Every year, among the long list of students getting admitted into the country’s top educational institutions are the about half-dozen names who make it through the ‘Differently Abled’ category. While a lot is written about the perseverance it must have required on their part to overcome problems and clear the Common Admission Test (CAT) to get into the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), we know very little about how they cope with the extreme rigour of b-school life once they are in. Perhaps, many of us even conjure up visions of some kind of extra-special treatment or leniency meted out to them in an environment full of some of the most brightest and gifted youngsters of the time.

While visiting the IIMs at Calcutta and Lucknow, PaGaLGuY stopped by the dorms where live Suresh Reddy and Vishal Kumar Jain, both visually-challenged, and the sheer effortlessness of their existence at these schools came to us like a slap in the face.

Vishal Kumar Jain, IIM Lucknow

Sitting at his computer inside his hostel room at IIM Lucknow, as 26-year-old Vishal Kumar Jain moves the mouse cursor around, a digitally-generated voice promptly reads out the text written on the screen at a speed that you would find hard to comprehend. “Start!” “Programs!” “Internet Explorer!”.

“That’s ‘Jaws’, a screen-reading software which is literally the backbone of my academic life here,” describes Vishal, who hails from Bellary, Karnataka. Since he cannot see what is written on the screen, the software reads out whatever he types, or the text that appears on the screen, whether in programs, ebooks or websites, making the usage of computers as effortless for him as for any person with normal eyesight.

Indeed, he owes computers a lot for helping him overcome obstacles that would otherwise have stopped him from realising what he was really made of. Vishal had to leave school after class 9th because his vision — which had started deteriorating due to the onset of Retinitis pigmentosa when he was five — had nearly gone. He spent the next three years working in his father’s business, even as two of his elder siblings too started reaching the advanced stages of their own eyesight problems.

“That was when I by chance came to know about this computer training at Bangalore, where I learned to use computers and know a lot of things about how I could overcome my condition,” he says.

The Internet helped him get in touch with other visually challenged people and volunteers who helped him learn about all the options he had for his future and the tools and aids available to him. ”For example, I had been misinformed earlier that I could not study science in school as conducting laboratory experiments required functional eyesight. I later learned that it was not true, and I could have very well entered the science stream,” he says. But by then, he had finished commerce at high school and was studying BCom at a Bangalore college.

“During my graduation, I sat for placement interviews of six multinational companies and cleared all their rounds. But none of them gave me a final offer. Everybody else around me was getting job offers, but I wasn’t despite clearing all the rounds. I later came to understand that these companies had very little knowledge about how to handle my case, and had decided not to hire me,” he recalls.

IIM Lucknow too had initially come across as unprepared to comfortably host someone with the kind of peculiar special needs as Vishal.

“I had to struggle at IIM Lucknow for a few initial days because I was the first person on this campus who had a different set of requirements. There had been one visually challenged person here before me but he had enough vision to read, write and see sufficiently. My vision on the other hand is 99% gone, it’s as good as none,” described Vishal.

Vishal spent the first few days talking to the head of every department individually so that they could understand his needs and then put in place the necessary policies and arrangements.

“Buying the software ‘Jaws’ was one of the first things we did after Vishal joined. It converts printed books to ebooks and then reads them out to him,” says Prof Ajay K Garg, IIM Lucknow’s dean in-charge of student affairs. “We also put him in the hostel which had ramps everywhere and was closest to the teaching block and library complex,” he adds.

“The scanning process often means that my books arrive 2-3 days later than that of others, but it makes all the material accessible for me,” says Vishal.

How Vishal works with the IIM Lucknow course material (Video: PaGaLGuY.com)

Once equipped with these basics, Vishal was all set to be on his own. Not only are his professors happy with his academic performance, Vishal has been an active participant in the institute’s non-academic activities such as being part of the college band ’3.4′ (Vishal can play six percussion instruments and has toured the US as part of a performing music group) or joining ‘Bhavishya’, the institute’s social initiatives club. “Even before I had joined IIM Lucknow, I had started an Internet platform to connect disabled people with volunteers who wanted to help them. Social initiatives have been very close to my heart,” he says.

Vishal’s performance evaluation at the school too is done differently. “We have given him a dedicated scribe who writes exams and assignments on his behalf. In some courses, we allow Vishal to give oral answers rather than written during the exam,” explains Prof Garg.

Vishal playing the tabla at Aarohan, a cultural programme at IIM Lucknow

The rest Vishal makes up for with will-power and determination. “Moving around in the campus is sometimes a problem because the size or the length of physical spaces in the campus are not even. For example the borders of the roads are uneven so it can be tough to judge where the road ends. But I have got used to it by now. Friends have been very helpful, whether in helping with mobility or the studies,” says Vishal who wants to join a company in the human resources function after finishing MBA.

Asked which songs he enjoys playing the most with his band, he laughs and says, “Any AR Rahman song!”

