On 9th Jan 2008, IIM Kozhikode’s Students’ Council launched an online mentorship program to provide candidates short listed by IIM-K for GD/PI stage a platform to discuss, share and get feedback on issues and queries related to their preparations.

"The best part of the program was individual mentors, who are willing to discuss issues online, on chat instead of asking for mails, making things faster and communication better", a mentee pointed out.

With 1000 registrations, the program has turned out to be a runaway success. “We plan to improve the program based on feedback from the aspirants", promised Gautam Bhat, a Students' Council member.

For more information, visit http://mentor.iimklive.com

The Academic Council of IIMB is proud to announce its GD/PI mentorship programme for those with IIMB calls.

Just drop in a mail to mentorship.iimb@gmail.com with the subject as “GD/PI mentorship.”

The subject of the mail should be of the following format:
Name;TestRegistrationNumber, with a SEMICOLON as the delimiter between your name and TR Number.

e.g. If your name is Shilpa Agarwal, and your TR No. is 5147784, the subject of the mail should be Shilpa Agarwal;5147784

Indian School of Business has been ranked 20th amongst the top B-schools of the world by Financial Times, London.

No other premier management institute in India has ever  found a place in the Financial Times rankings which has ranked ISB as 20th best globally.

"We wish to see many more Indian B-schools follow the trend and reach where we are today, or even ahead of us," said ISB Dean M Rammohan Rao. He further added, “While the average student experience at ISB is 5 years, the IIMs have students with a lesser experience, as such, the two are non-comparable.”

"We are proud to have played a part in positioning India on the global map of business education. The FT ranking raises the bar even higher for ISB, and we are equipped to meet future expectations," ISB Deputy Dean Ajit Rangnekar said.

Source: Economic Times

The next session at IIMS will welcome new students along with a steep hike. IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta are all set to increase its course fee for the 2008-2010 academic session.

While IIM-Ahmedabad will have a steep hike, IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta will go with moderate fee hike. IIM-Ahamedabad is expected to raise its fees to Rs 3 lakh for the 2008-2010. IIM-Bangalore is likely to raise its fee from the present Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 2.75 lakh.

The respective Board of Governors at IIMs will have the final decision regarding the fee hike. IIM-C board will meet on February 26. The institutes  have already started examining parameters to know the amount that needs to be increased.  

The three IIMs have decided to increase their flagship two-year PGP programme tuition fee despite reservations being voiced by HRD ministry officials, who are slated to press for smaller hikes at the board meetings.

Source: Hindustan Times

The HRD ministry will be reviewing the functioning of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). As the watchdog for technical education, AICTE has been deeply criticized for its ‘unfair’ practices in the past.

While AICTE is known to have approved dubious institutions, it has not yet recognized India’s premier institutes like Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, and SP Jain, Mumbai.

Ajit Rangnekar, ISB Deputy Dean, said, “We are delighted with the government’s stand. We will actively support the government’s move of high standards in education. Our committee will make a measured response in due course. It is too early to comment on the suggestions, but we are likely to submit our recommendations by the first week of February.”

The committee that will look into the procedure will be headed by Janardhan Dwivedi, a member of Parliament. The standing committee’s views shall be the final.

Source: Economic Times

SJMSOM, IIT Bombay has witnessed excellent summer placements for the year 2007. There was a huge participation of the companies from various domains who were bowled over by the student quality at SJMSOM. There has been an increase of 80% in the number of companies coming to campus for summer placements. ICICI Bank and US Technology led the way amongst other renowned companies that visited the campus. Others recruiters include P&G, UBS, HSBC, American Express, HP, Cargill, Coca Cola, Enam, Britannia, GE, Cargill, Marico, L’Oreal and RPG. The highest stipend offered was Rs.1.2 lakh excluding benefits.

Read the full report

The student portal of IIM-K, iimklive.com has gained huge popularity amongst the MBA aspirant ever since its launch. The portal showcases the life at IIM-K in the truest sense and it’s excellence in various academic fields.

An interesting addition on the portal is the Mentorship @IIMK 2008. This initiative provides the IIM Kozhikode GD/PI call getters an access to all the information related to the GD/PI.  Mentors ensure that IIM-K specific queries, from academic to campus life, are explained thoroughly to the aspirants.

The students can register on http://mentor.iimklive.com for all the information on GD/PI at IIM-K. Further information to the shortlisted students will be communicated through the same website.

Source: IIM-Kozhokide

MBA talent is the hottest pick for the recruiters. The UK is now paying the highest salaries for MBAs worldwide.

