Q&A: Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School of Business

'We don't want to be seen as blacklisted'

As the Indian School of Business (ISB) at Hyderabad completes a decade of its existence ISB Dean Ajit Rangnekar, explains to Kalpana Pathak how B-schools in Singapore are a big challenge in terms of faculty recruitment and how it hurts to be blacklisted by the All India Council of Technical Education. Edited excerpts:

How was the past decade? What are your plans ahead?
We have reached a point where people are beginning to take us seriously and know that something is happening at ISB. In the coming years, we need to answers questions like what have we contributed to the society. We now need to address concerns in sectors like — food security, health care, water management and harvesting, low-cost housing and education for all — which have a big impact on our society,. I know the areas we could look at but how we would go about is something we still need to figure out.

Would ISB be partnering with international universities for these?
Yes. In health care we partnering with the University of Pennsylvania; in manufacturing we signed up with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. For issues in food security we would look at institute in Israel. We are exploring many more alliances.

How is your tieup with three other Asian B-schools doing?
ISB tied up with the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to attract more students from the US, Canada and Europe. However, we are very actively looking at the Asia-Pacific region too. At this moment we are looking at to creating a big network, work on pedagogy, and increasing research.

Are B-schools in Singapore giving you a tough time in faculty recruitment?
Yes. B-schools in Singapore are a big challenge. Salary is no longer the issue as people are looking beyond it. We still have challenges of what can we bring for their families. We recently lost a young couple to an institute in Singapore as they did not see much for their children in terms of the environment India could offer.

Has the issue with AICTE been resolved?
We need to have a look at the whole subject. We are in a limbo as far as AICTE is concerned. We are waiting for the new regulations to be in place. We don’t want to be seen as a blacklisted B-school. We don’t want to be an excuse for people who are following our model (a section 25 company) for profiteering. We have only asked for freedom with regard to our working style.

How do placements look this year?
Early indications are good. But am not predicting. Last year, prior to the Dubai crisis, we had over 150 confirmed offers from companies. But in two days of the crisis, the figure came down to zero offers. We are keeping our fingers crossed.