18 75240 ANUBHAV JAIN 6640439

19 73478 ANUJ SARIN 9360141

20 72010 APARNA RAVI 8120156

21 70282 APOORVA RAJE 7340816

22 72795 ARAVIND.G 5120581

23 71781 ARVIND CHARANYAN V 5230884

24 70554 ASHISH ANAND 9190678

25 71926 ASHISH MAHESHWARI 8112007

26 72093 ASHWIN P.V. 8120824

27 72034 ATCHUTA RAMA SANDILYA KONDURI 5111876

28 73520 BARKHA KUKREJA 7460118

29 72009 BHALE SANKET SANJEEV 4660793

30 71797 CHAKRABORTY SHIBABRATA 6700163

31 74234 DA SILVA JOEL FRANCISCO 5710162

32 70762 DAVID SEBASTIAN NEWNES 5130469

33 74292 DHRUV MUCHHAL 5670070

34 75332 DILIP S ANAND 7450150

35 73310 DUTTA SOURAV ADITYA 4170654

36 71642 ETI VYAS 4670896

37 74366 G VIJAY 5450386

38 70983 GANESEN V 8320071

39 73714 GAURAV 6270926

40 74879 GULSHAN AGRAWAL 104594

41 71773 GUNJIKAR DEEPTI SHREEKANT 209133

42 75483 GUPTA DEEPAK DEVKINANDAN 4570453

43 71635 GURPREET SABHARWAL 6270749

44 74888 HAMIR SADANAND ANDHARE 5640890

45 74458 HARIHARAN P 8161107

46 75692 HARMAN SINGH 9120734

47 71715 HARSH PRADHAN 7430485

48 74734 HIMANSHU GUPTA 4530652

49 74129 HIMANSHU NIGAM 9480354

50 73744 JAIN RAHUL VIJAYRAJ 4661001

51 73401 JASHANPREET SINGH GILL 7210110

52 72450 JOSE VINAY C 5170716

53 72294 KALE PRASAD SURESH 9180085

54 73741 KAPIL BOHRA 5170560

55 73081 KARAN CLAIR 5160372

56 72973 KHUSHBOO DOSHI 7310055

57 74363 KOTESWARARAO MALIPEDDI 5440925

58 72522 KUMAR RAHUL 7130262

59 73475 KUMAR SAURABH 6840770

60 71437 L EZHILARASAN 8160116

61 72628 LOVISH JAIN 4420424

62 74940 M DHIRAJ 8450187

63 73757 MAKHARIA MOHANISH MADANMOHAN 5720227

64 73883 MAMGAIN GARIMA VIMAL KISHOR 4630414

65 71033 MANISH AERAN 4310898

66 73199 MANISH KUMAR JHA 5121476

67 72051 MANSI VERMA 5700734

68 73810 MAYANK ARORA 5700337

69 74377 MAYANK JAIN 5660531

70 72536 MAYANK SRIVASTAVA 6750312

71 75249 MUSHYAM SAIRAM 5460235

72 72884 NAGENDRA S 5111974

73 71180 NAYANI GUPTA 9120414

74 73843 NIDHI GROVER 9450603

75 72643 NIKHIL MAHESHWARI 4420169

76 13037 NISHANK BANI 4661847

77 71248 NISHANT AGGARWAL 7441280

78 71115 NITIN BAJAJ 6300959

79 73100 NITIN KUMAR MODI 7330291

80 70775 NITISH BHANDARI 4350380

81 75086 O N PRANEETH 8160037

82 73503 PAITHANE SOURABH SANJAY 5660581

83 72756 PANKAJ BHATT 5620371

84 72362 PANKAJ KUMAR MISHRA 5290635

85 13025 PARAM PREET SINGH BHASIN 9450039

86 73588 PRACHI MILIND 9290634

87 72404 PRANEETH B 8130835

88 74424 PREETISH KUMAR 5130743

89 71992 PRITESH JAIN 5110858

90 74524 PRIYABRATA MOHANTY 5660100

91 72455 RAJAT VIJ 5460619

92 72801 RAJDISH SINGH RANDHAWA 6270374

93 75531 RAJIV RANJAN 4650402

94 72855 RAJKUNWAR SINGH 7210779

95 70050 RAKSHITH RANGARAJAN 4673037

96 73272 RANJAN RAJPUT 5630324

97 71954 RANJAN THAKUR 6620787

98 72476 RINKI GUPTA 7361379

99 74415 ROHIT GARG 5720187

100 70774 S V GIRISH 8140219

101 74692 SABALE AMIT DHARMAJI 5640386

102 73176 SAMEER SINGHAL 5260488

103 75251 SANKALP SHARMA 9430506

104 71973 SANTOSH VENKATASUBRAMANIAN 4650696

105 70200 SAURABH KUMAR CHOUDHARY 6680553

106 75352 SHAH MIHIR AJAY 197611

107 74003 SHANTHOSH G 5260267

108 72535 SHARMA HARSH LALIT 4170114

109 72899 SHERFUR REHMAN 9240555

110 74054 SHERIEF RASHEED 5130298

111 71963 SHETTY CHETAN BALKRISHNA 4620069

112 72936 SHIVAM VASISHT 5460372

113 71058 SHOVIK DAS 6750818

114 74763 SIVAPRASAD NAIR 7340084

115 72881 SONALI GUPTA 9250075

116 73325 SREELAKSHMI HARIHARAN 8440262

117 73974 SRINATH DAMARLA 5211056

118 72977 SUDEEP NAGAR 7330587

119 73947 SUNEET SINGH BHATIA 9470611

120 74543 SUSMIT DANDAPAT 6630087

121 70225 SWATHI PERABATHULA 5510496

122 72252 THAKKER KAVEESH HIRAN 4661498

123 70247 UJJWAL DEEP 5441302

124 71439 UMANG M SHAH 9460987

125 74222 V ARUNGANESH 8150917

126 72232 VIKAS KUMAR 9290014

127 74026 VINAY MEHTA 6281413

128 70543 VINAY UMESH PRABHU 5240072

129 71479 VISHWACHETAN NADAMANI 5260374

130 73353 VIVEK S MENON 5130793

131 72975 VIVEK SHEORAN 7230186

132 70025 VOHRA PRERAK KASHYAPKUMAR 4150784

133 74322 VYAS KARTIK GIRISH 4730905

134 74967 YATINDRA VIJAYVARGIYA 7120691

Category - SC

Sr. Appl Candidate's Name Cat No.

No. No.

