Indian B-schools attract foreign high commissions, embassies

In an attempt to find a solution to the global meltdown, foreign high commissions and embassies are increasingly seeking academic tie-ups with B-schools in India. The meltdown, say institutes, has resulted in a decline in the value of foreign economies while the Indian economy looks comparatively better, thereby attracting such agencies to look for collaborations.

“Thanks to the meltdown, India looks better than other economies and has has caught attention of the foreign high commissions and embassies to look for tie-ups. Moreover, some also think that there was a lot of emphasis on China in the past and there needs to be a balancing act to understand other emerging economies which can be done through such academic collaborations,” says Prem Chandrani, faculty member at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) who looks after international relations at the institute.

The agencies, according to Chandrani, have been looking for opportunities in terms of short term courses, student exchange programmes as well as international immersion programmes. For instance, recently, the French embassy got in touch with SPJIMR for student exchange programme in collaboration with the AIESEC University in France.

Requests have been pouring in from foreign universities through high commissions and embassies at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). “It's all based on requirements of the industry. Usually, we receive requests for sponsors or short term courses focusing on areas like CRM, IT-based programmes, marketing, tracking organisational performance and corporate strategy,” said Shikha Garg, manager - MDP at IIM-A.

Talking about other reasons for such increased involvement of high commissions and embassies, Chandrani said, “India is now becoming a important market and these agencies want their students to be exposed to these emerging economies so that by the time they get into the market, they would be familiar with Indian market conditions.”