Suresh Reddy, IIM Calcutta 

When he was thirteen, an accident cost him complete loss of vision. However, this did not stop him from living the dream of studying at a top management college in the country. Hailing from a small town in Andhra Pradesh, 26-year-old Suresh Reddy is the first ever 100% visually-impaired Post Graduate Programme (PGP) student at IIM Calcutta.

Suresh is a constant subject of conversation among professors and students, which makes any visitor to the campus want to meet him. Located in one corner of the ground floor of the hostel, Suresh’s room is well kept, neat and in all aspects similar to that of any other male student.

It is evening and Suresh is busy at work on his after-class assignments that take up most of his time at the institute. “It is the quantitative and math bits that I find the most difficult. With my disability, it is difficult to manage subjects that have anything to do with numbers,” Suresh says unabashedly, simultaneously working on his laptop. However, besides the help provided by ‘Jaws’ (the same screen-reading software that Vishal uses) which he has been using since the age of thirteen, his colleagues and the institute have been extremely supportive in making his time there as smooth as possible, he adds.

Suresh in his hostel room, demonstrating how he works with Jaws

Although IIM-C has hosted to students with visual disability earlier, this is the first time that the institute has a student with 100% visual disability. Four months ago, the institute acquired a scanner for converting all text material into its electronic versions. A designated person has been made in-charge of making these conversions to make study material accessible for Suresh.

In addition, IIM-C is in the process of acquiring a tactile adaptation kit. This kit helps the visually challenged visualise graphs, tables and matrices and would be useful for Suresh in understanding subjects such as risk management, which contain a lot of graphs. The tactile adaptation kit will form a 3D braille representation of the graphs, which will help Suresh understand and comprehend graph-heavy subjects in a better manner.

His classmates have been a great support system for Suresh during the course of his first year at the institute. “Initially when I came to the institute it was obviously difficult to manage life in such a competitive atmosphere, but slowly I have learned my way around,” Suresh told PaGaLGuY. He added that since he had difficulty understanding some of the material taught during the lectures, some of his classmates took out the time to tutor him in the evenings.

“I have friends across all courses who come to teach me different subjects,” Suresh said, adding that he had requested the student committee to help him out once and since then there had never been a shortage of people willing to spend time with him on academic work.

According to his classmates, Suresh has no trouble performing in any of the projects or class assignments handed out to the students. Explaining his experience with Suresh as a part of his group assignment, Jandeep Singh said that “Suresh took an active part in all the discussion regarding the final presentation that we were scheduled to put out.” He added that the group had forwarded Suresh the slides from the presentation that he was supposed to present in the class. Suresh read them with the help of his software JAWS and explained the slides impeccably during the final presentation.

Suresh Reddy (top-left) in class at IIM Calcutta

Still unbelieving of the fact that his dream of coming to a premier management college in the country had actually come true, Suresh says that after his accident at a young age, his parents tried to dissuade him from studying further. However, he was more resolute than that. When he was 14, Suresh went to Bangalore where he joined Shree Ramana Maharishi School for the blind. The school was instrumental in building up his confidence in his capabilities, Suresh says. He went further on to complete his graduation from Bangalore.

Suresh had also been a member of an NGO called Enable India that helped disabled people get a job. Immediately after completing his graduation, Suresh got a job as a Knowledge Marketing Analyst at Catalyst Management Services, where he worked for around a year. From there he shifted jobs three times before landing up at Wipro where he was an instructional designer. In all, Suresh gathered six years of total work experience in various companies and experimented with various job profiles before joining IIM-C.

During college itself, Suresh had enrolled into the Samarthanam Trust that enabled higher education amongst disabled people. While his career progressed, Suresh used to attend weekend lectures by corporate professionals arranged by the trust. Empowered by the lectures, Suresh attempted the CAT for the first time in 2008 and managed 74 percentile. Suresh attempted the exam two more times before he scored in the 94.7 percentile and got a call from IIM Calcutta. Impressing the faculty members by his sheer hard work, Suresh was able to convert the interview call into an admission call and today he is on the verge of successfully completing his first year as a PGP student in the institute.

Although Suresh is extremely fond of listening to music and going for walks, a competitive atmosphere and a tough schedule does not leave him any time to relax. “So far my journey has been a mild struggle as far as the studies are concerned. Hopefully the second year will be a more relaxed one for me,” Suresh says.

After much hoopla, the  All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) conducted its first Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) today. Barring a few  ‘wrong questions’  the online paper was found to be fairly easy said aspirants, though the General Knowledge section was found to be a little more difficult than others.

“The CMAT paper seemed like an extension of the MAT paper to me. I found most sections, especially Data Interpretation (DI) comparatively easy. For me, the General Knowledge (GK) section was the most difficult,” said Krishna Pandey, a final year engineering student from Delhi who took the exam at a centre in Dwarka. He added that since the questions were simple, he was able to make a total of  80 attempts. “I wish more prestigious colleges were accepting CMAT scores,” he said, adding that he only appeared for the CMAT because he had filled up the form and did not want his money to go to waste.