Asian students are among the highest GMAT scorers in the world. China is the hottest market as more and more MBAs are joining Chinese companies. The Top MBA International MBA Recruitment and Salary Report 2007, made available to TOI, reveals a few interesting trends in the MBA industry.

Biren Patel of Quacquarelli Symonds, the world's leading network for top careers and education which conducted the survey said, “In most countries, the survey has shown that there is a rise in demand for the MBA course, specially among people who seek a career change or who wish to start business."

Chris Higgins at Wharton says, "MBA candidates need to remain flexible about career aspirations." It is the consulting and financial services which will account for 50% of MBA hires at many B-schools, even in the future.

Source: Business Standard

Oil firms have joined hands with the government to set up petroleum universities,. These would cater to the growing demand for specialised engineers and managers for the sector.
 
The recently launched Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) at Gandhinagar, is promoted by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. The university is supported by Mr. Mukesh Ambani. Ambani has promised to help it become the world’s top university soon.

 The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, has CMDs and MDs of companies such as Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Indian Oil Corp and Petronet LNG on its governing council.
 
From next year onwards, we might see  around 600-700 students armed with bachelor and master degrees in engineering and management studies in major oil companies in India.
 
The oil companies have been facing a steady shortage of qualified personnel at higher levels. In a recent study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers for Petrofed, the gap between the availability and requirement of trained manpower in India is projected to be about 36,000 by 2019, and the existing institutes may not be adequate to meet the increasing requirement of technical manpower in the petroleum sector.

Source: Economic Times

IIM-B has revealed the process used for selecting candidates for its 2008-10 PGP batch. In a document available on the institute's website, the institute has clarified details of the criteria used for selecting candidates across the two stages of the admission process.

Source: IIM-Bangalore

The CAT Committe of the IIMs is considering a big change for the Common Admssion Test (CAT). The committee is considering to hold the test online. Another proposed change is to conduct the test thrice a year.

Read the complete story here.

Source: Economic Times

The IIMs are going to increase the student intake for the 2008-10 batch. While IIM Bangalore will be increasing the batch to 300, at IIM Ahmedabad the number of seats is likely to go up by 60.

Read the complete story here.

Source: Economic Times

The top business schools and educational institutions are all set to help small and medium enterprises accelerate their growth in the country. New courses, research programs, seminars and discussions at these schools aim at providing the SMEs with adequate resources at the right time by building a strong network base.

Seeing the growing importance of SMEs in Indian economy as well as its role in the external trade IIFT has come up with a separate Centre for SME Studies. Dr K Rangarajan, Head of the Kolkata Campus, IIFT, explains," The major objectives of the Centre for SME Studies include imparting training on management functions; sector specific tools and methodologies for the growth of the business; and trade related issues. It also acts as a platform for the convergence of other support & services institutions to ensure greater benefit for the SMEs. “

The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), established in Guwahati by the Ministry of Small Scale Industry, is another institute that focuses on the growth of SMEs. Tarali B Chakravarty, a Research Associate & Faculty at the IIE, points out that, "Obsolete technology, lack of qualified entrepreneurs or lack of resources and sources of information to access global opportunities are posing greater threats for SMEs with the advent of globalization."

Source: Economic Times

A five-member delegation from Royal Bhutan University, headed by Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Dasho Pema Thinley, visited IIT-Kanpur to seek help on establishing a management institute in capital Thimpu.

According to Professor Kripashankar, Acting Director, IIT, the issues discussed by the delegation were related to faculty and student exchange programme, development of curriculum and IIT internships for Bhutanese students during their visit.

 IIT-K will be designing the curriculum for its MBA course. It will also develop the infrastructure of the institute and arrange for its faculty.

"The delegation met with professors of different departments, management students and also collected detailed information about management courses", said  K V Satyamurthi, Assistant Registrar, IIT Kanpur.

Source: Economic Times

Six months away from the its final placements, IIM-B has already received seventy PPOs for a batch of 250 students- the highest amongst all IIMs.

According to the IIM-B Student Media Cell, recruiters include major consultancy firms and investment banks like McKinsey, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Co, A T Kearney and Trilogy. These firms have made PPOs to all the summer interns they hired from the IIM-B campus last year.

Investment companies have all made PPOs to their interns who worked across locations like London, New York and the Asia-Pacific. The names include Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, HSBC, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital, Citigroup etc.

Marketing companies like HLL, P&G and Marico are also offering good positions to the students after the internship.

According to sources, the highest salary offered last year by foreign recruiters touched a whopping US $ 2, 20,000.