1 72772 AASTHA PRIYADARSHI 5620481

2 71930 ARUN KARTHIK K 8112020

3 70226 ARUN R S* 8410391

4 71531 AVIK SAHA 6700277

5 72849 AVNISH KUMAR 5500008

6 71987 CHARANIYA VINAY GOVIND 4673337

7 72492 DEVENDRA JADHAV 220450

8 74076 FULZELE RAJKUL DNYANESHWAR 4110355

9 71497 G.RAJESHWARAN 8150863

10 75495 GAULE HEMANT SHRI KRISHAN 4140283

11 70447 GURBINDER SINGH 6220263

12 74847 JATINDER SINGH 9390251

13 72230 K MURUGESH 8170382

14 72303 KHOBRAGADE MUKESH SURYABHAN 9430653

15 73749 KUM. MADHU PANWAR 4370554

16 72680 MANOJ KUMAR BEHERA 6550917

17 71904 PANKAJ MESHRAM 7220487

18 10051 PONSATHISHKUMAR P 8120669

19 71385 PRADEEP .K 8111114

20 73283 RAJ NIMESH 9430703

21 73989 RAJIV KUMAR 4661692

22 71306 SAUBHIK MAJI 5160153

23 70962 SUBRAT BISWAS 7120887

24 74918 SWATI VERMA 5220054

25 70275 TAPANGSHU DAS 8140635

26 75572 VAGHELA RAGHAV NANJIBHAI 4150353

27 73135 VYAWAHARE AMOL SHANKARRAO 5700102

Category - ST

Sr. Appl Candidate's Name Cat No.

No. No.

1 13033 ARUN PRABHAT TIRKEY 4510880

2 73175 DHARMESH MEENA 5240914

3 74430 GAMIT AMITKUMAR GAMANLAL 119826

4 70523 LOPAMUDRA BORO 5111293

5 71613 PAUNIKAR SHAILENDRA KRISHNARAO 4760494

6 75226 SIDDHARTHA KUMAR 9140680

7 71066 WAKDE RAVINDRA VITTHAL 5730522

Category - PD

Sr. Appl Candidate's Name Cat No.

No. No.

1 70103 BHUTADA NITESH DWARKADAS 5800048

PGDISEM - ADMISSIONS 2008

CATEGORY - GENERAL

~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

Sr. APPL C A N D I D A T E 'S CAT

No. NO. N A M E NO.

--- ------ ---------------------------- --------

1 74558 ANKIT GOYAL 7361161

2 75427 ANKITA CHOUDHARY 5220340

3 75298 G ADITYA NARAYANAN 5500226

4 75112 K GOWRI RAO 8151196

5 70640 K VASANTH KUMAR 5180367

6 70942 MANISH KUMAR 6540256

7 75666 MEGHNA SNEHAL MEHTA 304277

8 75645 RICHA CHOWDHARY 6730287

9 73449 SRIBASTAV MOHAPATRA 6110746

10 72582 SUMAN MOULIK GUPTA 6750527

11 73241 UMESH GANDHI 8150387

PGDITM - ADMISSIONS 2008

CATEGORY - GENERAL

~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

Sr. APPL C A N D I D A T E 'S CAT

No. NO. N A M E NO.

--- ------ ---------------------------- --------

1 75120 ABHIMANYU CHAUDHRY 9370458

2 72519 AMIT KUMAR 6260430

3 70891 FERNANDES MAYUR JULIAN 4672313

4 72525 RAHUL AGRAWAL 6751574

5 75252 RAO ANIRUDH ANAND 5150787

6 73980 SAMEER MISHRA 6730571

7 74114 SNEH ASNANI 5670761

8 71302 THITE HRISHIKESH VINAY 4550222

9 70939 TARUN MEHTA 9320238

10 74884 WAKHLU VIKRAM VIMAL 9281158

Category - SC

Sr. Appl Candidate's Name Cat No.

No. No.

1 71843 SANDEEP BAGADOA 4672745

2 71723 SHRIKANT WAGHMARE 4760447

FMS MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MS) 2008-2010 SC

2008-06-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 29272 BABU PRASAD MALLELA
2 69111 NIDHI BHARGAWA (W)
3 21184 NOORPREET KAUR (W)
4 25052 RAMESHNIVASH A
5 72300 SACHIN ARYA
6 38584 TRINA HALDER (W)

FMS MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MS) 2008-2010

2008-06-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 61449 AMAN SANGWAN
2 67152 MOHIT CHAHAR

FMS MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MS) 2008-2010

2008-06-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 63855 DONI RIBA
2 73733 SANJANA PEGU (W)
3 14687 SAURABH SUMIT KISPOTTA

FMS MBA(MS) 2008-2010 SELECTION LIST CATEGORY- GENERAL

2008-06-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 60225 ADITYA GUPTA
2 18005 AMARJEET PATNAIK
3 50163 AMIT CHOUREY
4 61078 ANUJ NANGIA
5 16011 APEKSHIT KHARE
6 20379 ASHISH GOYAL
7 63629 CHETAN AGARWAL
8 41723 DINESH AMARLAL RIJHWANI
9 29371 DIVYA PUSAPATI (W)
10 20563 GARIMA BAWA (W)
11 20609 GUNJAN VERMA (W)
12 66084 KRITI GUPTA (W)
13 18269 LISA MOHAPATRA (W)
14 13402 MEDHA POTHUNEEDI (W)
15 29736 MEGHA AGARWAL (W)
16 21090 MOHIT BHARTI
17 29924 PARTHASARATHY BHASKAR D.
18 32612 PARUL BAJAJ (W)
19 42943 RAGHAV ARVIND AGGARWAL
20 30344 S CHANDRASEKAR
21 16999 SAURABH RAI
22 43372 SHILPA RANGASWAMY (W)
23 14691 SHREEKAR SUDARSHAN
24 72653 SIDDHESH AGASHE
25 14739 SOURABH DHARIWAL
26 14629 SUJITH S
27 76321 VIDHI SRIVASTAVA (W)
28 38676 VIKASH SHARMA
29 15064 VISHAL AGARWAL

FMS MBA 2008-2010 SELECTION LIST CATEGORY- PH

2008-06-03T11:00:00.001-07:00

CATEGORY – P1
S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 20779 JASKARAN SINGH DHILLON
CATEGORY – P2
S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 69395 PARIVESH KHANDELWAL
CATEGORY – P3
S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 51524 SAURABH JOB

FMS MBA 2008-2010 SELECTION LIST CATEGORY- CW

2008-06-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 24031 ABHISHEK SUDHAKAR
2 64688 GURTEJ SINGH
3 50755 KARAN SEHGAL
4 13231 KASHISH SHARMA
5 67152 MOHIT CHAHAR

FMS MBA ADMISSION FINAL LIST 2008-2010 CATEGORY- ST

2008-06-03T10:57:00.001-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 36886 HUBERT W DIENGDOH
2 42253 MANISH DEV
3 13540 MAYANK SEMWAL
4 69164 NAVANIDHI DEORI
5 73733 SANJANA PEGU (W)
6 14577 SHILPI SARWAN (W)
7 74383 SHIVANI SINGH DHARAMSATTU (W)

FMS MBA 2008-2010 SELECTION LIST CATEGORY- SC

2008-06-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 61647 ANKIT MOHAN
2 61363 ANSHUL VARUN
3 36009 ARVIN MONDAL
4 41639 CHARANIYA VINAY GOVIND
5 64183 DHARAM VIR SINGH
6 42133 KOHIN ROY
7 42455 NIKHIL MESHRAM
8 21184 NOORPREET KAUR (W)
9 14352 S. SUMATHI (W)
10 43359 SAMYA MANDAL
11 14677 SUDHAAMSHU M. S
12 72880 SUKHBIR SINGH CHIMNI
13 21781 SUSHANT THAPPA

