Cover Story

B-Schools fact sheet
Some facts about other management schools in India.

A B-school big on Asia
The Asia Graduate School of Business focusses on the business needs and practices of the Asian region.
How we ranked the B-schools
The sixth Business Today Nielsen survey of India’s Best B-schools employed the same methodology as it has over the previous five years. That means, it conducted face-to-face interviews with five different categories of stakeholders, comprising MBA Wannabes, Recruiters, Current MBAs, Functional Heads and Young Executives.
Where are the B-school teachers?
Quality MBA education in the country is hurtling towards a quagmire as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good teachers. Although there's hope yet, the B-schools will need to address the issue in right earnest, says Kapil Bajaj.Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A - An epitome of excellenceISB - One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?
Ladder to the top
A B-school stamp may fast-track the climb to the top rung of the corporate hierarchy but it certainly isn’t a short cut to the summit, as five top honchos point out.
Simply the best
The quality of its management faculty, its case-study based approach to learning, that it can get Lalu Prasad Yadav as a guest lecturer… take your pick on what makes IIM-A the king of the B-school hill.Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A - An epitome of excellenceISB - One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?More from the latest edition
The global manager
What does it take to become a true global manager? And can B-schools teach students the nuances of succeeding in a globalised environment?
What slowdown?
The Class of 2009 need not worry about getting jobs. Headline-grabbing salaries, though, may become rarer as may sign-on bonuses.
Is ISB better than the best?
London’s Financial Times recently ranked it among the Top 20 B-schools in the world—the only Indian B-school to earn that distinction. What makes ISB rock? BT's E. Kumar Sharma finds out. Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A: An epitome of excellenceISB: One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?More from the latest edition
Handling MBA egos
Organisations like ICICI Bank put management grads through rigorous internships, says K. Ramkumar, Group HR Head, ICICI Bank.
The MBA entrepreneur
How should young MBAs approach their entrepreneurial dreams? Get some real-world experience to begin with, says Alok Mittal.
Up there, with the best
It may not have the profile of the IIMs as yet, but it ranks #4 in BT’s B-school survey. And it’s not an interloper; it has been ranked among the best Indian B-schools for several years now.
India's best B-schools
The sixth Business Today-Nielsen Survey of India’s Best B-schools shows that IIM-A is still the best, but five others, IIM-B, IIM-C, Symbiosis, IIM-L and XLRI, are catching up fast. Then, one-year MBA programmes, of the type offered by Hyderabad-based ISB, are becoming popular. Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A - An epitome of excellenceISB - One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?More from the latest edition
Dream different, but dream big
Two IIM Ahmedabad students, Arpita Kar and Tanya Choudhury, have different dreams and see themselves at different places in the future. Business Today's T.V. Mahalingam profiles the two who are like chalk and cheese.Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A - An epitome of excellenceISB - One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?
IIM Shillong: New kid on the block
IIM Shillong begins its first academic session this month. But can it match up to the standards of its eponymous forebears? BT's J. Bhattacharjee draws a comparison. Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A - An epitome of excellenceISB - One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?More from the latest edition
One-year miracle
Many executives are using the shorter PGPX/PGPEX programmes at IIM-A and IIM-C as their stepping stones to life-changing mid-life career switches.
Hot new MBA jobs
Although investment banks, consumer goods giants and consulting companies continue to woo MBA grads with attractive remuneration, many upcoming industries have also staked their claim and are getting a favourable response. A report by BTs R. Sachitanand.Slideshows : India's ten best B-Schools IIM-A - An epitome of excellenceISB - One-year wonderFrom BT archives 2007: IIM-A once again retains top perch2006: There are plenty of gainers & losers2005: Emergence of 15 B-school brands2004: To B or not to B?2003: What makes IIM-A dominate?

2008-07-13

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Editors note

From the editor

As India globalises and the world "shrinks" even further into a so-called global village, managers will be increasingly called upon to manage cross-cultural teams across geographies. Can the skills required to succeed in such an environment be taught in a classroom? Our cover package, which ranks India's top B-schools, also deals with such, and many other, issues.

