Symbiosis, as it was originally called, is now called Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) and has, over the years, given birth to a slew of B-schools like, Symbiosis Centre for Management & HR Development (SCMHRD), Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis Institute of Foreign Trade (SIFT), Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology (SCIT), and Symbiosis Institute for Telecom Management (SITM). Of these, the SCMHRD and SIBM rank 22nd and 29th respectively, in BT's latest rating of the country's top B-schools.

The youngest, and perhaps the only B-school of its kind in India, SITM, which was formed in 1996, is now making waves. ''It is, perhaps, the only reputed B-school of its kind in India, which focuses on the need of the hour---that is management of the fast-growing and rapidly changing telecom industry, which forms the backbone of cyberspace and is also witnessing entry of new leading-edge technologies like 3G, GPRS, Bluetooth, everyday," says Devendra Parulekar, 25, Head (Security Profiling Services), Ernst &Young.

SITM is churning out about 70 post-grads in management every year (90 this year) and has been attracting over 25 big recruiters since its inception. This year, it has attracted as many as 36 top-of-the-line companies that not only include telecom biggies like Bharti Telecom, BPL, Global Telesystems, Reliance Telecom, Hughes Telecom, but also companies like Ernst & Young, Compaq, Wipro, Sify, Cambridge Technology Partners, HCL Comnet, ITFinity (McKinsey’s), and interestingly, the largest Chinese telecom company, Huawi Technologies.

From a mean salary of Rs 1 lakh per annum offered to its students four years ago, SITM suddenly finds itself in the top bracket amongst the six Symby Institutes. There's a mean salary of Rs 3 lakh per annum being offered today, with each student getting at least two job offers on average.

Says K.S. Subramaniam, HRD Chief of BPL, one of the recruiters for the second consecutive year from SITM: ''It is an extremely good telecom management school which focuses on telecom concepts. They ensure that 70 per cent of the intake are engineering graduates and then hone their skills in marketing, HR, business development, and telecom strategy. But, on the downside, their concentration on CRM has to improve substantially, by which I mean greater stress on data-mining, customer lifetime value and pro-active customer positioning. In lay terms, they must understand that the customer in Nasik is not the same as the one in Pune.''

Ernst & Young has already shortlisted six students, and is offering them Rs 5 lakh per annum. Warns Parulekar, Ernst & Young, who was in Pune for campus interviews: "Many of the students talk big about 3G, GPRS, UMTS, Bluetooth, and so on, without knowing the basics of telecom. But, the new Director of the Institute, Virender Kapoor, is strong on fundamentals and is concentrating on things like telecom networking, infotech systems, besides cutting-edge technologies.''

Agrees Virender Kapoor, 49, who has had two decades of solid telecom experience in the Indian Army and is an M.Tech. from IIT, Powai, "Our emphasis is going to be more on building strong fundamentals. I admit it's difficult to turn techies into good managers and so 40 per cent of our inputs are management-oriented, 30 per cent relate to internet technologies, while the remaining 30 per cent is leading-edge telecom technologies.''

Kapoor also adds that from just six job offers of Rs 3 lakh and above in 1996, today 16 companies are offering over 40 jobs of Rs 3 lakh and above, while three companies, namely, Ernst & Young, Huawi Technologies, and Compaq are offering jobs of over Rs 5 lakh per annum to his students---the last two making the biggest offers of Rs 5.5 lakh.

Indeed, in a short period of three years, some of the alumni of SITM are making big waves. Says K.P. Dutta, 45, Vice-President, Bharti Internet Ltd (Mantra Online): "We have three grads from SITM and the senior-most Mankesh Dadhwal has morphed from being just a salesperson to a senior management position in our company, where he has been responsible for setting up entire branch offices of Calcutta, Lucknow, and is now in the process of setting up more such offices in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and other cities.''