FMS MBA 2008-2010 CATEGORY-GENERAL

2008-06-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
1 16078 ABHILASHA KESHARIYA (W)
2 12142 ABIR SETH
3 36233 ADITYA MAHESHWARI
4 41357 ADITYA SUBHASH AGARWAL
5 50297 ALISSON PEREIRA (W)
6 24036 AMIT TYAGI
7 36372 ANURAG BINANI
8 16011 APEKSHIT KHARE
9 60072 ARKESH AJAY
10 24305 BADRI NARAYANAN V
11 63629 CHETAN AGARWAL
12 64018 DEEPIKA SHARMA (W)
13 64294 DIVYANSHU DIKSHIT
14 20563 GARIMA BAWA (W)
15 20577 GAURAV MITTAL
(PROF.A.S.NARAG) (PROF. J.K. MITRA)
CONVENOR DEAN
S.No Roll No. Name of the candidate
16 50628 GYANENDRA PRASAD
17 65037 GYANESH KUMAR SINHA
18 41909 HARSH RAJ KUMAR
19 65550 I HAREESHA RAO (W)
20 13092 INDU (W)
21 50763 K SWETHA (W)
22 66084 KRITI GUPTA (W)
23 13195 KUMAR JAYANT
24 18269 LISA MOHAPATRA (W)
25 67908 MANISH KUMAR
26 13402 MEDHA POTHUNEEDI (W)
27 32474 MRINAL PAREEK
28 50888 MUFEED UR RAHMAN F ABID
29 13645 NAVNEET KUMAR
30 68076 NEHA GUPTA (W)
31 68382 NEHA SHARMA (W)
32 42359 NIDHI KAICKER (W)
33 51091 NIRMAL DINKAR KHACHANE
34 27193 PALATHINGAL FRINSON FRANCIS
35 32612 PARUL BAJAJ (W)
36 21373 PEEYUSH ANAND
37 29999 PIYOOSH HEMNANI
38 69785 PIYUSH MEHTA
39 69873 PRIYANKA GARG (W)
40 42943 RAGHAV ARVIND AGGARWAL
41 14005 RAHUL KALLEPALI
42 37876 RAHUL SACHDEV
43 42902 ROHIT JHANGIANI
44 14809 SAHITHA K S (W)
45 14413 SANDEEP SINGH
46 72425 SAURAV PANI
47 21969 SHARAN BAINS (W)
48 43372 SHILPA RANGASWAMY (W)
49 14691 SHREEKAR SUDARSHAN
50 74929 SIDDHARTH SINGH
51 72653 SIDDHESH AGASHE
52 72577 SIDHARTH MALHOTRA
53 73729 SIMRINDER KAUR BAHRI (W)
54 14833 SOBHANJEET RATH
55 14433 SOUGATA ROY
56 25423 SRIKANT RAMESAN
57 14629 SUJITH S
58 73549 SUSHIL PASRICHA
59 75700 VAIBHAV ANAND
60 76414 VAIBHAV GUPTA
61 15076 VAIBHAV PURI
62 76321 VIDHI SRIVASTAVA (W)
63 38676 VIKASH SHARMA
64 43872 YATINDRA AVIJAY VARGIYA

Test Registration Number of 300 Candidates Offered Admission at IIMB PGP 2008-10 IIMB PGP FINAL LIST

2008-06-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

CAT REG NO
4110229
4120555
4140281
4170654
4200212
4210412
4310585
4310995
4311065
4410097
4510937
4510992
4530179
4540083
4540553
4540649
4540894
4550067
4550535
4550786
4550952
4551798
4560163
4560194
4560366
4570690
4580833
4590179
4590666
4600008
4600144
4600231
4600737
4610371
4620776
4661051
4661847
4670327
4670823
4671142
4673413
4710651
4740528
4740559
4740758
4760447
4760903
5110236
5110858
5111429
5111844
5112235
5112310
5112322
5112364
5112467
5120164
5120903
5120948
5121094
5121228
5121590
5121657
5121689
5121696
5130063
5130067
5130306
5130474
5130554
5130606
5130944
5140009
5140146
5150333
5150382
5150386
5150534
5150624
5150785
5160333
5160341
5160491
5170322
5170407
5170606
5170608
5170754
5180284
5180413
5180417
5190004
5190104
5190482
5190509
5190562
5210152
5210175
5210812
5210921
5210957
Page 3 of 6
5220037
5220225
5220297
5220309
5230176
5230379
5230387
5240208
5240463
5240495
5240720
5240788
5241059
5241278
5250008
5250143
5250241
5250410
5250484
5250522
5250572
5260244
5260380
5260569
5260664
5260777
5260786
5260895
5270181
5280142
5280346
5280365
5280469
5280926
5281161
5281196
5290183
5290213
5440641
5450317
5450544
5450549
5450745
5460577
5470148
5470482
5471284
5480240
5480469
5480756
5520838
5620612
5650012
5660373
5660530
5680364
5700301
5760077
5760122
5770501
6210716
6220439
6230149
6230616
6260511
6290619
6290844
6530197
6530434
6540578
6550463
6550494
6560173
6620209
6620263
6621029
6630511
6630652
6630711
6700210
6700342
6710155
6710371
6710445
6730365
6740148
6740177
6750069
6750818
6751453
6751489
6760251
6760444
6760976
6840270
6920406
7110432
7210108
7210329
7210355
7210379
7210983
7220304
7221165
7230008
7240396
7340520
7420345
7420517
7430616
7460191
7470186
7500237
7500289
8110009
8110138
8110574
Page 4 of 6
8111144
8111373
8111736
8111856
8120471
8120728
8121052
8121184
8131139
8131144
8140586
8150289
8150886
8151107
8151206
8151713
8151727
8160717
8160974
8161156
8161319
8161491
8170226
8170382
8170414
8171095
8310514
8321804
8420380
8420783
8450159
8450478
9130241
9130580
9130637
9140165
9140202
9140513
9140648
9180173
9200152
9200169
9200217
9200260
9200929
9220508
9230102
9240492
9240746
9280006
9280099
9280642
9281146
9300737
9310177
9320144
9330474
9340556
9350316
9360809
9370228
9390393
9400153
9400225
9400502
9420153
9420870
9430112
9430694
9450095
9450559
9460283
9460288
9470697
9510203
9520767
9530256
9550028
9570501
9590710
9650013
9650348
End of Table One
Page 5 of 6
Table Two: Test Registration Number of 25 OBC Candidates Offered Provisional Admission in PGP 2008-10 at IIMB
The following 25 OBC candidates have been made provisional admission offers subject to their providing
documentary proof that they do not belong to the “creamy layer” of OBC as defined by the Government of
India. Any attempt to provide false information in this regard will result in cancellation of the offer. The
provisional admission offer will be void for these 25 OBC candidates if they belong to the “creamy layer”.
CAT TR_NO
4540744
4610130
5190383
5200808
5220455
5230609
5250954
5420022
5430394
5430667
5450563
5460765
5520280
5640197
6710259
7361962
7430063
8110948
8121020
8140206
8140464
8160268
8170180
9260536
9540578
Page 6 of 6
Table Three: Test Registration Number of 80 Waitlisted Candidates for PGP 2008-10 at IIMB
CAT Test Registration Number of the 80 candidates who have been waitlisted by IIMB - 50 in general
category, 16 in SC category, 7 in ST category and 7 in PWD category. Waitlisted candidates can check
their waitlist status with waitlist rank in their category on the admissions page of the IIMB website.
These candidates have also been couriered letters on May 1, 2008 stating their waitlist rank.
CAT TR_NO
4110101
4510880
4530946
4540227
4550300
4551140
4570106
4610121
4620282
4661558
4661931
4673843
5110013
5110937
5111801
5120403
5121536
5130065
5130786
5160086
5180951
5190529
5191097
5200501
5200892
5240562
5240809
5240914
5241201
5250157
5250409
5260374
5280082
5290250
5430289
5430322
5440662
5460033
5470920
5471385
5510965
5520392
5660171
5660581
5780169
5800008
5800048
6130938
6131052
6150273
6271925
6281413
6420394
6540774
6550705
6620985
6630242
6630344
6680085
6740548
6750080
6751825
6760330
7151186
7220159
7470644
8110546
8110565
8130182
8130617
8131110
8140742
8170615
9260068
9260900
9350716
9381054
9420147
9650026
9650084