BT More

Daddy's girl

Anjani Kasliwal, the 22-year-old head of luxury of S. Kumars’ Brandhouse Retails Division, swears by Escada and Dunhill (yes, the men’s brand makes tailor-made blazers for her) and loves food. Over a vegetarian Japanese meal, she tells us more about her work and passions.

Madre Mia: A true taste of italy

Craving for a Pizza Margherita or a Pasta à la Puttanesca that tastes just like the wonderful dish you had in Florence? Here is where you should have your next affair with Italian food.

Jeev the Rain Man

Golf is tricky enough the way it is. No,what Jeev did was play the tournament without a practice round, relying on the yardage book to go around the first day. And he shot a 65, his lowest number for the week. Sometimes, it helps not to know where the bunkers and bushes are.

Turkish Delights

Turkey’s wines remain undiscovered, even though it is the world’s fourth-largest producer of grapes with 6,100 square kilometres under vines and has 60 indigenous wine grape varieties to dip into.

Gadget Bling

Who says gadgets can’t wear jewellery? We check out some of the ‘blingiest’ contraptions out there.

The Zegna Man

Ermenegildo Zegna is without doubt one of the biggest names in fashion.We met the man himself to talk about his personal style and to learn the secret of running a successful family empire.

Driven By Music

A cool new car deserves a cool new entertainment system in place. Right? So, here’s what you should buy.

Live It Up

It’s time to get choosy. From garments to gadgets, check out what you want to buy this fortnight.

Dealing with the fuel bomb

Taking care of just a few things can reduce your annual spend on fuel by about 25 per cent. So, that will, in effect, mean that you are paying just about Rs 37 for a litre of fuel instead of the current price of about Rs 50 per litre.

When time stops

This fortnight, we give you a peek into two much talked about new books that are almost autobiographical.

A taste of African liqueurs

Sure, you’ve sipped enough South African wines. But, have you tried its liqueurs? Here are four you should buy.

Inside the world's best restaurants

Are you one of those who will settle for nothing but the best when it comes to food? Travel with us, then, to the finest restaurants on Earth as we set out on an unforgettable gastronomical journey.

The best new pubs

It’s Saturday night... Time to chill out. Head to the most talked-about new pubs in town. 

Give me the whip!

While you squabble over whether The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull lives up to the hype, jog your memory with the original Indiana Jones trilogy, now out as special edition DVDs

Get the power!

Madonna and Monica Belluci swear by this machine and so does Shah Rukh Khan. And there’s no denying that those women (and the guy) are rather fit.We met up with Guus Van Der Meer, the man who invented the Power Plate,to find out how to use it for best results.

Come and get it

After decades of self-important “artistes” and albums, pop music is moving back to the 1950s when singles were king, and there was a constant search for the next big thing. In this brave new world, websites and music blogs are fast replacing magazines as the source of information.

Oh tut!

We saw the Pyramids and clicked snaps with the Sphinx. But that’s definitely not all that we did in Tutankhamun’s Egypt.

Features

The watchdog who walked the street

After being run by a string of bureaucrats who weren’t exactly in sync with the stock markets and its devices, regulator SEBI finally has a chief who’s no stranger to the bulls and bears. Can he make a difference?

Sanjiv's Bajaj

After years of working in the sizeable shadow of Bajaj Auto, Rahul Bajaj’s younger son Sanjiv strides out on his own into the high-growth world of financial services.

Who's next?

Several Indian drug makers seem ripe for the picking, but buyers will have to come up with compelling offers.

Malvinder's sweet deal

By selling out to Daiichi Sankyo, the CEO& MD of Ranbaxy hasn’t just netted a Rs 9,576-crore windfall, but brightened the company's future sans him in the global generics' marketplace. A report by Business Today's Shalini S. Dagar. Ranbaxy will continue acquisition, says CEORanbaxy to sell stake to Japan's Daiichi

"BPO's $50-billion opportunity"

Will they be able to ramp up revenues five-fold to $50 billion by 2012? BT-Nasscom round table finds the answer.