Many CMAT takers admitted that CMAT’s first paper was ‘easier than expected.’  Nazarenu Fernandes, a final year B.E. Electronics and Telecommunication student of Goa Engineering College told PaGaLGuY, “The Quantitative section was very easy and I could solve 23 out of 25,  of which I think I got only one wrong. All questions were simple and direct, just like Logical reasoning (LR). GK was a bit tricky, but then Verbal Ability (VA) was quite easy with one small passage.”

The experience was the same for two other B.E. final year Goa Engineering College students, Satyendra Kuvelkar and Tanmay Talak, both of whom aspire to get into Goa Institute of Management (GIM) through CMAT. They said, “We answered everything, and the paper was very easy. Only GK was a little tough, but Quantitative and LR section was a cakewalk.”

When PaGaLGuY contacted Aptech, the firm that is conducting CMAT, an official said, “We are pleased to inform that the first day of CMAT 2012 was concluded successfully. We had scheduled 12.9% of the total candidates on day 1 across the country and there was 83% attendance recorded at all the centre.”

CMAT takers seemed relaxed outside YMT College center, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. While most said that there were no glitches, a few were seen discussing incorrect questions. ”CMAT was quite easy, compared to the other entrance tests. LR was the easiest, while the comprehension section in the Verbal Ability section was extremely time-consuming,” according to Kaustabh Kokane, final-year engineering student, at KGCE, Karjat. “Four questions were flawed, one of which was because the correct option was not provided,” he said.

Another test taker in that center, Tanmay Kothari, student of Bachelor in Accounting & Finance from Patkar College thought that ‘some questions seemed incorrect by themselves’. “As compared to the Common Admission Test (CAT), CMAT was easy. There was no section that could  be termed as the toughest or the easiest, as all of them were balanced. I believe that CMAT might increase the number of questions from next year onwards, as there was plenty of time remaining, which is not the case in other entrance exams,” Tanmay said. Two, final-year Bachelor in Pharmacy, Mumbai University students, Sagar K and Priti Pawar said that LR and GK were not tough, if one compares it some other entrance exams.

In another center in Mumbai, at Durgadevi Saraf Institute of Management Studies, Malad, Varsha Ramnani, a final year B.Sc Microbiology student of Vivekananda Education Society, spoke highly of the infrastructure. “The infrastructure inside the examination hall was excellent,” she said. “All the things were explained and taken care of very well by the staff and the invigilators. The only problem was the allocation of the test centers. I stay at Vashi and I had to come all the way to Malad early morning. That was quite difficult. There was a boy in my center who had come all the way from Nagpur to write the test, since he did not get a centre in Nagpur.”

(By rail, which is the fastest in Mumbai, the distance between Malad and Vashi is anything between and hour and a half to two hours. Nagpur is a good 8-9 hours away from Mumbai).

Avez Ahmed, a final year B.Com student of National College, who took CMAT at the same centre said that the Quantitative section was ‘tough.’ “The passage in Reading and Comprehension (RC) section was too small and complicated, though LR and GK were good,” he said.

Inputs by Astha A

Pic:  (Flickr)

All the world’s a stage,  And all the men and women merely players;  They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,…the words by William Shakespeare make particular sense in the b-school scenario today, given the number of  ’artists’ pursuing an MBA degree.  Almost ever top b-school has a couple of artists, singers – those who have left the stage or the movie/television screen to give MBA a shot. These ‘artists’ are those who believe that life is a stage whether you are rehearsing lines for a play or preparing for a placement interview. They have chosen  (some permanently, others temporarily) to exit the ‘stage’ and adorn the part of an MBA student for now.

 So why an MBA?

A bouquet of answers to that – all leading to the same underlying thought of learning something new. Gagan Jeevagan from the Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Trichy says that business is a way of life and “I wanted to strengthen my knowledge of business so thought of doing an MBA. This MBA will give me a foundation to run a business in any industry, even theatre if you look at it as an industry.”  Gagan, who has been doing theatre since the age of 12, co-founded his own theatre company in Bangalore called Va-U Tiatr, when 18. He has spent more time on the stage than anywhere else.

For Ankana Mehra from XLRI – GMP (1-year Program), Jamshedpur, the MBA fulfils the need to understand the changing business environment. Ankana was a model and also worked for UTV, Balaji Telefilms and Sony before joining XLRI. “I wanted to evaluate the possible scenarios that can affect business – starting from macroeconomics, strategy, business evaluation to organisational behaviour. I wanted to consider all such aspects before leveraging my others skills, hence the MBA,” she says. Ankana had ample opportunities to make it big in the field of glamour but decided to give it a miss to pursue higher education.

Dhananjay Wanare, a first year student from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, was an assistant director with the critically-acclaimed movie Harishchandra Factory. Some of the best days of his life, he has spent behind the camera for the movie. For Dhananjay it was ‘personal development’ that got him to do his MBA. “Alongside theatre, I  worked in various domains in software. While my theatre  kept my passion going, professionally I felt restricted to one specific industry. MBA was the only way to meet and interact with people from different backgrounds and learn something new.” As a theatre boy, Dhananjay has won several trophies and theatre competitions across the country. He is also given credit for initiating new art forms such as sand animation, shadow events, UV light choreography  - all of which are different prize categories in events today.