AP State bags majority of seats in IITs

2008-05-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

Nearly 2,000 students from the State will enter the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year, which is nearly 30 per cent of the 6,000 odd seats, including the new IITs coming up from this year.

The All India first rank in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category was bagged by Rapolu Nikhil Simha while first in the State in the open category is the all India 7th ranker Ch. Dinesh. Both the students belong to Sri Chaitanya institutions. The all India 8th ranker and second in the State M. Praneeth comes from the Chukka Ramaiah institute.

Interestingly, among the 2,000 students likely to get into IITs from the State come from Narayana institutions (1,078 students), Sri Chaitanya institutions (733 students) and Ramaiah institute (118 students). A few other institutes like Delta Educational Academy, FIIT-JEE and Krishna Murthy Academy contributed some students to the total.

Growing awareness among parents and the performance of senior students in the IIT coupled with the craze for IIT education in the State are said to be the reasons for the stupendous performance. Changes in the Intermediate curriculum taking it closer to CBSE syllabus is another reason.

Moreover, during the last two years corporate colleges have designed special curriculum for IIT coaching and that seems to have also contributed to the higher success rate, given the massive increase in number of successful candidates from both Narayana and Sri Chaitanya.

B.S. Rao, Chairman of Sri Chaitanya, agreed that the academic plans and introduction of students to the changing patterns have really helped while P. Narayana of Narayana institutions said if the Intermediate syllabus is further modified, State students could bag 50 per cent of the IIT seats.

Mumbai boy tops IIT-JEE 2008

2008-05-30T19:51:00.001-07:00

Results of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) 2008 for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology were declared on Friday. Shitikanth from the Bombay zone is the All-India topper in the prestigious examination.

Of the 3,11,258 candidates who appeared in the examination conducted on April 13, 8,652 candidates have been declared qualified to seek admission in the 6,872 seats in IITs at Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee and some proposed new IITs, Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University and Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad.

“Consequent to the government of India issuing notification for the setting up of eight new IITs in the 11th Plan, admissions to three more new IITs in Punjab, Gujarat and Orissa, other than at Hyderabad, Patna and Rajasthan, for the academic session 2008-09 are likely to be made through JEE-2008,” said an official release.

One of the important features of this year’s result is that reservation for the Other Backward Classes has been implemented and a separate list for such candidates has been declared.

From the Delhi zone, 51, 373 candidates appeared in the exam and 1, 549 qualified for admission. Nikhil Garg has topped the Delhi zone with an All-India sixth rank.

This year 78,159 girls appeared for the JEE 2008 and 840 of them were able to crack it. The number of girl candidates qualifying the exam has increased by 43 per cent since last year.

N. Vasuki from the Madras zone has topped the list of girl candidates, having secured an All-India 14th rank.

This year, 72,116 OBC candidates appeared in JEE, of which 1,134 have qualified.

Of the 28,393 candidates from the Scheduled Castes, 690 have qualified, whereas of the 8,514 examinees from the Scheduled Tribes’ category, 159 have cleared it.

Twenty candidates with certified physical disabilities will be granted admission with relaxed norms.

The examination was conducted at more than 600 centres across the country. For the first time, a JEE centre had been opened outside India at Dubai.

Duke may push talent search

2008-05-29T19:53:00.001-07:00

With its three-week summer studies program for Grades 7-10 running successfully at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Durham-based Duke University is mulling to expand its Talent Identification Programme (TIP) in India.

Through TIP, Duke University identifies academically talented students through centralised tests and offers them challenging and innovative educational programs and conducts research on the nature of such talent.

Launched in 1980 in the US, TIP was recently introduced through its collaboration with IIM-A in India, the only other country to feature the programme. Already a week into the program, which comprises 34 students selected from 13 schools in four cities including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, Duke has already begun evaluating options for expanding TIP in India.

"We are evaluating possibilities of introducing either e-studies or distant learning courses for students belonging to grades 8-12. While the current program is being sponsored by Duke in association with IIM-A, next year we might go for fee-based programs or corporate sponsored programs," said Martha Putallaz, executive director, Duke TIP.

Through e-studies, the university intends to conduct common educational programs for students from different countries like the US and India through video conferencing and online studies.

The university may also go for student exchange programs if need be, added Putallaz. Under the current Summer studies program, students are trained in Java-based video gaming and engineering problem-solving by faculties from Duke University at IIM-A which are derived from the graduate-level curriculum.

Banaras Hindu University set to get IIT tag

2008-05-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

Almost 40 years after it first mooted the idea of getting converted into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU), Varanasi, is now ready to don the IIT tag. The Ministry of Human Resource Development as part of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan has allowed IT-BHU to be converted into an IIT.

While IT-BHU is excited about the development, the biggest advantage, it says, will be the financial and social benefits post conversion. Says SN Upadhyay, director, IT-BHU, "The institute will have funding and brand image similar to that of the IITs. It will have financial, academic and administrative autonomy similar to them."

An IIT status is crucial for the institute as it expects to receive more funding from the government from the next academic year. Currently the institute receives about Rs 50 crores per year and will be entitled to a grant of Rs 110 crore per year apart from Rs 30-50 crore towards research funding. The institute is also said to receive funding towards improvement of its infrastructure.

An IIT status will also help the institute attract good number of quality students with better IIT-JEE ranks. Says Upadhyay, "The academic standards of our college have always been at par with the IITs. With this official recognition, we will be able to attract better students and quality faculty too. This in turn will help us attract better companies on campus for placements."

The conversion will take around a year with the government modifying the BHU Act 1915 in Parliament.

