The placement salaries at India’s top business schools rose 30 per cent this year, providing the proverbial silver lining to a year that would otherwise be remembered for controversies over fees, quotas, and the business environment turning sour. Even if one looks at a larger group of B-schools, the placement salary has increased by an average of 20 per cent.

Also Read   News Now Paper Specials - Sensex makes remarkable recovery, regains 17K - S C Kalia takes over as Union Bank ED - PNB may acquire majority stake in Kazakh bank - Maoist hindering land acquisition for Tata steel project: Raman - Koda says he will report to ED only after Jharkhand polls More     Also Read   News Now Paper Specials - Defence offsets rise to Rs 8,000 crore - Govt may allow private sector investment in education - India Inc takes swap route to beat FCCB redemption blues - GVK eyes controlling stake in B'lore airport - Capex spending slows in Q2 More   Also Read   News Now Paper Specials   - Q3 FY09 Results: Earnings Season - Saving Satyam: Govt gets into action - India-Pakistan Tensions: Fallout of Mumbai Terror Attack - Your Money: Where to invest - Market Crash: Global worries weigh - Time Out: Books, fashion, food, travel, sports, health...  More

In 2007, a year in which the inflation figure had yet to become the finance minister’s Friday fear and crude oil was not hogging headlines, the placement salary spike was 10 per cent. What makes the jump this year even more impressive is that it does not take into account the offers from international companies, which typically dish out more than domestic recruiters.

This flame of optimism burns through this year’s All India Management Association’s Best B-school Survey 2008, in association with Business Standard and conducted by IMRB International every year. Its ninth edition appears in the latest issue of Indian Management, the AIMA journal published by Business Standard, just out on the news stands.

The graduates of the Super League, which has nine members this year, netted an average placement salary of Rs 13.29 lakh, up from Rs 10.1 lakh reported last year.

However, IIM Ahmedabad Director Sameer K Barua cautions that the real impact of the sub-prime crisis in the US could be seen during the next placement season. “Even in March this year, recruiters had not come to appreciate the far-reaching impact of the crisis.” The other reason for the salary spike, according to Barua, is that industry’s demand for high-quality managers continues to exceed supply.

The survey lays out a piquant account of the level of teaching, infrastructure and industry engagement as offered by the country’s B-schools. The results of the pedagogy appraisal, for instance, show that the faculty members worked harder than ever on the Class of 2006-08. The number of PhDs at the top-tier B-schools went up by 12 per cent. Likewise, the professors wrote a lot more for management journals of repute.
 

One of the reasons that kept the professors on their toes could be the increasing number of students with experience. More than half the graduates — 52 per cent — had work experience. The premier institutes, however, reported more fresh-faced students than schools down the order — a sign that an MBA is still approached more as a qualification than a learning experience in India.

Engineers dominated the rolls. A whopping 82 per cent of students at Super League schools had an engineering background. Commerce graduates, at 7 per cent, were a distant second.

The AIMA B-school survey does not rank institutes. It classified them into different groups according to their performance on parameters ranging from intellectual capital to industry interface.

It looks only at the 1,120 institutes recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education. This year’s survey covers 260 institutes from 23 states and 108 cities, of which 258 made the final cut.

Other Stories      - Sensex makes remarkable recovery, regains 17K - S C Kalia takes over as Union Bank ED - PNB may acquire majority stake in Kazakh bank - Maoist hindering land acquisition for Tata steel project: Raman - Koda says he will report to ED only after Jharkhand polls More

Read Business news in  Advertisements   Get financial advisory and solutions for your projects   Holidays starting at a delightful EMI of Rs 3481   Switch on and say hello to Monday morning !   Your dream home can now be a reality.   Visit Fortis for a preventive health check-up & get a 20% discount.   Follow the ups and downs of your investments. Try our new Portfolio Tracker   Kolkata Dock \ Freight contract for the British Gurkhas Nepal   Find how Midsize Businesses use ERP to gain competitive advantage   Trading in Forex is now as easy as 1-2-3   Discover an economical and cost effective way to market your products and services   Giftwithlove.com: Same day delivery of Flowers and Cakes to India   Download the E-book on the Future of Business Intelligence   Learn Best Practices for improving customer satisfaction   Know your customers better... download the free e-book on CRM