Talking about ‘artists’ and one cannot ignore the bunch of students (Ravi Agnihotri, Abhishek Mohunti, Sandeep Goel, Pritika Idnani, Manoj Nuthakki, Nithin Ramachandran and others) from the Indian School of Business (ISB) who got together to make a Hindi movie last year. The mover of the group Ravi Agnihotri told PaGaLGuY that the MBA was a thoughtful decision to get closer to his dream – film making. “I wanted to learn the way a business is done and no better way than an MBA to do it. I had the ideas but wanted to learn more on how to run the ideas properly.  I knew that my school would support me to learnt the art better. That we were able to shoot on campus and my school helped me in every way, only proved my decision right,” he said.

Ravi’s production company is called Friday Night Productions and the name of the movie is Buddha in a Traffic Jam, which should be releasing anytime soon.

Ankana Mehra from XLRI

MBA has become part of the dream

Gagan says that his dream and MBA are on the same track now. “This MBA will teach me how to run my theatre company like a business. I want to take my theatre to the next level and branch out into different kinds of entertainment. Hollywood is run primarily by MBAs from Ivy League schools, so why not here,?” he asks. Ankana, on the other hand,  looks at her MBA more practically. For her, the MBA has widened her knowledge about business operations and practices. After working at different places for seven years, her MBA have given her an insight into her past. “Today I understand why certain acquisitions were  made, why outcome-based processing was stressed upon and how efficiency and effectiveness weighed against different improvement initiatives. So though I am not pursuing an active television line, I understand today why things happened the way they did, while I was there.”

For Dhananjay, it is slightly different. He  loves the ‘people’ process at his b-school. “There is a new dimension to life. I am getting to interact with different kinds of people. I have developed new interests in photography and painting, thanks to this MBA course.” Ravi, on the other hand has already made it clear that had it not been for the MBA, his dream of a movie maker would not have materialised so soon. “All that I learnt in the MBA class  is helping me in film-making. That profit equals to revenue minus cost is what I am seeing everyday. Be it negotiations or shareholder patterns or just marketing – everything is coming to use in my art.”

Nandini Chaudhary, a second ear student of the Goa Institute of Management, Goa is considered a mini ustaad of sorts in music. Having learnt classic music and Rabindra Sangeet for over 18 years and participated in a number of shows, she chose to do an MBA  because with it, she could also pursue her dream of music. “I love finance and wanted a career in finance but I did not want to discontinue with my singing and performances.  From where I come from, it is not easy to make roads into music unless one has the right contacts. But with an MBA, I will make sure that my career does well and I make the necessary inroads into music.”

Nandini loves the music scene in Goa and is part of the college orchestra which has earned accolades from the London School of Music. From classical music, she is now into Opera music. As part of placements, Nandini got a job in Mumbai and is thrilled to come to the city of dreams. “In a place like Mumbai, I can make my career and yet not give up my passion for singing. I can do both,” she says.

But  the fact is, some chucked their dreams for the moolah?

In a way, yes, say some of them. Others say that both, art and the corporate zing have their individual roles to play – may be at different times. Anakana says that the arts have always been something that has driven her to do better in life but being a part of the corporate scene has  been her calling.  “I know I will always retain an interest in acting but only as a parallel one not as a core profession.  My career goal was never going to be in showbiz.”

Dhananjay says it is possible to do both,  because theatre is more of a  passion than anything else. “Yes, I want to be part of a corporate industry but I will alongside pursue my passion and both the spheres will help me become a matured person.” Gagan feels similar  – that ardour for theatre and the corporate way of life can exist together and you don’t have to give up one for the other. “Art is part of me. I believe that everything I do will culminate in art. I will continue to stage plays even after I finish my MBA,” Gagan declares.

Ravi Agnihotri from ISB

In India, people rarely pursue dreams because they do not pay

This, they all agree. That in the race to make money, run the house and have a name etched on the corporate horizon, dreams take a back seat. That most people inIndia spend much of their life in a rat race to make  money and gain material possessions. Gagan says that Indians, by and large, are rule-bound though there is a change happening slowly. “I have friends who are engineers but are making a living as wedding planners, some are musicians, some designers – so things are changing but quite slowly

Dhananajay says people should multi-task to be able to keep a balance between one’s passion and one ‘job.’  He thinks that people need to pursue different things in life to lead a complete life. “The new skills I acquired  in the IT job  helped me discover varied interests and that is helping me get closer to my dream of becoming a social entrepreneur, with my stage dream remaining intact.”

Ankana again has a more practical answer. She says that in India people dream about fame and money and recognition and the fastest way to achieve it in India is through Bollywood, show business and cricket. “And to achieve this fame, people tend to ignore their strengths. Yes, dreams pay less. If someone wants to be a gymnast, in India you cannot make money by becoming one, so either you retro-fit your talent or give it up all together.” Gagan like to disagree a bit on this point. “Fame does not drive ambition in India. Today I am seeing people realising that life is short and people want to do what they love. A student from my b-school is today a script-writer in Bollywood. He chose his passion.”

