Sunday, September 29, 2013

OUTLOOK-DRSHTI SURVEY C-Section Of The A-List Of B-Schools Economic uncertainty reflects in business school environs. The top tier endures, shakeout in bottom rungs. SUNIT ARORA, ARINDAM MUKHERJEE

MAYUR BHATT
First Among Equals Students at IIM-A
OUTLOOK-DRSHTI SURVEY
C-Section Of The A-List Of B-Schools
Economic uncertainty reflects in business school environs. The top tier endures, shakeout in bottom rungs.

wenty days. That's all it took for us to move from begging bowl in hand at imf's door to celebrating the, um, "appeal" of the new RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. Clearly, even if we live in exciting times, there is many a schizophrenic moment. The disquiet, though, is real, and comes from talk about cost-cutting, job retrenchment, projects being shelved. Even so, one would have to be extremely brave (and foolhardy) to write off the India story so early. As we have learnt recently, the mood can change quickly.

Outlook's annual ranking of top business schools (conducted by Drshti Stra­tegic Research Services) pro­vides a peek into this economy. Reflecting the mood, the overall scoring is lower than previous years. While there is practically no change in the top 15, there is plenty of churn down below. The crucial question remains: will industries recruit? "Mixed signals emanate from the finance sector, in the throes of a continuing slowdown. For most others (except advertising and media), it seems to be business as usual," says A.K. Balaji Prasad, Drshti's managing director, who feels placements will be decent this year. But with rising pressure to innovate, life's going to get only tougher for our B-schools.

Beyond the rankings, there's a package on the power of college alumni networks, how they define our lives (sometimes love lives), our friendships and enrich our work. There are insightful and rewarding pieces from alumni of IIT, IIM, Harvard, Wharton and others. The feeling is that most people who go here  make "contacts" for life. It is not that simple. As always, choose wisely.

The top 5 Management Schools in our survey:

 

The rest of this article appears in Outlook dated October 7, 2013. Please click here to purchase a digital edition for your iPad, Android or PC

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