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Cover Story - Management Education

In business school campuses across the country, the first few months of every year are traditionally a time of euphoria. This is the time when students delight in the stratospheric offers they have received; company recruiters lure premier candidates and institutions release statistics on their successful campus recruitment programmes. This year things are different. The global financial meltdown, exacerbated by the unravelling of complex financial instruments, has dramatically changed the landscape of the recruiting market.
Students who entered B-schools in 2007 have learnt a harsh lesson: nothing in the corporate world is ever carved in stone. Less than 12 months ago, their futures seemed not just secure but unlimited in scope. They had scaled the giant hurdle of getting into a good management institution. All that lay ahead was get to the finishing post where plum offers from global organisations would await them. Big names in industry, consulting and finance like Booz Allen Hamilton, Arcelor Mittal, Olam International, Deutsche Bank, Bain Consulting, Boston Consulting Group, Infosys, Microsoft and RPG have as a matter of course crowded the gates of business schools in an effort to get the cream of every year’s academic crop.

Dreams Deferred
Fearing the volatile business environment and waiting to see where the financial dust settles, hiring in business schools has become slow, if not positively sluggish. This year, students will be entering one of the most fiercely competitive job markets in recent history. Though the Ivy League of  B-schools, the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), located at  Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkatta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode, seem to be displaying a downturn defiance continuing to attract the best recruiters, job fairs at second and third tier schools are said to have few takers. In fact, career counselors are having their most demanding time ever nurturing their students through this unprecedented phase.
Industry gurus insist, however, that the situation is bound to change by next year. The summer placements of IIM, Kozhikode for the Class of 2010 are said to be a sign of promising things to come. Recruiters from 102 firms, both national and international, up from the 66 who participated last year, visited the campus making offers to 261 candidates. Summer internships inevitably translate into job offers after graduation. But for the Class of 2009, the timing is just not right.

Destination Wall Street
In the past, students at the top of the academic pyramid traditionally looked for international placements, casting their covetous eyes on the giants of Wall Street. India’s elite business school cadre has, in fact, firmly established itself, over the years, as the key feeder for top financial firms. Companies like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs have in the recent past seduced students with offers and incentives ranging anywhere from $120,000 to $360,000. Today, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the rushed sale of Merrill Lynch and the drastic cut backs at Citibank, Wall Street has been reconfigured. Unemployment in the U.S. is at a sixteen year high. Hiring is expected to be down by 50 per cent this year.
Though foreign companies continue to push their recruitment drives at the top Indian B-schools, the drives are much more conservative. Though hiring numbers are dipping, the big firms do not want to lose their foothold in these revered institutions. Many students say that they are continually being told by companies they have interviewed or interned with to wait for possible offers. The uncertainty is proving unbearable.
Offers are not only less this year but less remunerative. Many students are displaying a new found pragmatism and accepting salaries that are at par or, as in many cases, below the 2008 level. Companies, however, insist that though salaries may have been scaled back, bonuses will continue to be hefty, offering opportunities to earn.
For industry gurus, this salary stagnation was a long time coming. They insist that packages for MBA graduates are going through a much-needed stabilisation phase after a dizzy rise where the figures quoted were unhealthily high.
 