Nandini Chaudhary from GIM

So what will it be finally – art or …?

For most, it is going to be a hard-core corporate life for now. The next ten years will be used  to trudge the corporate ladder and make a base. Theatre will not be compromised though and every effort to keep take a shot at it will be considered.  Dhananjay is sure he will become a social entrepreneur in ten years while Ankana wants to be in a position where she can vision and plan her organisation’s growth. Gagan will use his corporate learning to firm up his theatre company and Nandini will experiment in other kinds of music.

The odd one is Ravi who is convinced that he will stay with films, come what may. “After the first movie, am looking at other scripts. I want to take scripts to the level of how they are in the West, where scripts make the movies not like in India, where stars rule the market. In India people go to see the Khans and the Kapoors in the films, they do not go for the story line. I am going to work for the day when people will start seeing movies for the superb story telling and stars will love to work in those films so it will be double the pleasure for the audience.”

Nandini says that whatever be the future, music will always be the way to rewind. “When I feel stressed, I just pick up an instrument and play and stress just goes away. I will need music all the more as I start my career,” she said.

Concept, illustrations and graphics by Deepak Gopalakrishnan aka chuck_gopal, a Mallu-turned Mumbaiker who blogs here and tweets here.

Surrounded by mountain ranges on three sides and a valley on the fourth, Goa Institute of Management (GIM)’s new 50-acre campus at Sanquelim in north Goa is located at the foothills of the Western Ghats. In this nature-friendly campus, all hot water is heated using solar heaters and is cleaned in a sewage treatment facility to be sent to a water recovery pond containing special type of plants and fish. All organic garbage and trashed paper is processed in a vermiculture facility that produces compost for using in its widespread landscape.

“All the five hostel buildings have solar panels fitted on top, so that we do not need to use electricity to heat water,” GIM director Peter FX D’Lima to PaGaLGuY. LED lamps light up the streets and CFL lamps illuminate the buildings. “All the buildings are so arranged that they get sunlight for the maximum possible amount of time as the sun goes from the east to west. There are fish, ducks and birds coming to the water pond, making the campus very ecologically vibrant,” he adds.

According to Prof Ajit Parulekar of GIM, being eco-friendly is a choice one makes. “Some think that they need to spend a lot of money to be eco-friendly, but that is not true. Small things can help us save the environment, like a proper garbage disposal system or water-harvesting. When our students see all these things happening in front of them, I am sure they get influenced and inspired to carry that forward even after college.” He also informs that apart from a course on ‘Business Ethics and Corporate Governance’, students are also taught about carbon trading. “This also educates them about what the carbon footprint is, and what they can do to be more eco-friendly,” he adds.

Besides, “Such an inspiring and healthy environment keeps your brain fresh, and as we know, a healthy brain always works better,” smiles Mr D’Lima.

In Pune, a little away from the city, on top of the Lavale hills, is the picturesque Symbiosis International University campus housing the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) and Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC) campuses. Rainwater is harvested at the foot of the hill in a pond, that acts as the source of water for Lavale and nearby areas as well. The campus also boasts of a biogas plant which supplies fuel to cook the food in the mess. The director of SIMC, Chandan Chatterjee stresses that since the students use only bicycles around the campus, the campus stays pollution-free and green.

The institutes’ students also talk happily about all the peacocks and peahens which roam around freely in the protected environment on campus. “Sometimes you can spot four to five of them together. This campus is a photographer’s paradise,” smiles Parag Gopale, a final year MBA student of SIMC who is a also a freelance photographer.

Peacocks roaming in the Symbiosis Lavale campus

One sees clusters of bicycles parked at various stands across the campus — vehicles are banned inside.

Two Indian Institutes of Management, at Kozikode and Shillong are also not lagging behind when it comes to building an environmentally conscious campus. IIM Shillong has promoted sustainable energy using solar panels installed on top of the hostels, costing approximately Rs 1.5 crores in collaboration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The solar panels together generate 50 kilowatts of energy, says the institute’s public relations officer.

“IIM Shillong conserves energy by using appliances that use minimum energy. The buildings are so constructed, that there is maximum usage of natural light. We also rely on soft copies (PDF, Word and PPT files) to distribute course material to students with the help of a common mail system. Unlike IIM Ahmedabad, which gives material to students on paper, we do not use printed paper,” says Prof HS Chhabra, IIM Shillong’s dean of academics.

Since IIM Shillong is located in a cold region, the institute does not use air conditioners, thus needing mush lesser energy that the other IIMs. Not requiring air conditioners also helps in reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.

On the other hand, IIM Kozhikode practically runs on rainwater. The 96-acre campus that occupies two steep hillocks has taken rainwater harvesting very seriously. It catches rain from at least two-thirds of its campus land and unlike many other institutions in Kerala which despite having big land holdings and 300 plus mm of rain have to depend on external water supply, IIM Kozhikode is self sufficient.