Current

Goodbye good buys?

Merrill’s new rating system has place for underperformers. The new rating system provides more transparency into analysts’ evaluation criteria, greater differentiation among the equity ratings within a cluster (for a buy or a sell).

Special effect?

Will Anil Ambani and Steven Spielberg come together? After having inked seven production deals with the who’s who of Hollywood in Cannes last month, Reliance Big Entertainment has emerged as Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG’s principal new financier.

Modi set on MSM

Has B.K. Modi got a toehold into the Sony bouquet? The buy-out has been apparently made via Mcorp Global, the holding company for Modi’s businesses.

At it again!

Can RIL drop a spanner in the R-Comm-MTN deal? Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) claims that as per the agreement when the brothers split the group’s assets between them, RIL had the right of first refusal in the case of any proposed sale of a controlling stake in R-Comm.

Still in the hunt

Can Anil Ambani thrash out a deal with MTN? Ambani has been in several closed-door meetings with MTN Chief Executive Phuthuma Nhelko in London, hammering out the modalities.

Glimmer of hope

Advance tax numbers point to a pleasant earnings surprise. The first flush of advance tax numbers for the largecap companies that make up the Sensex indicates that the first quarter profits of these companies may beat estimates of most analysts.

Down, but not out

The RBI directive makes it clear that the operations of Sahara’s residuary non-banking finance company are not in good shape. The central bank has directed SIFC to reconstitute its board within 30 days of the directive in such a way that half its members should be independent directors.

Striking out on their own?

After weeks of intense rumours that Citi Venture Capital International’s India team has been signed on by private equity biggie TPG (earlier it was called Texas Pacific Group), it now appears that it may simply be setting up its own shop.

Bungle in the jungle

Hedge funds are groaning under the weight of high risk. Along with the big global banks, hedge funds too have been at the epicentre of the global financial markets crisis that was triggered by the subprime problems in the US.

Editorial

Sign the N-deal, call the Left's bluff

It’s beginning to look like a tired script: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is again pushing for the Indo-US nuclear agreement; and the Left parties, led by the CPI(M) and its General Secretary Prakash Karat, are once again standing in the way of this landmark deal going forward.

Fear not takeovers

The takeover of India’s best-known drug maker, Ranbaxy Laboratories, by Japanese innovator company, Daiichi Sankyo, may have evoked a sense of disbelief all around.

MBAs that matter

At last count, there were more than 1,400 regulated business schools (B-schools) in India. If that number looks suspiciously big, it’s because more than 95 per cent of them don’t really matter. Why the number of B-schools is growing and why almost all of them continue to be in business is explained by a growing demand for management education in the country.

Letters

Hike was inevitable

At last, the government could summon up the courage to increase LPG, petrol and diesel prices. It must have come as a huge relief for the oil PSUs, even though the retail price hike is too meagre and doesn’t reflect the soaring global crude prices that have been hovering around $135 per barrel.

Trends

Global growth: A snapshot

Global growth is projected to drop to 2.7 per cent in 2008, from 3.7 per cent in 2007. Much of weakness is originating in high-income countries.

Now,'secure' credit cards

Standard Chartered Bank has joined hands with Tata AIG General Insurance Company to provide a risk cover for lost cards that will protect customers against fraudulent transactions.

Just wondering ...

Noted

Resigned: Vinod Dhall, as Acting Chairman of the Competition Commission of India. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, of which CCI is a part, recently advertised for the position of Chairman and five other members of the CCI board.

To be precise

“I don’t see anybody in Washington or anywhere else saying, look, this energy crisis is the biggest one we’ve had, let’s really put the best people to work on figuring out how to reduce the country’s dependence on oil”Indra Nooyi, Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo, in Reuters.com

The cascading effect

Crude oil futures in New York jumped to a record $139.89 a barrel on June 16. What does this mean for the government, and for you?