AIEEE 2007 cut offs and 2008 expected cut offs

2008-05-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

Talent crunch forces India Inc to offer 15% salary hikes

2008-05-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

PAYBACK
Top performers in terms of salary increases
(Figures in %)

Sectors 2007 2008

Real estate & infrastructure 28-29 25.0
Telecommunications 17.2 17.6
Oil & gas exploration, energy 19.0 17.5
Hospitality, restaurants 15.4 17.1
Banking & fin services 12.9 16.9
Manufacturing 14.2 14.4
IT-enabled services 11-12 14.0

Despite the slowdown and turmoil in financial markets, private sector employees have received or can look forward to an average salary increase of 15 per cent this year, roughly the same as the year before but lower in real terms because of the inflation rate, which is ruling at 8 per cent.

Still, this is better than most markets – 5.5 per cent in the US and 8 per cent in China, for instance – mainly thanks to the talent crunch and rapid growth in many sectors.

"Given the slowdown, companies are being cautious. Average increases will be 7 to15 per cent though top performers will still get 25 to 30 per cent, '' said K. Sudarshan, managing partner (India) for executive search firm EMA Partners International.

HR firm Hewitt Associates, however, estimates average salaries in India rose 15.2 across sectors for 2008-09 in line with the increases last year (15.1 per cent) and better than the year before (14.4 per cent) despite slowdown in many sectors.

Firms increase role on B - School campus

2008-05-26T01:49:00.000-07:00

Companies come up with new ways to increase their involvement in B-schools to make sure they are able to interact first-hand with potential employees.

Gone are the days when corporate involvement in management schools was restricted to providing internships, and sponsoring cultural festivals and research chairs.

The race to hire the best students during final placements is leading more companies to get into major collaborations with educational institutions. Be it setting up news terminals on the campus, opening research wings or developing joint education programmes, companies are more than eager to contribute funds for industry-academia partnerships.

Leading the pack is Citi Group which has decided to commit around Rs 6.3 crore to the Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad to promote financial inclusion for small investors and enterprises.

Citi Foundation will provide the grant to ISB's Centre for Analytical Finance (CAF) over a period of three years. CAF will undertake projects on a range of subjects in the financial domain and formulate recommendations to support regulators, practitioners, academics and other opinion leaders to implement financial development in the country.

"With this research programme, our longstanding relationship with ISB will be further strengthened. CAF is uniquely positioned to undertake this project as it has prior experience of doing quality work in this and other related areas," said Sanjay Nayar, CEO Citi India.

The rationale behind the corporate world's eagerness to partner with management schools is simple. Along with first-hand interaction with students, who could be potential employees, the companies can also access research data compiled by institute faculty members and students.

BS Sahay, director, IMT Ghaziabad, said: "These collaborations are part of research, training and consultancy. IMT has collaborations with companies in the private and public sector including Hankel, Transport Corporation of India, Moser Bear, HPCL and ONGC. Our forte is to create, impart and disseminate knowledge through applied research, which can be directly used by not just the company, but also the particular industry."

JP Morgan, which hires a significant number of students each year from Indian campuses, became the first company to sponsor a news terminal for an educational institute. This was in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

The terminal provides real time and historical data for about five million securities covering equities, bonds, currencies, derivatives and commodities from around the world to help students prepare term papers, assignments and project courses.

Larry O'Donnell, chief, human resources India, JP Morgan, said that this was part of the company's endeavour to create a partnership early and not just during recruitment.

The company has hired students from the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta as well as other top institutes like XLRI Jamshedpur. The firm is looking at sponsoring lecture series, internship programmes and other activities for institutes in India.

SAP has decided to support IIM Bangalore's Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning, where IIM-B's faculty would collaborate with SAP in the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. SAP and IIM-B's plan includes conducting industry-specific national and international conferences, workshops, and roundtable discussions. Special focus will be given to working with government (Central, State and Local) ministries and departments in the field of e-governance.

Microsoft India has been organising a competition called the ‘Imagine Cup' for students across Indian campuses to come out with innovative technologies. At the end of the event, the company looks at promising students for recruitment and is also open to funding feasible innovations from students. Likewise, Sun Microsystems has collaborated with Gujarat-based Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) to form a club, which aims at promoting Sun's technologies in the campus.

Companies like Reliance, NIIT and Accenture among others have launched online education programmes with top management schools like Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur, IIM-A, IIM-C and ISB.

It`s about execution WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

2008-05-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

Let me start with what I did learn at B-school. The most important were the financial tools. As an entrepreneur, understanding finance is extremely important as it impacts everything around us.

Second, it taught me how to think as a business person — in B-school you are exposed to so many case studies, profit and loss statements, balance sheets and strategic decisions based on that information, that you automatically start thinking of everything around you as a business.

Another important lesson is that on valuations. Sure, MBAs are theoretical at times — but it is in theory that you develop a deep understanding of the subject.

What you don't learn is equally important. As a business leader, building, motivating and carrying a team are many a times most important. This includes identifying talent, attracting talent and getting the most out of people.

The real world also involves making quick decisions based on imperfect data and you have to develop and trust your instinct. When you sit in an MBA class and analyse case studies of companies that have revenues that run into several hundred million dollars, you tend to get comfortable with those number and underestimate the value of good execution — thinking and discussing strategy is easy — the real challenging part is the execution.

Add to that the risk factor. How does risk impact decisions versus purely imaginary risk? In the real world, you develop instincts for this and you carve out your way of doing things which works for you. This cannot be taught in business school, but what can be created is a simulation of a more realistic decision-making environment.

Also, I think business schools need to move beyond the data-intensive paper case studies to visual cases through videos and interviews describing the situations more vividly and realistically.

For an entrepreneur, it is all about the idea and good execution — B-schools should try and add skills in their students through some practical experiences and lessons in superior execution and in establishing methodologies on identifying ideas that can provide value to customers and hence make a business successful.

Singapore: An emerging destination for Indian students

2008-05-19T01:05:00.001-07:00

ing to position itself as the destination of choice for Indian students. The country wants Indian students to enrol in its institutes, from the higher secondary or the junior college level onwards.

Singapore is basing its pitch on its geographical proximity to India, professional education that provides excellent job opportunities, the business and trade environment of Singapore and its cosmopolitan culture.

The government of Singapore is promoting its various higher secondary colleges and institutions across Indian metros and other large cities. Over three years, the number of Indian students opting for studies in Singapore has surged. One of the reasons has been that more Indian families have been settling in Singapore.

A delegation of Singapore-based educational institutions visited India's educational hub Pune, recently. The group interacted with schools, colleges and a large number of students to promote Singapore as an education hub.

Canada relaxes work permit rules

2008-05-19T01:03:00.001-07:00

For students aspiring to take up post graduate studies at Canada and getting a work permit subsequently, there is good news. International students will now be able to obtain an open work permit under the Post-Graduation Work Permit Programme, with no restrictions on the type of employment and no requirement for a job offer.

The duration of the work permit has also been extended to three years across the country. Earlier, the programme allowed international students to work either for a year or for two years, depending on location. The move comes as major incentive for Indian students, especially those who have started looking beyond the UK, US and Australia for education.

A spokesperson for the Canadian High Commission said that 5,700 Indian students were studying in Canada till last year.

"The increased flexibility offered by the expanded programme will benefit graduates and employers. It will help international students get important work experience while responding to Canada's labour market needs," said the spokesperson.