Wider Net
Students are not just scaling down their financial expectations, they have begun to cast a wider net in their job search. They are looking past conventional investment banking opportunities to other areas of the financial services sector like internal auditing and corporate finance. The career path of many graduates is being realigned to reflect market forces. Many students have also begun to look at traditional sectors for their launching pads. These include rural management, foreign trade, retail, supply chain management and systems management. Today, undoubtedly, assessment of the risk factor of the firm will take precedence over brand and salary package. No one wants to be caught in the web of a Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns or Satyam.
MBA graduates are displaying a new-found interest in the Indian financial landscape. With the country’s consistent economic performance promising a more stable, if less lucrative, environment, Indian companies now seem like an attractive proposition for even those at the academic vanguard. Unlike in the recent past, many students are starting their own ventures becoming a part of an emerging tribe of entrepreneurs. In response to the growing tide of  entrepreneurship, IIM Lucknow, for the very first time in its history, organised an Entrepreneurship Day during the summer placement programme. Some students insist that the current absence of tempting, lucrative offers from recruitment giants, has freed them to work with innovative companies.
In fact, start-ups are enjoying the greatest gains from the recruitment slow-down. Look at the figures for this year's summer recruitment programmes. At IIM-Lucknow (IIM-L) 40 students will intern at 20 start-ups; at IIM-Calcutta (IIM-C) 10 students will intern at start-ups; at IIM-Ahmedabad  eight and at IIM-Kozhikode 25. Though salaries at such firms are much lower than that offered by global banks and MNCs, students are seeing the advantages of being not just in a creative environment but being big fish in small ponds. For the companies, this is a rare opportunity to access freshly-minted talent. Companies that have recruited this year include Rupeetalk, a personal finance services portal; Inkfruit, a T-shirt design portal for custom-made products; RedBus.in, an online bus ticket travel agent and Yourstory.in, a social networking site for entrepreneurs.
Nonprofit organisations are also attracting new graduates though cynics insist the new-found altruism is a move designed to strengthen their resumes for the time when the economy will begin its come back. Whatever the new options, the recruiting landscape has undoubtedly changed and Indian business schools should take a leaf out of their US counterparts who are currently offering their students increased career guidance. Lst year Wharton  hired more career services advisers to help students navigate the tough waters of their job hunts.

Going Still Good
According to the 2008 MBA Placement Report by MBA Universe, an India-based web site on business schools, while their American counterparts may be facing a rough time, the going is still good for students at the top Indian B-schools. The report painted a positive picture of job placement at the top 20 Indian management schools. “Given the backdrop of the sub prime crisis and the slowing down of the U.S. economy… placement teams and graduates were a worried lot,” the report stated. “However, top global finance firms kept their promises.”
The report states that Indian B-school graduates continued to command record salaries, up 20 to 22 per cent from 2007. These offers included pay packages, signing bonuses, international relocation assistance and vacation packages. At the IIM Bangalore campus, McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group are said to have hired 15 graduates. ICICI Bank has also hired several students for positions in its Hong Kong office.
Industry insiders insist, however, that the report is biased and not indicative of the real picture. Even if things did appear rosy last year, this year the job market has grown noticeably darker. A survey by the global staffing services firm Manpower Inc. states that Indian firms are likely to slow hiring to  a three and a half year low in the first three months of 2009. The MBA, of course, is still a hot commodity and though job offers for graduates may not be as rewarding as they were just a couple of years ago, they will not dry up.

Application Avalanche
In 1924, when banker George F. Baker donated $5 million to Harvard Business School, The Harvard Lampoon devoted an entire issue to satirizing the institution. A poem asserted,  "Great Mammon now rules where Minerva did reign; And her silly old owl has no use for its brain".
True-blue academics have always  ridiculed management education. Yet the cachet of the MBA, its established position as the ultimate entry-level credential, continues to be seen in the rise in applications to B-schools across the country. Despite the financial crisis and the fragile job market, applications are surging. The Institute of Management Technology (IMT) at Ghaziabad and the Indian School of Business (ISB) at Hyderabad have reported an increase of 10 percent and 40 percent respectively in the applications received. The Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi has received 75,604 applications for 2009 admissions, a rise of over 14,000 from last year. This application avalanche is echoed even in the US. MIT’s Sloan has a 28 per cent rise and NYU’s Stern a 20 per cent rise in application volume.
In fact, in India many B-schools have increased their number of seats from 2009 and the scramble to set up new schools continues unabated. This increased interest in a business education is said to be an established pattern. When the economy goes down, applications to business schools rise. A similar application upturn was seen following the dot com bust.
For many students, current weak job prospects are the perfect time to take time off and pursue a management programme, strengthening their CVs en route. In India, not only has the number of new jobs declined but there are more candidates fighting for those jobs. The resumes of thousands of former Lehman Brothers, Citibank and Satyam employees continue to flood the market.
Some 290,000 candidates took the admission test to the top business schools in 2008 compared to 230,000 in 2007. This year the number is expected to touch the 350,000 mark. Most of these candidates dream of making it to one of the 1700 places at the IIMs. If not, then a spot in one of the other top schools like ISB, the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Symbiosis and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, which also provides quality education, is  seen as a good alternative. Despite the dismal picture today, most students are confident that when they graduate in 2011 the economic conditions will have improved.
India has a notorious lack of mid-managerial talent. It is estimated that by 2015 there will be a need for as many as 20 million managers. Even earlier, as the economy shakes off its current slow-down, companies will need managerial personnel. And when they hire, they would rather hire MBAs. As B-schools insist, even if recruitment slows it cannot halt altogether. 
More importantly, most students believe that the skill sets one gains are useful to any career regardless of the market situation. There are a large number of students in B-schools from multi-disciplines like medicine, engineering, arts, media etc who are pursuing MBAs to boost their corporate profiles. In fact, many engineers move effortlessly from the world of science and technology to the world of management. The 2008-10 batches of students at IIM-A and IIM-C consist of about 90 per cent engineers.

