Cover Story

The IIM caste system
A, B and C are the cream. Can the new IIMs, like Shillong and the seven in the pipeline, ever be able to hold a candle to their illustrious peers?

MBA from IIT
By carving a niche for themselves, the IITs are beginning to make a mark in management education too.
ISB's moment of reckoning
This internationally ranked Hyderabad school has all the makings of a blue-chip institution. Why didn’t respondents of our survey think so?
How we rank B-schools
The BT-Nielsen study refines the focus on its most important constituent — the customers. Here’s why.
The new middle order
A few middle-rung B-schools have started to make their presence felt, which is only good news for the teeming MBA aspirants.
The Best B-Schools
As B-school applicants and recruiters hunt for bargains, a new crop of schools makes its way into the top ten as well as the overall list. See rankings
The B-School bureaucrats
Is it worthwhile to explore a career in the government after B-school? A sampling of B-school bureaucrats answer an emphatic yes.
What they don't teach you at B-school
Not everybody in the MBA-brandishing club is keen to keep scrambling up the corporate pecking order. A few land up in places that won’t figure on most placement calendars.
Belling the PC-based CAT
A primer on the new avatar of one of India’s toughest exams.
A brave new world for the class of 2010
Gone are sky-high salaries and plush I-banking careers. The B-schoolers are content with stability for now.

2009-10-18

Digital

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Editors note

From the Editor

Rankings fascinate, just as they discriminate. They encourage some, just as they disappoint others. But the anticipation of a ranking excites everybody, no matter how the outcome is eventually perceived.

BT More

Making sense of Bordeaux

It’s hard to explain why Medoc produces a fermented grape juice that is different from, say, Pauillac or St Julien, when they all use three grapes in different combinations.

Toasting Colin Scott

The Chivas Regal Master Blender on fine whiskies and more...

Letter from the Editor

We’ve come a long way. This time last year, we were looking around nervously as the world we knew was crashing around us.

Rejuvenate!

Everybody's had a hard year. But don't worry, the year's almost over and we're bang in the middle of the festive season. Now is the time to shed your old, tired skin and get a gleaming one.

Fit For Kings

Italian Bespoke behemoth Canali wants to give you a royal treatment with its latest line.

Close Shave

Make sure you take good care of your skin in the transitional season with the best products you can get.

INTELLIGENT FABRIC

Following SS’09’s Cool Effect blazer, Zegna’s out with another tech-fuelled breakthrough.

METROWATCH

Prepare for a long meal at the Puro Bar & Kitchen. Their menu is a gastronomical delight.

The Books That Shaped My Life

V.N. Dalmia, Chairman, Leonardo Olive Oil, is inspired by The Godfather.

Launchpad - Calendar

Oct 4-Nov 1 - What’s new and what’s happening this month.

Launchpad - The Executive Consumer

Ace photographer Atul Kasbekar lives life, king-size.

Empty Spectacle

When films focus on the spectacle at the cost of any emotional content, the result is a mess.

Return of the Native

India’s underground rock scene comes of age with a great debut album by The Supersonics.

Capturing Detail

Photographer Gregory Crewdson’s surreal portrayals of American life are coming to Mumbai.

IN-FLIGHT MOJO

You can’t escape a glowing screen anywhere, not even on a plane. So you might as well enjoy the show.

Spending It

This Diwali... light up your life with these bright new buys.

The Spa Listing

Take your pick from our selection of the best spas in your region.

Home Spa

Don’t fancy heading to the spa for your monthly rituals of facials and pedicures? Here’s what you need for the pampering at home.

Specialty Spa

Still going to a spa for aromatherapy? Look out for a whole host of other options.

Back Page: Questionnaire

Each month, we ask a beautiful woman about men, sex and relationships. This month, supermodel Nina Manuel reveals that she likes Spanish Daniel Craig lookalikes who don’t belch.

Into the wild

Dreamt of watching a tiger bathe? Or walking in the jungle after the sun goes down? It’s easier than you think.

Auto Erotica

Stuttgart may not be on anyone’s travel plans, but the city has two of the world’s finest collection of historic automobiles and should be on the route-map for anyone who claims to love cars.

Health: Smart machines

Promising the benefits of outdoors with a whole lot of fun, these intelligent new systems can change the way we work out.

Utility

People, places and products

Here's a look at the people, places and products doing the rounds these days.

Leaderspeak: S. 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan

Here are excerpts of a small Q&A with S. 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan, MD & CEO Infosys.

Be a master motivator

Motivation works best when it is customised to the situation and the individual.

Features

The buck stops (and starts) at business school

Unless America’s business schools make radical changes, society will become convinced that MBAs work to serve only their own selfish interests.