IIM-C Interviews held, results put on hold

2008-05-16T06:11:00.001-07:00

The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta conducted interviews for Other Backward Class (OBC) category students as scheduled on Thursday but decided to hold the results in abeyance.

This follows the stay granted by the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday on the memorandum issued by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry according reservation to IIM aspirants belonging to the OBC segment in the postgraduate courses in the central institutes of higher learning.

Chairman of admissions in the institute, Subrata Mitra, said 20 interviews were conducted during the first-half of the day at the Joka Campus.

The candidates were told to sign an undertaking which said they understood the backdrop in which the interviews were taking place and that the entire process may become null and void depending on the apex court’s ruling and the subsequent instructions from the Ministry.

Mr. Mitra said all the IIMs have been in touch with one another and had decided to evolve their own process of conducting the admission process this year, in view of the exceptional situation that had arisen after the HRD memorandum.

On fears of legal hurdles delaying this year’s admissions, he said the academic calendar of the IIMs were fixed and he hoped that the classes would commence from mid-June as scheduled.

OBC quota: SC clears roadblocks for admissions in PG courses

2008-05-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

Roadblocks for admission of OBC candidates in post-graduate courses including in IIMs and IITs were on Friday cleared by the Supreme Court which lifted the Calcutta High Court order staying implementation of the 27 per cent quota for them in Central educational institutions.

The apex court described the High Court's ex-parte interim order as "strange" and said "no court can sit over its judgement".

"We cannot allow Calcutta High Court order to operate," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said and emphasised that "where is the question of stay when the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 has been upheld".

"Can the Calcutta High Court sit over the order of the Supreme Court," the Bench, also comprising Justices H K Sema and P P Naolekar, said after Solicitor General G E Vahanvati questioned the legality of the High Court order which was delivered without taking into account that the quota law was upheld by the apex court on April 10.

However, it said admissions will be provisional subject to the final outcome in the matter before it as those opposing the government memorandum for implementation of the quota in post-graduate courses have contended that the majority verdict of five-judge bench has set a benchmark that a graduate cannot be considered educationally backward.

The court stayed all proceedings relating to OBC quota that are pending in the High Courts of Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay and issued notices to those petitioners, including Delhi-based Youth for Equality, on the Centre's petition seeking transfer of those matters to the apex court.

Science and Engg Board to promote research

2008-05-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

In an effort to boost basic scientific research, the Government today decided to set up a Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).

The Board will seek to enhance the level of basic research and also impart necessary autonomy, flexibility and speed in shaping research and delivery of funds to researchers.
This was decided at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Briefing reporters, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the Board will be a high-level empowered body with necessary administrative and financial autonomy chaired by Secretary of Department of Science and Technology.

The Board can sanction individual projects up to Rs 75 crore with the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He said that on policy matters, the Board will receive necessary guidance from an Oversight Committee chaired by a scientist of international repute.

The need for having such a body was felt in view of rapid changes in the basic scientific research at the global level with increasing competition every day, he said.

A Science and Engineering Research Bill will be introduced in Parliament and the Board will be constituted under the Act, he said.

The Cabinet also approved a Planning Commission proposal to set up a Coodinated Mechanism for skill development encompassing different public and private initiatives, Chidambaram said.

He said while the ministries and various departments would continue to be responsible for the skill development programmes under them, the National Skill Development Corporation will take care of the skill development in the private sector.

The Finance Minister said coordinated action would aim at creating a pool of skilled personnel in appropriate numbers with adequate skills in line with the employment requirements across the country.

IIMC interviews stayed

2008-05-14T20:51:00.001-07:00

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday stayed a memorandum by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry granting reservation for candidates belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) in postgraduate courses in Central institutions of higher learning.

The court also restrained the holding of interviews of OBC candidates for admission to the postgraduate courses in the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) scheduled for Thursday.

Justice Maharaj Sinha, in an interim order, granted the stay following a petition by Sayan Guha, a candidate of the general category, challenging the HRD Ministry’s office memorandum as well as the interview called by the IIM-C. The matter will be taken up for hearing on June 9. The IIM-C had scheduled the special interview of OBC candidates pursuant to the Ministry’s memorandum.

Mr Guha’s counsel submitted before the court that the HRD Ministry’s office memorandum and subsequent reservation clause were in violation of the April 10 Supreme Court order on reservation for OBC candidates that had also set a yardstick for such quotas in Central higher educational institutions.

They submitted that while the apex court had observed that graduates would not be considered for reservation in the postgraduate courses, the HRD Ministry had violated the order and issued an office memorandum to the effect that OBC students would get reservation in postgraduate courses.

VCs, IIT heads to brief Arjun on quota

2008-05-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has called a meeting of the heads of all Central educational institutions here for Wednesday to discuss their preparedness for implementing reservation for the Other Backward Classes from the coming academic year.

Vice-Chancellors of all Central universities and directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management are expected to attend.

The heads of the institutions will brief the Minister on their plans for the first year, including the increase in seats to factor in OBC reservation and an equal number of general category students, faculty availability and an assessment of additional funds required.

As per the Ministry’s directive — issued on April 20 in the wake of the Supreme Court order upholding the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 — every institution can plan its own schedule provided 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs is in place within three years and there is no reduction in the share of general category seats.

Also, the institutions can fix the reservation criteria in keeping with their standards, but the cut-off should be such that a sufficient number of eligible OBC candidates are available as per “the directions/observations of the court in this regard.”

IBM and ISB enter into research partnership

2008-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

IBM India and the Indian School of Business (ISB) announced the signing of Open Collaborative Research agreement in Asia aimed at improving the competitiveness of the services sector in the region.

This research will support companies to redesign their project management structure, reduce attrition, and also help the high performance groups to move up the value chain. The research to be led by the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies at the ISB and the Indian Research laboratory at IBM India, will focus on Indian companies to begin with and later extend to Asian companies.

IIM-B earmarks Rs 1.5 crore for poor students

2008-05-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) has set aside a sum of Rs 1.5 crore for assistance to the students who are facing difficulty in getting admitted into the institute this year.

In the academic year 2007-08, IIM-B had disbursed Rs 91 lakh towards assistance for the needy students. "Keeping in mind the increase in fees for the entering batch, the amount budgeted for financial aid this year has been revised to Rs 1.5 crore," it said in a statement.

The financial assistance by IIM-B is in addition to bank loans that the students can also avail of. "The objective of IIM-B's financial aid policy is to ensure that no student is deprived of education at the institute for financial reasons," it added.

The eligibility criteria to avail of financial assistance in the ongoing year has been revised to include those students with an annual household income of Rs 3,00,000 (from previous year's Rs 2,00,000).

A student seeking this assistance needs to fill in a form detailing information like annual household income, savings, assets, and outstanding loans.

The quantum of the financial assistance to be awarded to a candidate is decided based on his/her financial needs, which is determined during an interview with a panel comprising two faculty members.

In case a student is facing difficulty in making the initial payment to secure admission, he/she can send the application ahead of time, according to IIM-B.

Banks including SBI, SBM, Andhra Bank, and Allahabad Bank also provide loans to students for getting admission into IIM-B.