Cookie-Cutter Curriculum
It is said that the more things change in the business scenario, the more things remain the same in  Indian business schools. Though the market has exploded with more than 1600 business schools in the country (a dramatic rise from the mere 50 that were established in the mid 1970s) offering a range of undergraduate business and MBA programmes, academic standards are uneven. They range from the excellent to the mediocre to the downright bad.
Too many schools indulge in traditional chalk and talk lectures rather then experiential learning. The best MBA programmes worldwide combine traditional business subjects like accounting, finance and operations with contemporary courses that help create leaders who take into account personal integrity, governance and the role of business in society.
When Harvard Business School was founded in 1960, the faculty was faced with an odd dilemma. Unlike every other course taught at this Mecca of learning, there were no textbooks suitable to a graduate program in business. A solution was quickly found and implemented keeping the high standards of the university in mind. Leading practitioners of business were interviewed  and their accounts delineated. These became the legendary Harvard Business School case histories. Students were instructed to read the cases and to come to class prepared to discuss them. After a heated discussion, recommendations had to be offered for an appropriate course of action. This model is in place even today and has been emulated across the world proving the most effective in the dissemination of knowledge. Some schools use a skills-based approach that emphasises quantitative methods, in particular operations research, management information systems, statistics, organisational behavior, modeling and simulation, and decision science. Unfortunately far too many still rely on the lecture method presented from the professor’s point of view, rarely requiring interaction from the students except for note-taking.
In India, the traditional teaching paradigm is alive and kicking. While at the leading schools, teaching approaches such as the case method, simulations, and other interactive approaches that leverage student participation are common, this is not so in the lower tier schools. In fact, most of the case studies or examples discussed in the class are U.S. based, outdated and are often mere vignettes. Schools must realise that graduate business education is about training decision makers and so content-based education must be second to contextual.

