BT Best B-Schools & HR Summit: Experts explain why Indian B-Schools aren't featured among the top global rankings

Despite churning out some of the top global business leaders over the years, business schools from India still don’t find a place at the top of most global rankings. While Indian management professionals hold top positions at many key global organisations, their alma mater continue to lag behind leading global institutions like the Harvard Business School, London Business School or Stanford Graduate School of Business. The difference, however, is mainly of their approach towards educating their students and their priorities rather than quality of education provided by Indian management schools, said experts.

Take Bharat Bhaskar, for instance. According to the director of the country’s premier B-School Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, one major differentiator has been the priority of Indian B-Schools such as IIM-A. While foreign B-Schools, which rank at the top of global rankings, are more focused on bringing diversity to their classrooms, the Indian B-schools are liable to address the large talent pool in the country.

“First, there are differences between our set of rules and their set of rules, which, not necessarily, are the right set of rules. Second, traditionally Indian B-Schools have been focused on imparting the Indinisation factor into their courses as our priority was to address the massive talent pool that existed in India. So, we focused more on core factors like placement, admission quality and career progression of our students, among others,” he told Sourav Majumdar, Editor, Business Today at the BT Best B-Schools and HR Summit.

However, with management education and the institutions now increasingly changing their approach and focusing on solving real life problems, the scenario is changing fast. According to Bhaskar Chakrabarti, Dean-Academics at IIM Calcutta, Indian B-Schools are coming up with inter-disciplinary curriculums and are aligning themselves to prepare students in solving real life problems. These changes will start to reflect in their outcomes soon.

Varun Nagaraj, secretary & convener, Dean at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research pointed towards challenges of attracting foreign students at Indian institutions that may increase diversity in the campus like top global schools. While the Indian schools are at a par with top global schools in terms of quality of education, there are softer factors like diversity where they lag. “If, say, Indian B-Schools keep the cut off above 650 GMAT score the student who may qualify may also get offers from top global schools. So, we would have to be realistic,” he said. 

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