Top IIM-A case studies to go online, bear a price tag

2008-05-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

They have shaped careers and reformed businesses. Now, the tomes of traditional wisdom are out for everyone, albeit with a tag. Case studies, an important ingredient of the curriculum of the post-graduate management programme (PGPM) of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), will serve as a new source of income for the institute.

Accumulated over four decades of the existence of the institute, these case studies will be put up for sale to other B-schools, corporates and individuals, on the lines of Harvard Business School (HBS) where they are not just another pedagogical tool but also an important source of revenue.

The institute has collected over 2,500 case studies over all these years, written either by the faculty members or sourced from top global B-schools. They contribute to more than 60% of PGPM curriculum at IIM-A. To begin with, the institute will put up 300 most popular case studies online, each bearing different price tag for different categories of customers. The institute is in the process of ascertaining the price.

“Our curriculum, based on the model of Harvard B-School, banks heavily on case studies. More than 60% of PGPM syllabus constitutes of case studies, on the lines of global B-schools like Harvard, London Business School and University of Texas at Austin, etc,” said IIM-A faculty Arvind Sahay.

Nuts and bolts WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

2008-05-06T04:00:00.001-07:00

Most of us step out of B-school with a spirit to conquer the world. As a fresh graduate, the only thing on my mind was to outshine my compatriots. B-schools teach you to be focused and fiercely competitive, but organisations don't need people who are forever aggressive.

Successful managers don't think just about their own success, but also that of the organisation. A high degree of "interdependence" among employees thus becomes imperative. We often see those successful at their jobs help others succeed without factoring in "what's in it for me".

Businesses are built and grown on well thought out partnerships. A friend once said "the world is small, round and, to top it all, it revolves". This means that a professional needs to build bridges and ensure two-way communication — be it within the organisation, with service providers or suppliers, or even competition.

Efficient managers are those who can get the right work out of people, keep them happy, motivate them consistently, and help them whenever it is required. Such inter-personal skills cannot be taught in a classroom. They can only be learnt on the job.

Case studies analysed at B-schools hardly take into account the human angle. In a case study, it is assumed that every one listens to you, but in an organisation, you may have to live with decisions which cannot be contradicted. Taking cognisance of such forces is not taught at B-school.

Any problem can be solved in a case study because of well-laid-out concepts and situations. But in real life, we may be exposed to blank situations which are open-ended, and where nothing is defined. What works is not the technical or analytical skills, but simple nuts and bolts stuff.

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Criteria for short listing for admissions 2008

2008-05-05T05:19:00.000-07:00

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
Criteria for short listing for admissions 2008
Section-I Section-II Section-III Total
General (percentile) 92 92 92 98
OBC 75 75 75 90
SC 60 60 60 80
ST 50 50 50 70
PWD1 50 50 50 70
PWD2 10 10 10 15
PWD3 60 60 60 80
Note: Based on cut off given above, candidates are short listed in the first stage. In the second
stage a weight of 90 % is given to CAT percentage and 10% weight for work experience. Then
from the total of both weight of CAT and weight of work experience, candidates are ranked and
called for GDPI as under:
GENERAL 1246
OBC 254
SC 289
ST 155
PWD1 19
PWD2 13
PWD3 19
Total 1995

IIMC Cut-offs GD and PI

2008-05-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

CATEGORY SECTION 1 SECTION 2 SECTION 3 TOTAL
% Score Percentile % Score Percentile % Score Percentile % Score Percentile
Score Score Score Score
OPEN 31.00 95.02 46.88 95.07 27.00 94.70 38.00 98.96
SC 20.00 85.27 23.96 65.69 11.00 66.10 21.00 85.12
ST 20.00 85.27 20.00 58.65 10.00 62.02 19.32 81.85
PWD 20.00 85.27 20.00 58.65 10.00 62.02 17.97 78.83
OBC 24.00 89.85 39.58 89.53 22.00 89.80 35.00 98.14

Test Registration Number of 80 Waitlisted Candidates for PGP 2008-10 at IIMB

2008-05-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

CAT Test Registration Number of the 80 candidates who have been waitlisted by IIMB - 50 in general
category, 16 in SC category, 7 in ST category and 7 in PWD category. Waitlisted candidates can check
their waitlist status with waitlist rank in their category on the admissions page of the IIMB website.
These candidates have also been couriered letters on May 1, 2008 stating their waitlist rank.
CAT TR_NO 5290250 8110565
4110101 5430289 8130182
4510880 5430322 8130617
4530946 5440662 8131110
4540227 5460033 8140742
4550300 5470920 8170615
4551140 5471385 9260068
4570106 5510965 9260900
4610121 5520392 9350716
4620282 5660171 9381054
4661558 5660581 9420147
4661931 5780169 9650026
4673843 5800008 9650084
5110013 5800048
5110937 6130938
5111801 6131052
5120403 6150273
5121536 6271925
5130065 6281413
5130786 6420394
5160086 6540774
5180951 6550705
5190529 6620985
5191097 6630242
5200501 6630344
5200892 6680085
5240562 6740548
5240809 6750080
5240914 6751825
5241201 6760330
5250157 7151186
5250409 7220159
5260374 7470644
5280082 8110546

Test Registration Number of 25 OBC Candidates Offered Provisional Admission in PGP 2008-10 at IIMB

2008-05-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

The following 25 OBC candidates have been made provisional admission offers subject to their providing
documentary proof that they do not belong to the “creamy layer” of OBC as defined by the Government of
India. Any attempt to provide false information in this regard will result in cancellation of the offer. The
provisional admission offer will be void for these 25 OBC candidates if they belong to the “creamy layer”.

CAT TR_NO
4540744
4610130
5190383
5200808
5220455
5230609
5250954
5420022
5430394
5430667
5450563
5460765
5520280
5640197
6710259
7361962
7430063
8110948
8121020
8140206
8140464
8160268
8170180
9260536
9540578

Test Registration Number of 300 Candidates Offered Admission at IIMB PGP 2008-10

2008-05-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

CAT TR_NO 4610371 5130306
4110229 4620776 5130474
4120555 4661051 5130554
4140281 4661847 5130606
4170654 4670327 5130944
4200212 4670823 5140009
4210412 4671142 5140146
4310585 4673413 5150333
4310995 4710651 5150382
4311065 4740528 5150386
4410097 4740559 5150534
4510937 4740758 5150624
4510992 4760447 5150785
4530179 4760903 5160333
4540083 5110236 5160341
4540553 5110858 5160491
4540649 5111429 5170322
4540894 5111844 5170407
4550067 5112235 5170606
4550535 5112310 5170608
4550786 5112322 5170754
4550952 5112364 5180284
4551798 5112467 5180413
4560163 5120164 5180417
4560194 5120903 5190004
4560366 5120948 5190104
4570690 5121094 5190482
4580833 5121228 5190509
4590179 5121590 5190562
4590666 5121657 5210152
4600008 5121689 5210175
4600144 5121696 5210812
4600231 5130063 5210921
4600737 5210957
5130067