Faulty Faculty
Much of the blame of the poor teaching methods lies at the door of the faculty members. In a study published last year by the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry it was revealed that beyond the top 30 institutions,  a majority of B-school teachers in India are way below par. Even awareness of contemporary business issues is non-existent. Many teachers are not even aware of basic facts about the national and the global economy such as the GDP growth rate of India, forex reserves, the amount of exports and imports and the current recession in the US. The survey also maintained that a mere six per cent of the lecturers surveyed read any business newspaper on a regular basis. “As the teachers themselves are ill-informed, even the students remain unaware of the real world developments keeping their degrees devoid of the real value as also aggravating the problem of talent crunch,” remarked Venugopal  Dhoot, President, ASSOCHAM, when presenting the report.
Even the leading institutions in India are not immune from the faculty shortage. One in five faculty positions at India’s elite business schools is vacant. Half of faculty positions at government-financed institutions need to be filled. Low pay and lack of autonomy are some of the reasons cited for the failure to attract and keep good teachers. Every institution needs a  combination of full-time and visiting faculty members. A full-time faculty provides the continuing and monitoring programme required over a two-year programme and a part-time or visiting faculty provides the much needed exposure to the business world. In an ideal academic setting, the full-time faculty should also have had business exposure but unfortunately this is rarely so. On an average, Tier 1 B-schools have 50 full-timers, Tier 2 has 24 and the rest just 17.  Full-time faculty members are often lured with the possibility of research programmes. In fact, a doctorate has become a requisite for professors today with over 73% having doctorates in the Tier 1 schools, 47 per cent in Tier 2 and 35 per cent in the rest.
Course material at most schools is typically US-based editions published for sale in the Indian market. Unfortunately, while being perfect for their American audience, they do not reflect the nuances of the Indian market or business culture. It is essential for instructional material to reflect the Indian context. Even textbooks and the books referred to by lecturers, are often old, outdated editions written by foreign authors. Examples  are once again country-specific.  A majority of the teachers do not even make the effort to relate the content with the Indian context. “While the top B-schools of India are increasingly getting recognised internationally, the remaining thousands of management institutes in the country have dismal standards of education and faculty,” said Venugopal Dhoot. This is indeed bad news considering the macro-economic and micro-managerial change India is going through.
There is a vital need for a next generation of business leaders who have not sacrificed academic integrity on the altar of financial gain. This is, of course, a fault line that is seen not just in Indian business education. Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana in his book From Higher Aims to Hired Hands takes a rather disparaging look at business-school education in the U.S. An MBA diploma, Khurana says, has only two functions, “It is a signal to employers that grads are committed and productive, and it provides a network of contacts, much like an exclusive fraternity or country club.” A business education must rise beyond this. It must provide graduates with big-picture leadership and entrepreneurial skills that can help them find opportunity in any environment, even the most challenging ones.
Confucius wrote centuries ago, “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” Business schools need to prepare students for the complexities of the real world. They must provide experiential learning that will serve their students when they are out in the real world. They must build leaders for whom ethics and corporate responsibility occupy centre stage. With the world’s economic borders getting increasingly smudged, the curriculum of these schools should be global in perspective.
The Columbia Business School, for instance, places great importance on values and social intelligence. New corporate governance elements in the core curriculum and a Program on Social Intelligence have also become extremely relevant. Business schools have unfortunately perpetuated a brand of free-market ideology that has supplanted the concepts of fiduciary responsibility.

Need Of The Hour
In India a great disadvantage for business schools is that there is no single regulatory body to oversee the ongoing performance of the schools. There is, in fact, currently a patchwork of over a dozen accreditation agencies in the country. B-schools are rated on different parameters that include library facilities, students’ access to computers, course content, industry interface and classroom and residential infrastructure. 
The primary accreditation bodies are the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) that is represented by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), which is an independent institution set up by the University Grants Commission (UGC).  AICTE was founded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development. Though it insists that it recognises programs based on parameters such as resource availability, course structure, infrastructure and credibility, industry insiders state that the approval process requires only a physical inspection of the classrooms and library. Though the AICTE has approved several hundreds of schools, only the top 50 make it to the serious recruiter’s list.
NAAC is an autonomous body that was set up in the year 1994 with one goal — to evaluate and accredit institutions offering higher education in the country. With its headquarters in Bangalore, a number of renowned business management schools in India have been accredited by the NAAC including Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and the Shree Saraswathi Thyagaraja College.
The Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) was also formed in 1988 as a network of management schools in the country at the National Conference of the Heads of Management Education Institutions on “National Education Policy and its Implications for Management Education in the Country” held at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. AIMS has since grown into a powerful body for management schools in the country with a membership of about four hundred institutes. It is today the second largest network of management schools in the world.
Some B-schools in India have affiliations with well-known state universities like the Faculty of Management Studies which is affiliated to the University of Delhi. The syllabus and teaching methodology at these schools is decided by the University and the school uses the resources of the university which proves to be a definite advantage. There are quite a number of leading B-schools in India like the S P Jain Institute of Management Studies,  Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies,  Xaviers Institute of Management, the Xavier’s Institute of Labour Relations and ICFAI that have applied to international accreditation agencies for a quality certification.
Besides attracting a growing number of foreign students to their portals,  several schools, sensing the need for quality management education in the East, have opened foreign branches. IIM-Bangalore was the first to open a branch in Singapore. The SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai has campuses in Dubai and Singapore and the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad has a branch in Dubai. This overseas expansion will generate extra revenue which will not only boost facilities in India but will also result in a reduction of government grants.
The National Knowledge Commission, which serves as an advisory group to the Prime Minister, criticised existing Indian regulators and accreditation bodies in a 2006 report : “There are several instances where an engineering college or a business school is approved, promptly, in a small house of a metropolitan suburb without the requisite teachers, infrastructure, or facilities, but established universities experience difficulties in obtaining similar approvals”. However, since then not much has been done by the government to put into place the required safeguards.