Rohan Kumar, a second year student says, ”Our institute meets its requirement of water through its rainwater harvesting ponds and doesn’t have any external water supply. Despite being located in the hills, cutting of slopes for construction purposes has also been minimized. We also have environmental management as a part of our curriculum.”

A filtering plant and pump house also exist at the foot of the hill, whereas all the buildings in the campus are fitted with built-in cement gutters. The downward pipes have a box-like cement structures in between which trap tree leaves that might travel along with the run-off from the roof.

The IIM Kozhikode campus

There is a large lake at the bottom of the IIM-K hills that holds all the water that runs down the two hills.

“As you enter the campus, on the right-hand side is a very pretty looking reservoir. But it is more than just mere beauty. It’s because of the reservoir the campus is self sufficient with its water needs. We are also trying to incorporate a new course on renewable energy. Hopefully, it would be ready soon,” says Prof Mahesh Bhave of IIM-K.

(Photo: Zack Klein)

Candidates scheduled to appear for the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) this year appear perturbed with test centers allocated at far-off places and the paraphernalia-gathering required ahead of the test. They feel that the test centers could have been allotted in closer vicinities of their homes and that the requirement of getting one’s admit card attested by a gazetted officer is an unnecessary hassle.

PaGaLGuY spoke to a few CMAT applicants post-issuance of admit cards, who aired their opinions about the problems they were facing in the run-up to the test.

Mumbai’s Siddharth Shah, who will be appearing for CMAT this year, feels that the test’s custodian All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) should have been more considerate of the candidates. “I stay at Ville Parle in Mumbai, while the exam center allotted to me is in Kharghar (Navi Mumbai). As the reporting time for the exam is 8 am, I will have to leave home almost three hours in advance,” he points out.

He also adds that the reporting time detail is ambiguous in the admit card as it only says that latecomers will not be allowed to take the exam, whereas most other tests usually mention a time cushion, such as 45 minutes or an hour before the exam commences as the maximum permissible limit for entering the exam center.

AICTE has also asked that candidates get their admit cards attested by gazetted officers, which is making test takers wonder what special needs does CMAT have that other entrance tests do not.

“Attestation of the admit card and the class 10th marksheet by a gazetted officer is in my opinion not required. No other entrance exam requires attestation of the admit card and besides it adds to the inconvenience,” he says.

Sumanth Shindgi, software professional working at Accenture in Bangalore isn’t happy with the center allocated to him. “It will take me around one and a half to two hours in the city’s notorious traffic to reach the exam center at Yelahanka from Jayanagar (the place where he stays). The inaccessibility of Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (which is the exam center in Yelahanka) add to the woes as it is located in the interiors,” he says.

Based on what he has found using Google Maps, Sumanth said that he would have to use a combination of the Bangalore airport bus service and auto rickshaws as normal city transport buses would take circuitous routes and hence, more time.

“The attestation of the admit card is a problematic process as we are having to run after gazetted officers for it. Besides, the attestation of the class X marksheet for the verification of the name makes no sense, as that could have been achieved through documents such as the PAN card, passport or driver’s license,” he said.

“Things have not been managed properly by the AICTE this year. Initially, it had notified that the admit cards would be issued on January 30, 2012, which was later postponed to 8 am on February 5, 2012. Then, it enabled the mechanism to download one’s admit card a day before,” he says, describing the confusion that followed. “To top it all, when I called up the CMAT helpline number and requested them for a change in venue, the person who answered the call was oblivious to the fact that the admit card had been issued a day before,” he informed.

“Around February 8, I received a mail attached with my admit card, but with the same center,” he added.

Srikkant Kulkarni, working as an engineer at GL Communication, Bangalore, feels that allocation of locations is the area where AICTE has made the biggest blunder. “It will take me approximately three hours to reach the exam center at Yellahanka from Jayanagar,” he says. The AICTE had allowed candidates to enter three preferred test cities in the application form, and not centers. Candidates had expected that the AICTE would take into account addresses while allocating centers.

Srikkant, who has not yet attested his documents feels that the government officers are going to charge for the same, unless they know the individual on a personal level. Sandeep Katakol, software professional, Accenture Pune, is finding it difficult to get his admit card and class 10th marksheet attested. “Time is the biggest constraint for me as I can only chase the gazetted officers on weekends,” he says.

PaGaLGuY also spoke to AICTE to gain their perspective of the issue. “We do not feel there is any ambiguity in the situation. In fact, there is a CMAT helpline, which is there to redress the problems of the candidates,” said an official at AICTE, Mumbai office.

With regard to the controversy regarding locations and attestation, AICTE maintains that locations have been identified keeping in mind the majority of students appearing from that particular place/zone. “As far as distances in Mumbai are concerned, most people here are used to that kind commuting,” the official said.