Source: Deccan Herald

Leading business schools like the IIMs, Indian School of Business (ISB), SP Jain, Institute of Management Technology(IMT) and others are recognizing the plausibility of 'subtle marketing' for their post graduate programmes in management.

IIM-A had held road shows to market the programme in UAE and China for its PGPX program. It also took up Internet marketing considering that for most people abroad web serves as the first information source. Besides contacting media representatives abroad IIM-A also made separate brochures for the overseas students.

Similarly, the Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad, participates in a World MBA tour to the US and UK. In its 'Inside India' programme students from foreign universities are invited to the Hyderabad campus. 

Their aim is to create a brand. “Otherwise why do people want to go to universities like Harvard?,” asks Arvind Sahay, Chairperson of PGPX at IIM-A.

Source: Business Standard

The mid-day  meal programme of rural India would be taught as a time management case study at the The Harvard Business School (HBS).
A team that last year visited India carried out a field study on the programme. They said that the time management in the mid-day meal programme can be observed from preparation of meals to collecting the vessels.

The team studied the mid-day meal scheme in urban centers of India. There were centralized kitchens and the food was distributed within a few hours.  “Any delay at any level can disrupt the entire chain and can lead to chaos. It is because of this precise time management that the scheme is running so well in Indian cities,” said Ellis, a student of the business school.

In Bangalore, once the food is ready, the food is distributed to approximately 3,000 government schools within two hours. Each van is assigned certain schools for the distribution of food.

Chanchalapathi Das, vice-chairperson of Akshaya Patra, the NGO that runs the scheme in Bangalore says, "The vans deliver the meal in each school and then waits at the last school for children to finish the meal. On its way back, it collects the empty vessels.”

Source: Hindustan Times

The three top institutes have teamed up to offer a post-graduate program in manufacturing. Called PGPEX-VLMP, the program is targeted at executives with prior work experience.

It is a 1-year, full-time residential program that will focus on developing leaders for the manufacturing sector. The program will also be supported by the Japanese government through facilitation of lectures by Japanese manufacturing experts and visits to Japanese centers of manufacturing excellence.

The program will also have industry support through internships, sponsorships and industry visits.

Source: Economic Times

Rural Management Consultants Pvt Ltd. has announced the launch of a distance-learning agri-business program for working executives. The first of its kind program will offer a two-year diploma.

The focus of the program will be on teaching practical knowledge that is much in demand with large corporates keen to make headway into rural India. Companies such as include Pantaloon Retail, Monsanto and Rallis India have already shown interest in sponsoring their employees for this program.

The team behind the program comprises IRMA alumni and faculty, as well as several IIM faculty. Everyone involved with the program are active participants in the industry.

Source: Business Standard

Faculty and students at the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research will get some first hand experience of ‘team spirit’ through traditional Janamashtami celebrations

On September 4, the team from Welingkar will participate in traditional Janamashtami celebrations at Thane. Traditional celebrations are synonymous with the human pyramid that exemplifies team work – each link is vital to the success of the team.

The event is part of the institutes ‘outbound program’ that encourages learning by doing.

Source: Indian Express

IIM Ahmedabad has found global takers for its PGPEX program. This year the number of overseas applications for the one-year program has increased by 23%. The PGPEX program is aimed ad mid-level managers, with at least 7 years of work-ex.

For a total of 100 seats in the program, IIM-A received 1,347 applications, 311 of which are from overseas candidates. The average age of applicants is 27 years.

Source: Live Mint

Source: PGP Admission Process for IIM-B Batch of 2007

The 7th Indian Institute of Management, IIM Shillong will begin operations from academic year 2008 – 2009. The institute will be called the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM), and will be situated on a 120 acre campus. In its first year, the institute will admit 60 students. This will be increased to 120 students in its third year and 180 students in the sixth year.

Initially the institute will offer a two-year full-time program in management (PGPM). In future the institute also plans to offer short-term programs of local relevance on subjects such as tourism, horticulture and hydel power.

However, the institutes name was missing from the CAT Bulletin issued by the IIMs on July 21. The CAT Group will issue a notification about the Shillong institute shortly.

Source: Business Standard

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow has announced plans to offer a full-time, one-year, residential executive MBA program at its upcoming Noida campus. The focus of this program will be to train aspirants with prior work experience for leadership roles.

The International Program in Management for Executives program will focus on developing the students’ understanding of the Indian and international business environment. IPMX will facilitate their understanding of business, at both functional and strategic levels.

Admission to the program will be through GMAT scores. IIM-L will consider scores obtained from 1st January 2004 to 20th November 2007.

Application dates

Source: MBAUniverse.com