Student Selection
It seems unfair that while the schools are not held accountable for their lack of infrastructure and faculty necessary to impart a quality education, potential candidates have to go through such a rigorous admission process. For students, a key factor in getting admission to a premier school is the Common Admission Test (CAT) considered one of the most competitive tests in the world. The intense preparation that goes into it often robs a student of several months of his life.
To get into an IIM, as well as several of the other top schools, the CAT is followed by group discussions and rigorous interviews. Students who enter  B-schools are inevitably academically talented and technically sophisticated but often lack work experience and the context necessary to fully exploit a business education.  This is in direct contrast to schools in the US and Europe where emphasis is given in seeking out applicants with work experience, maturity and demonstrated workplace leadership. This patterns the original goal of the MBA programme which was to provide individuals with experience with the business training necessary as they journey up the managerial ladder. The elite schools in India have recently begun to give a greater emphasis to job experience with 60 per cent of students having prior work experience, a substantial rise from three years ago when only 25 per cent of candidates had any  experience at all.
The primary motivator behind getting an MBA is the lure of the remuneration package. On the way, the desire to acquire knowledge, get new insights, develop managerial skills and enhance decision making capabilities seems to have been lost, undermining the true value of the MBA.

The Origins
Business education has been around for a long time. In 1759, the Aula do Comércio in Lisbon was the world’s first institution to specialise in the teaching of commerce. Though it has since closed, it established a need for management skills that could be taught at the university level. While business education in the US was born in the late 19th century (Wharton, established in 1881, was the first university-based institution devoted to business and in 1910, the Harvard Business School was the first business school to offer a degree called the “MBA”);  in India, business education is still in its relative infancy.
The roots of business education in India can be traced back to 1960 when industrialists like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Kasturbhai Lalbhai realised that with Indian industry beginning to tentatively stretch its wings, there was a need for a tribe of professionals who would help steer it in the right direction. They played a major role in the creation of the IIM-A, that was established in 1961 in collaboration with the Government of Gujarat and Indian Industry. The institute had an initial collaboration with the Harvard Business School that greatly influenced the institute’s approach to learning. Even today the IIM-A is a leading global brand, a veritable torch-bearer in academic excellence.
The IIM-C was also established in 1961, in collaboration with the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Government of West Bengal, the Ford Foundation and Indian industry. During its initial years, several prominent faculty formed part of its nucleus, including Paul Samuelson, Jagdish Sheth and J. K. Sengupta. All the six IIMs, though government-funded institutions, have raised and continue to raise the bar of management education in the country creating world-class infrastructure and intellectual capital over the years. Getting entry into the hallowed corridors of these institutes is the dream of every management school applicant but it is an uphill battle. Approximately one out of every 532 applicants is accepted into an IIM.

Brief Overview
It is said that even though there are 1,600 business schools all over the country, there are not more than 50 that can fill the gap for India Inc.
Here is a brief overview of a few of the top institutions:

Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
Though they are ranked among the top B-schools in India, the IIMs cannot offer MBA degrees as they are not affiliated to a university. Instead most of them offer three to four programmes which include the Post Graduation Programme (equivalent to the MBA), the Fellowship Programme (equivalent to a Ph.D) and several development programmes. The IIM schools, in order of ranking, are the IIM-A (Ahmedabad), IIM-C (Kolkatta), IIM-B (Bangalore), IIM-L (Lucknow), IIM-I (Indore) and IIM-K (Calicut).
IIM-A zealously guards its position at the top of the pack. Though each institution has established itself as a global force, none has the cachet of IIM-A. Alumni include KV Kamath (ICICI Bank), Jerry Rao (founder of MPhasis), CK Prahlad (author of Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid), Harsha Bhogle (cricket commentator) and Kiram Kramnik (NASSCOM). IIM-A initiated a case method of teaching among the MBA institutes in India as a result of its collaboration with Harvard Business School.
IIM-C is renowned for its emphasis on freedom of thought and quantitative bent of mind. It was one of the first MBA schools in India to implement an extranet connecting faculty, students, alumni and corporates. The institution is also known for its cultural aspirations with the annual festival Intaglio encouraging students to stretch the boundaries imposed on them by academic straitjackets.
Almost every IIM offers part time programs for corporates with management experience. IIM-L also has a remarkable student exchange program where students go to leading B-schools across the globe as part of their course.