“The attestation of documents is to ensure that impersonation and inaccuracies do not occur. How can attesting one’s documents from either a gazetted officer or the director or dean of the institution they had last studied at be an issue with students?” he questioned.

AICTE is of the opinion that there is perfect synchronisation in the entire process and that minor issues are being blown out of proportion. However, the official refused to comment as to why CMAT required attestation of the admit cards in the first place when most other entrance exams had no such requirements.

Like Mumbai’s SP Jain, XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur too is planning to increase the student intake in its Post Graduate Programme in Business Management (BM) and Post Graduate Program in Human Resource Management (HRM) by 60 seats each starting 2013. The Institute will send in an approval application to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) requesting for an increase in the number of seats next year, Fr E Abraham, XLRI director told PaGaLGuY.

The current batch strength for both the programmes stands at 120 each. In anticipation of the expected batch increase, the institute has leased a 10-acre plot adjoining the current campus grounds from Tata Steel. Adding the new plot, XLRI will be spread over a land area of 41.6 acres in total. The institute has already started the construction of classrooms and hostels in the new land plot, which will help the institute accommodate the increased batch strength from next year onwards.

In addition to the increased batch strength, XLRI is also planning to increase the number of programmes as well as the faculty strength from next year onwards.

The new construction that has been undertaken will include a seven-storey hostel block with 380 single rooms, a seven-storey international hostel with 100 single rooms, a three-storey academic building that will have 17 classrooms and two training halls, said Fr CL George, dean of administration and finance.  “The total cost of construction, including acquiring the lease of the land, is estimated to be around Rs 54 crores. XLRI’s internally generated revenue is being used for the project,” Father George said.

According to the construction plans, the new hostel will be built as a large single complex, which will have two separate sections for boys and girls with a common mess and activities room. With a capacity to house 380 students, the new hostel will increase the total accommodation space in XLRI to 500 students. In addition, the new academic block will have four 150-seater classrooms in addition to thirteen 75-seater classrooms.

The international hostel, which will have a total of 100 rooms, will be specifically designed to meet the requirements of the foreign students that will come to the institute as a part of the student exchange programs. For example, the international hostel will be centrally air conditioned for the benefit of students of foreign origin. The international hostel will also accommodate the visiting corporate members to the institute. Also, the new construction will have two training halls that will be utilised by corporate participants during training.

The construction, which began in the middle of 2011, is scheduled to complete by December 31, 2012. “We are hoping that by the time we send in our proposal for the increase in batch intake next year, the new construction will be complete,” Father George said.

(Photo: Sean Sllis)

While talking to PaGaLGuY last week, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow director had articulated why it was becoming increasingly important for Indian b-schools to open their doors to foreign students and give a more global colour to their classrooms.

Fresh data shared exclusively with PaGaLGuY by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) shows that India has a long way to go before it becomes a lucrative international business education destination, although there are mildly encouraging signs of late. The number of non-Indian citizens applying to Indian b-schools using the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) increased by 86% between 2007 and 2011, with as many as 386 GMAT score reports by non-Indian passport-holders reaching Indian b-schools in 2011, nearly twice as many as the 194 score reports in 2007 (indicating that some applicants sent their scores to more than one Indian b-school).

The increased interest in Indian b-schools has been most significant among African, Middle Eastern and Asian (other than Indian) citizens. African and Middle Eastern citizens sent six times as many GMAT score reports to Indian b-schools in 2011 (25) as they did in 2007 (4). Non-Indian Asians too sent more than twice as many score reports in 2011 (170) compared to 2007 (80).

The absolute proportion of foreign GMAT score reports to Indian b-schools however remains a minuscule 2.19% of the total GMAT application pool to India. The foreign interest has in recent times been driven by the one-year programmes at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and the PGPX at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, both ranked among the top 20 global schools in the Financial Times rankings. While ISB claims to have 5.5% of its current student body comprising non-Indian passport holders (29 students in total), IIM-A PGPX has seven non-Indian citizens studying in its 2011-12 batch. Although foreign passport holders, these applicants often tend to be second-generation migrants of Indian ethnic origin looking to get an education in a culturally familiar country.

But to really comprehend how long India has to go in order to become a popular international management study destination, one should consider that in 2011, 45% of the GMAT score reports to US b-schools were sent by non-US citizens and 83% of score reports sent to UK b-schools were from non-Western European citizens.

GMAT test-taking statistics for Central/South Asians in 2011 (Source: GMAC)

Interest in GMAT in India, which had peaked in 2009 has been declining in 2010 and 2011. According to GMAC’s senior manager of statistical research Alex Chisholm, “The decline since 2009 is consistent with the decline seen in domestic management admission tests that Indian candidates appear for. It is possible that continued softness in the global economy might also be influencing candidates to defer their decision to pursue graduate management education.”

There were some signs of recovery in Indians’ interest in the GMAT in 2012, he added.

Nevertheless, India continued to be the third-largest market of candidates taking the GMAT after the US and China, contributing 10% of the total GMAT tests taken in 2011.

