Cover story: India's Best B-schools [Pg. 2]

322. That's the number of business schools that have mushroomed in India since BT published the results of the first BT-cosmode survey of India's best business schools in May, 1998. At the time this edition went to press, the MBA (PGDBM) programmes of 744 schools were listed as 'accredited' by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). Although, a recent study by cosmode for the Government of India showed that 70 per cent of these schools did not meet (AICTE's) minimum standards, this universe served, in the absence of any other listing of b-schools, as the starting point of this survey. Schools recognised by other arms of the Government of India, like the Indian

Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, and Lucknow (the one at Calicut did not wish to participate), and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade were also included in the universe. The exact details of the rating exercise are explained in The Methodology (See page 105). The third partner in this exercise was the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The findings:

Physical infrastructure is easily acquired: As long as a business school has the money (or the ability to raise it), building the brick-and-mortar semblance of a good b-school isn't a problem. Thus number 24, Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, boasts a physical infrastructure score (91.25) equal to that of number 2, IIM, Ahmedabad, and higher than number 6, XLRI (78), number 7, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (85), and number 8, IIM-Indore (73). While, on an average, the physical infrastructure score decreases as one goes down the ranking, there are several spikes indicating that just a great campus doesn't a good business school make.

Academic Infrastructure isn't That Easily Acquired: Academic infrastructure scores decrease far more linearly than physical infrastructure scores. However, there are sharp spikes of discontinuity, like number 22, the Vinod Gupta School of Management at IIT, Kharagpur, with a score (134.5) lower than those of just three other schools in the ranking.

Recruiters Could Rate Some Good Schools Poorly: Most recruiters surveyed expressed unhappiness over the way the IIMs had managed their expectations. Indeed, the emergence of the trend of global placements does make life difficult for companies used to having their pick of MBAs from the best schools. Thus, of the five IIMs that participated, only Bangalore figured among the Recruiters' Top Ten. Caveat: recruiters weren't just questioned on the quality of the output from the school, but also on their experience while recruiting from the school, and the ability of the school to manage recruiter expectations.

The Correlation between Individual Parameters and Overall Ranking is Low: If one were to ignore the top and the bottom of the heap, there is a very low correlation between how schools fare on individual parameters and their overall score. This means most schools do not score consistently across parameters.

A Peer-Ranking Shows a Very Different Top 10: A survey of directors of business schools on their perception of other schools threw up some surprises and was indicative of the brand-equity schools enjoy among their peers. IIM, Ahmedabad, was on top, and the Top Ten listing resembled the one that emerged from BT-cosmode's 1998 ranking of b-schools.

A and C still Rule The Intellectual Capital Firmament: In terms of research output and intellectual capital, IIM, Ahmedabad, and IIM, Calcutta, score over the other IIMs and the other schools.

The Alumni and Faculty of The Better Schools Are Far More Objective: The alumni and faculty of other schools are probably just a little biased in favour of their own schools. Thus, not one of the IIMs figured in the Alumni Top Ten, and just one, IIM, Calcutta, figured in the Faculty Top Ten.

Finally, there does seem to be some improvement in the overall quality of management education in the country. Just 15 schools registered a score over 500 in the 1998 edition of the survey; 42 did in the 2000 one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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