Goodbye to greed (but not to good)

Wall Street may be coming back from the brink a year after it collapsed, but a clutch of one-time hotshot investment bankers has few regrets about bidding adieu to the greed-is-good culture to plough a new furrow.

The Stormrider

R. Mukundan, who took over at the helm of Tata Chemicals when the global credit crisis was peaking, has been able to pull off something many CEOs have been unable to: Manage global acquisitions made in boom times.

Chip makers eye small towns

Recession-hit global chip makers are targeting the Indian hinterland as their next big market.

'We need to move from saying 'no,no' to 'yes, but''

The minister’s office in the Ministry of Environment and Forests has new doors — glass doors. Message: Transparency. The minister, Jairam Ramesh, works on his ultra portable laptop and often prints documents with a printer on his table. Message: Hands-on approach and speed.

Is he still the Big Boss?

Colors ups the stakes in general entertainment by getting Amitabh Bachchan onto a reality show in a bid to establish a decisive lead.

'I am a little nervous'

Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Amitabh Bachchan.

The profit collection

The man from Chile had no magic, just some adroit footwork to help Bata shake off losses, get back its shine — and keep it.

'Led'ing the way

iGATE has shown the world that LED lighting can be used to illuminate office space. Others are beginning to follow suit.

Focus

Fight over Oktatabyebye.com

What’s in a name? Everything — especially if it is a brand fighting for its domain, as happened to be the case with Tata Sons that had raised objection to a Gurgaon-based travel portal MakeMyTrip creating a site called oktatabyebye.com.

X man cometh

The teaser advertisements with the huge X that have come up across India have whetted popular curiosity about the identity of the advertiser.

Rebooting education, Infosys style

While everyone may be talking about the mammoth size of Infosys’ new Global Education Centre in Mysore, what’s truly remarkable is: how Infy is using this centre to train and prepare several thousand graduates each year, to become future stars at Infosys.

Reva recharged

Imagine an electric car that can be recharged instantly by calling or SMSing a 24/7 call centre!

This minister wants less power

It’s not often that a minister in India willingly gives up some of his powers. Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh rather enthusiastically hopes to do just that.

Betting big on India

EMC, the $15-billion vendor of IT storage solutions and software, has been somewhat of a laggard in the Indian market.

We are overhired: Infosys

Here are some of the quotes that made the headlines over the past fortnight.

What GDP doesn't tell

At a time when India is tracking gross domestic product (GDP) growth and all that can influence it even minutely with near-compulsive obsession, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked world leaders to junk the fascination for the indicator.

Most watched ads in August 2009

Finally, an old favourite has come on top in the BT-TAM most watched ads list.

'Our agriculture business in India will double in five years'

DuPont Group Vice President James Borel, Global Head of all DuPont’s Agriculture & Nutrition businesses spoke to E. Kumar Sharma on what agriculture and nutrition mean for the company and where India fits in its overall growth strategy.

'We're looking to buy in India'

Michael A. DiGregorio, CFO of executive search company Korn/Ferry International, was in India recently. He spoke to Saumya Bhattacharya on opportunities in India.

Ideas for real austerity

The government and the Congress party’s recent “austerity” drive has created much debate. BT looks at a few practical steps that the government can adopt to actually save money.

Columns

Interest rate hike not before next year

The hikes will be more an attempt to cycle back to normalisation. We, thus, expect 75 BPS increase in both the repo and reverse repo rates in FY11.

The problem with management education in India

Schools are evaluated based on how quickly students get placed and how big their pay packets are. Thus, greed is inculcated at an age when idealism should be.

GST: The next big step

Deciding on the tax rates is the most simple conceptually, but probably the most contentious, with all the states on one side and the Centre on the other.

Picking the right MBA programme

This is a good time to get an MBA degree. It would be easy to say this on the basis of exploiting the economic recovery that is just getting underway.

Technology

Lessons in Twittering

We carried a list of 'twitting rules' a few months ago. Maybe it is time for another one in the light of recent events.

Money

Investing via social networks

Investors are increasingly using tips and ideas from social networking sites and specialised online groups for making investment decisions.

Go online for MFs

MF transactions online are turning cheaper and investor-friendly.

Jobs

New careers on blogs, DTH, mobile

Job portals explore new platforms to expand their footprint.

Book

The B-school bookshelf

Can I get into a top B-school, either here or around the world? Do my essays make the grade? Do I have a shot at cracking the CAT? These questions, amongst a slew of others, often plague B-school aspirants — but here is some essential reading to alleviate those anxieties.

Cover Story

PREVIOUS EDITIONS