Data shared by GMAC also shows that Indians with GMAT tend to apply to a significantly larger number of b-schools (4.3) using their GMAT score than the world average (2.9), their most popular MBA study destinations being the US, India, UK, Singapore and France, in decreasing order. Western European citizens on the other hand are least likely to leave their region to study an MBA, with 60% score reports being sent to France, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece or Italy.

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai is planning to increase student intake in its Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from the current 180 to 240 starting 2013. The institute is awaiting a green signal from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for the expansion.

“SP Jain had applied to AlCTE for increased student intake on January 31, 2012. The increase in strength would be by 60 students,” said Dr ML Shrikant, honorary dean, SPJIMR. However, the management institute is sceptical as to when the increase might be implemented owing to the AICTE’s approval. “The ball is in AICTE’s court now. Considering that it took AICTE seven years to grant us permission to take our batch strength from 120 to 180, we are keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.

When PaGaLGuY spoke to an AICTE official about this matter, he said, “Applications are disposed off on a year-to-year basis, therefore any institute’s statement about having waited for seven years cannot be accepted,” he said.

“We currently have one of the smallest batch of students amongst our peer b-schools, which is why we are thinking on the lines of increasing the intake in the PGDM programme,” Dr Shrikant said, adding that he wanted to expand the faculty strength as well from 50 to 75.

Meanwhile, AICTE says that it will release the list of approved new institutes, courses and intake revisions by May 2012.

If allowed to, SPJIMR will implement the increased intake from the 2013-2015 academic year. “The students will be accommodated in the existing infrastructure itself, as the SP Jain’s contract with Schulich School of Business (Canada) expires this year. The resources freed up will be utilised for the increased PGDM batch size,” Dr Shrikant explained. The Schulich School of Business has announced plans of starting its own campus at Hyderabad starting 2013.

Meanwhile, the management institute has also applied to AICTE for inclusion of 15% foreign students in the PGDM programme as well. “We would like to include foreign students in our programme as we are aiming at the globalisation of the student body,” said Dr Shrikant.

SP Jain does not have any foreign students in its PGDM programme at the moment. “The presence of foreign students in the class brings in inter-cultural perspectives of different countries,” he said.

Last year, Goa Institute of Management (GIM) shifted to a new 50-acre campus located at the foothills of the Western Ghats at Sanquelim in north Goa. The entire project cost a whopping Rs 63 crore, according to director Peter FX D’Lima. He also said that for the incoming Post Graduate Programme (PGP) batch of 2012-14, GIM had hiked up the per term tuition fees by almost 120%, which will result in the total course fee going up from Rs 5.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh (all rounded-off numbers as quoted by the director).

The college follows a trimester system and the two-year course structure is divided into six terms, for which the tuition fee used to be Rs 45,500 for each term. Now, it has become Rs 1,00,000 per term, a more than double increase. The admission fee has been hiked from Rs 15,000 to 25,000 while the library and IT service fee per term is now Rs 12,000 instead of the earlier Rs 8,500.

According to the institute, the architecture is modern and conforms to the topography of the area. The academic buildings have air-conditioned halls with LCD projectors, including a classroom with facilities for interactive sessions with faculty who are at distant locations.

The hostel fee has also been hiked by a margin of Rs 500 rupees. The single occupancy room fee per term used to be Rs 9,000, which is Rs 9,500 now and double occupancy room fee became Rs 7,000 from Rs 6,500. The admission fee to the hostel has been raised from Rs 10,500 to Rs 12,ooo.

When PaGaLGuY asked current GIM students about their reaction to the hike, almost all of them thought that the fee hike was ‘reasonable’. According to Cedric Menezes, a second year PGP student, “Being a private non-profit organisation the fees is the only source of funds. It might change the good return on investment image of GIM initially, but with time will justify itself. It is one of the top emerging schools in India and funds are required to sustain this momentum,” he said.

The campus now also has coin-operated washing and drying launderette machines. All internal payments are made as cashless transactions using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) cards, which also enable students to mark their attendance and to have books issued from the library 24×7 without the support of a librarian. The school now has an outdoor football field and jogging track besides basketball, volleyball and tennis courts. Indoor facilities comprise badminton court, table tennis and gymnasium.

Even though it may appear that the fee hike is because of all the added facilities and infrastructure at the new campus, GIM director Peter FX D’Lima however attributes the hike to the current market price of an MBA. “It is because of the way the current market is. While fixing a price, one must also keep in mind the supply and demand of the product. When we started this project, we realised that our fees were lower than those of other competitor b-schools. Everyone had hiked their fee and we were lagging behind. The infrastructure part is only incidental. The infrastructure was improved just to offer the students more than the value of what they were paying,” he stresses.

Final year PGP student Hitesh Parwani says that it is tough for a student to shell out almost double the amount than what it was, but he also adds, ”I don’t think one should compare the current fee structure with what it was earlier. The last campus in Ribandar, near Panjim was really small, and this one is really huge and lavish. If you compared the area, facilities, activites, infrastructure between the two campuses, then the hike is justified.”