ISB – Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
Another well-reputed school is the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad that offers the additional advantage of offering an MBA course within just a year as well as a one-year PG Program in Management. ISB has an enviable visiting faculty list comprising of academics from institutes like Harvard, Stanford and Wharton.

XLRI – Xavier Labour Research Institute, Jamshedpur
The Xavier Labour Research Institute, better known as XLRI, was set up in 1949 at Jamshedpur. The institute conducts two courses, a PG Diploma in Business Administration and a PG Diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (PMIR).

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai (JBIMS)
The University of Bombay, as it was then known, established Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in 1965 in collaboration with the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, to encourage the growing trend of business studies. It has been ranked amongst the top 25 business schools in the Asia-Pacific region and has been commended for effectively articulating the Indian business ethos.

S.P. Jain Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai (SPJIMR)
The Institute has one of the most lauded Post Graduate Programs in India. SPJIMR also boasts of its  teaching material, which is in conformance with the syllabus of business schools like Harvard, MIT and Stanford. Besides the regular curriculum, students are also involved in co-curricular activities like inter-business school competitions and research projects conducted by the institute.

Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIM B)
The institute emerged as a result of a contract signed between the Government of Orissa and the Orissa Jesuit Society. The school not only boasts of a rigorous Post Graduate Program, but also of several innovative projects not found in many other management institutes.

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune (SIBM)
Established in 1978, SIBM offers an exceptional platform for students, teaching concepts and applications with the right amount of focus on growing industry requirements. In 1979, it became the only institute in Pune to organise a seminar outside Pune in Mumbai and in 1982 a learning-cum-training scheme was introduced. In 1990, it received permanent affiliation from the Pune University and in 2002 received university status.

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai (NMIMS)
Established in 1981 by the Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM) with the help of a handsome donation from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies, this institute prides itself on continually evolving. It commenced its activities with a masters programme in management studies and offers several other courses today.

International Management Institute, Delhi (IMI)
Established in 1981 as an autonomous non-profit educational society in collaboration with the International Management Institute, Geneva, the IMI follows international curricula for all its programmes. The institute has academic collaborations with the International Institute for Management Development (IIMD), Lausanne;  McGill University, Montreal; and Manchester Business School, U.K. Its educational programmes have been recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.  IMI also offers a range of custom-made, in-company and management development programmes and an active research and consulting base.

T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal (TAPMI)
Located in Manipal, an international university town, TAPMI attracts students from around the world. Its post-graduate diploma in management is accredited by the AICTE. The institute is committed to providing its students with experiential learning.

Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)
An autonomous institution, the IRMA was established in 1979 at the initiative of the National Dairy Development Board and with the support of the Government of India, the Government of Gujarat and the Swiss Development Co-operative. It works closely with NGOs, co-operatives and government agencies. The doctoral-level programme, the FPRM, is ideal for students and professionals seeking careers in research, teaching and specialised knowledge-based positions at cooperatives and development organisations. The institute also offers a post-graduate programme in rural management (PRM) for students who wish to undertake managerial responsibilities in the rural co-operative sector and development organisations.

Conclusion
If India is to maintain, if not enhance, its global economic competitiveness, business schools need to play the role they were intended to. Their continual upgradation should not be confined to a mere infusion of resources, upgrading of facilities and breaking away from traditional academic models, vital and valuable though these elements are. They must create generations of well-rounded business leaders who are instilled with a sense of social purpose and a deep understanding of their role as custodians of society’s economic resources.
Only then will our B-schools achieve what Rakesh Khurana has advocated — the reinvention of management itself, one that will help foster virtues of “custodianship, duty and responsibility”.