An Essential Report on India's Best B-Schools-2008.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c5d044/indias_best_bsch) has announced the addition of the "India's Best B-Schools-2008" report to their offering.

The world is in the throes of a slowdown. The subprime crisis in the US, runaway global crude oil prices and, in India, rising inflation have conspired to considerably dilute, if not wash away, the feel-good factor that was pervading the country till late last year.

This year's BT-Nielsen survey presents new entrants in the list of the Best B-schools in India.

XLRI, the new entrant in the Top 5 B-schools list in India with three new competitors in the rest of the list. Though the Top 5 B-schools have retained their positions, they have to share this honour with another iconic peer. Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur breaks into this august list this year -- at joint #5, up three places from its #8 rank last year.

Beyond the Top 5, there's a fair amount of churn in the rest of the list of Top 30 B-schools in India. FMS (Faculty of Management Studies) Delhi, which had slipped to #12 last year, from #8 the previous year, has clawed its way back among the Top 10 this year, and has clocked in at #9, while Narsee Monjee Institute of Management, which had climbed from #17 in 2006 to #10 last year, has fallen to #13. BIMTECH (Birla Institute of Management Technology) Delhi is another institute that has gained six places-to #15.

The quality of its management faculty, its case-study based approach to learning, that it can get Lalu Prasad Yadav as a guest lecturer O take your pick on what makes IIM-A the king of the B-school hill.

IIM-A has the largest repertoire of management case studies in the country (over 3,000), it notches ahead of its competitors in terms of student placements, provides probably the best environment for pursuing education, and has the most distinguished old boys' network is all well-chronicled and acknowledged. But another factor that sets IIM-A apart from the rest of the country's B-schools is its faculty.

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management: It may not have the profile of the IIMs as yet, but it ranks #4 in BT's B-school survey. And it's not an interloper; it has been ranked among the best Indian B-schools for several years now.

London's Financial Times recently ranked it among the Top 20 B-schools in the world-the only Indian B-school to earn that distinction. The Indian School of Business has established itself as one of India's top B-schools in a very short span of time.

IIM Shillong: It's the newest kid on the IIM block. The Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM)-S, which currently operates out of the Mayurbhanj Complex in Nongthymmai in uptown Shillong, will move to a new 120-acre campus in Mawdiangdiang, 20 km from the city centre, in about two years.

The Asia Graduate School of Business focuses on the business needs and practices of the Asian region. Most Global Corporations today look at the Asian region with great interest. To many of them, it is the Chinese dragon and the Indian elephant that will jointly drive future growth.

Many executives are using the shorter PGPX/PGPEX programmes at IIM-A and IIM-C as their stepping stones to life-changing mid-life career switches. Mid-career course corrections can be extremely rewarding. Companies are willing to pay a premium for PGPX/PGPEX students.

Organisations like ICICI Bank put management grads through rigorous internships. Managing competing and conflicting priorities can be learnt only in an internship of a few years and not during meaningless summer projects.

The Global Manager: For most managers, the first challenge in this global journey is to understand local cultural nuances and ensure relevant adaptability of approach.

Many new industries have stepped up hiring of management grads as they seek to 'professionalise'. Freshly-minted MBAs are lapping up these opportunities.

Quality MBA education in the country is hurtling towards a quagmire as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good teachers. But there's hope yet.

A B-school stamp may fast-track the climb to the top rung of the corporate hierarchy but it certainly isn't a short cut to the summit, as five top honchos point out. It isn't just a steady work schedule that sees corporate outperformers coming to the fore in their respective organisations -- innovation and initiative are what sets apart the flag-bearers from the battalion.

Key Topics Covered:

1 India's Best B-schools
2 Simply the Best
3 Up There, With the Best
4 Better Than the Best?
5 IIM Shillong: New Kid on the Block
6 A B-school Big on Asia
7 One-year Miracle
8 Dream Different, But Dream Big
9 Handling MBA Egos
10 The Global Manager
11 The MBA Entrepreneur
12 Hot New MBA Jobs
13 What Slowdown?
14 Where Are the Teachers?
15 Ladder to the Top
16 B-schools by the Numbers
17 How we ranked the B-Schools

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c5d044/indias_best_bsch