Numbers of note

$2.8 billion (Rs 12,040 crore): Net loss of Lehman Brothers in the second quarter (April-June) of 2008

Talebearer

Dot is now considering the possibility of allowing spectrum sharing among mobile operators in an attempt to ensure better utilisation of the scarce resource.

A hybrid revolution?

Honda’s new civic hybrid is the first of its kind in India, but priced at over Rs 21 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) the petrolelectric car, which uses regenerated energy from braking, is priced out of reach of all but the wealthiest environmentalists.

Rent your Flix, from home

It’s a Rs 750-crore industry, small by most standards, but it’s still attracting the attention of the new 800-pound gorilla in the Indian media space aka R-ADAG, which has launched Bigflicks.com, its movie rental arm that also offers online and offline movie rental services with a library of over 15,000 titles.

Deposit rates fly north

The biggest trigger for interest rate hikes is the Inflation rate that has zoomed to a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent for the week ended June 7 this year.

From China with love

After Chinese toys, Chinese watches and Chinese consumer durables, it’s now the turn of Chinese workers to enter the Indian market. A few Indian companies have hired skilled and semi-skilled Chinese workers to work on large infrastructure projects.

PEs get picky

The skies, says Brett White, President and CEO, CB Richard Ellis, are still clouded and the forecast, for capital investments in the commercial realty sector in India, remain gloomy.

Monsoon cheer?

The inflation rate touched a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent for the week ended June 7, 2008. The big question now is: will the projected above-normal monsoon this year result in a bumper kharif harvest and a softening of food prices?

"Tie-up with Jet a win-win deal"

James Hogan, CEO of Abu Dhabi Carrier Etihad, was in India to announce a tie-up with Jet Airways. He met BT’s Kushan Mitra to discuss his company’s expansion plans.

Instant tip

The fortnight’s burning question. Will the inflation rate come down to less than 8 per cent in Q2, 2008-09?

Has the India story ended?

The global economic tide is ebbing, and India will feel its pinch for some more time.

Event

Communication is collaboration

Communications is the glue that holds organisations together and it is also the electricity that powers up a place.

In This Issue

A troubled ace

Naresh Goyal may be the poster boy of India’s post-reforms civil aviation industry, but the last year has not been a great one for him.

Incredible India: Sold for $325!

Incredible India it certainly is, for even as the deadline for opposing the grant of a patent has passed, the Tourism Ministry sits smug in its belief that its trademark is guarded from all evil eyes. To cut a long story short, Las Vegas, US-based tour operator AMX Company has filed a trademark patent for the “Discover Incredible India” tagline.

Money

From bitter to sweet

A healthy dose of pharma stocks in your portfolio can be a good defensive strategy in this volatile market.

In debt we trust

Liquid funds are emerging as a new category to park your short-term money in.

Are you saving enough?

When it comes to building your nest egg, how much is enough? Here’s what you should know about saving at different stages of your life.

People

In a new league

Mercer India’s Padma Ravichander; Keshav Sanghi, former Head of Equities, Deutsche Bank in India; Pratap Bose, COO, Mudra; Rajat Gupta, Vice Chairman, International Chamber of Commerce; Amul’s Parthibhai Bhatol; and Aegis Media Group’s Ashish Bhasin.

Printed Circuit

A very good browser

Mozilla’s Firefox 3 is lighter and more versatile than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7.

Policy Watch

Inflation bugbear

It’s a rude shock to the embattled UPA Government that was already feeling cornered on the issue of galloping inflation.

Credit derivatives on hold

The subprime crisis has impacted RBI’S plans to liberalise the financial sector. It has now decided to put its plans to introduce credit derivatives on the backburner.

Opening the skies?

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is busy these days fighting for the rights of younger Indian carriers to fly on international routes.

News Maker