5220037 5450317 6630711
5220225 5450544 6700210
5220297 5450549 6700342
5220309 5450745 6710155
5230176 5460577 6710371
5230379 5470148 6710445
5230387 5470482 6730365
5240208 5471284 6740148
5240463 5480240 6740177
5240495 5480469 6750069
5240720 5480756 6750818
5240788 5520838 6751453
5241059 5620612 6751489
5241278 5650012 6760251
5250008 5660373 6760444
5250143 5660530 6760976
5250241 5680364 6840270
5250410 5700301 6920406
5250484 5760077 7110432
5250522 5760122 7210108
5250572 5770501 7210329
5260244 6210716 7210355
5260380 6220439 7210379
5260569 6230149 7210983
5260664 6230616 7220304
5260777 6260511 7221165
5260786 6290619 7230008
5260895 6290844 7240396
5270181 6530197 7340520
5280142 6530434 7420345
5280346 6540578 7420517
5280365 6550463 7430616
5280469 6550494 7460191
5280926 6560173 7470186
5281161 6620209 7500237
5281196 6620263 7500289
5290183 6621029 8110009
5290213 6630511 8110138
5440641 6630652 8110574

8111144 8420380 9330474
8111373 8420783 9340556
8111736 8450159 9350316
8111856 8450478 9360809
8120471 9130241 9370228
8120728 9130580 9390393
8121052 9130637 9400153
8121184 9140165 9400225
8131139 9140202 9400502
8131144 9140513 9420153
8140586 9140648 9420870
8150289 9180173 9430112
8150886 9200152 9430694
8151107 9200169 9450095
8151206 9200217 9450559
8151713 9200260 9460283
8151727 9200929 9460288
8160717 9220508 9470697
8160974 9230102 9510203
8161156 9240492 9520767
8161319 9240746 9530256
8161491 9280006 9550028
8170226 9280099 9570501
8170382 9280642 9590710
8170414 9281146 9650013
8171095 9300737 9650348
8310514 9310177
8321804 9320144

Accenture Management Development Academy launched

2008-05-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

Global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company Accenture and the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) have launched Accenture Management Development Academy (AMDA), an online, classroom and on-the-job training programme designed to develop and nurture leaders from Accenture's mid-level management in India.

AMDA will offer 18-24-month programmes for the first three levels of the Accenture's middle management in India; team lead, associate manager and manager.

ISB's Centre for Executive Education and the Centre for IT and Networked Economies (CITNE) have partnered Accenture to develop the curriculum for the academy. The curriculum for each programme covers strategic and tactical aspects of management and has been designed to enable Accenture employees to develop a strong foundation in key delivery management skills as they work on career advancement.

Admissions at IIMs still provisional for OBCs

2008-05-05T05:02:00.000-07:00

Creamy layer' causes confusion.

The long wait for candidates aspiring to enter the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) may have ended on May 1 with the institutes releasing the final admission list, but the admission process is far from over.

Such is the chaos caused by the ‘creamy layer' clause that some of the IIMs are looking at organising a fresh round of interviews to create a larger pool of Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates from the non-creamy layer background.

While most of the IIMs had interviewed sufficient number of OBC candidates around February, the Supreme Court ruling about not including the ‘creamy layer' has meant that admission for OBC candidates is still ‘provisional'. OBC students who have made the cut to the final admission list will now have to produce a certificate confirming their OBC status by May 19.

Loan terms get tougher for IIM aspirants

2008-04-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

Collateral will have to be furnished to get loans to pay the increased fee.

With the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) hiking their fees, many general category students will have to approach banks for educational loans. Most will also have to furnish collateral to get that all-important loan.

IIM-Ahmedabad, for instance, has almost trebled its fees to Rs 4 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh. IIM-Kolkata has hiked it from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh. Others like IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow have hiked it from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh and Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh respectively.

Add to that another Rs 3-4 lakh for laptops, books and others expenses, and the effective expense rises by another 30 per cent .Students, therefore, need to shell out anywhere between Rs 9-15 lakh for a two-year course.

Students, therefore, need to shell out anywhere between Rs 9-15 lakh for a two-year course and would start with a loan that they need to pay-off to free their collateral, which was not the case earlier.

Though banks would be quite willing to provide loans to students studying in these institutes, the requirement for securities will increase. Till now, the maximum loan offered for studies in India was Rs 10 lakh.

There is no paperwork required for the initial Rs 4 lakh. After that, there needs be a guarantor for a loan up to Rs 7.5 lakh. Above this, some collateral is required.

According to RBI guidelines, for loans up to Rs 4 lakh, the interest rate should not exceed the prime lending rate (PLR). Above Rs 4 lakh, the interest rate charged is PLR plus 1 per cent.

For instance, Indian Bank offers education loan schemes up to Rs 10 lakh for graduate, postgraduate and professional education in India. The current rate of interest is 12.50 per cent for loans up to Rs 4 lakh and 13 per cent for an amount above that.

Amit Roy (name changed), who recently passed out of IIM Lucknow, took an education loan of Rs 7.2 lakh. Today, he is paying Rs 14,000 a month as equated monthly instalments (EMIs), which is around 20 per cent of his take-home salary. And he will continue to do so for the next 7 years. "Most of my colleagues are paying instalments now," he admits.

Therefore, even the crème-de-la-crème of students would start their careers with a loan in their balance sheets. Imagine getting the first salary cheque with an equated monthly instalment (EMI) deduction. Not that this is a new phenomenon. IIM students have had to resort to educational loans for a while now.

Rajeev Mishra (name changed), who has completed a year in IIM-Kolkata, took a loan of Rs 7.5 lakh from the State Bank of India last year. Similarly, there are many others who have taken loans. All of them believe their salaries will more than make up for the amount borrowed.

Banks over the years have been gearing up to meet the demands of aspiring IIM and IIT students because the repayment ability is there.

Scholarships at IIM-A to pinch 20% of new fee

2008-04-29T00:16:00.001-07:00

Effective fee to be Rs 8.4 lakh vis-a-vis the official Rs 11.5 lakh.

Even as the decision of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to implement the almost 190 per cent fee hike for the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) got flak from the HRD ministry, internal calculations done by the institute have revealed that taking into account need-based scholarships, the average fee for a student could be as low as Rs 4.2 lakh per year (Rs 8.4 lakh for two years).

IIM-A has proposed a fee hike from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh for its two-year PGP this academic year.

Despite the fee hike, for the coming batch, nearly 65 per cent of students are expected to be covered under financial assistance which is expected to bring down revenues from fees for the institute.

IIM-A will implement the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation of 6 per cent (17 seats) this year, where the institute is set to offer a certain amount of fee waiver to all OBC students.

IIM-A to implement quota in phased manner

2008-04-29T00:12:00.002-07:00

The Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmdedabad (IIM-A), today decided to implement 27 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation in phases, over the next three years.

"Six per cent OBC reservation will come into force from this academic year. In the second year, it will be increased to 15 per cent and in the third year, the entire quota of 27 per cent will be implemented," IIM-A Director Sameer Barua said.

Meanwhile, in other reports the Common Admission Test (CAT) for the management courses is likely to go on-line from the next year.

"We were planning to make Common Admission test (CAT) on-line from 2008, but since we have only eight months left for the test, it might not be possible this year. But it will be on-line from 2009," IIM-A Director Sameer Barua said.