Singhanias select Gurgaon for B-school

J K Education Foundation of the JK Group is the latest, among private players, to set up a Business school (B- school) of its own. With an investment to the tune of Rs 45 crore, the B-school that is coming up in Gurgaon, will induct its first batch next year.

The J K group already runs a B-School "" the J K Business School "" but it is in collaboration with Jambheshwar University, Hissar, which grants the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree. The upcoming institute will solely be run by the J K group independent of the J K Business School.

The school is expecting a strength of 120 in its first year and will move on to 300 in a span of two years.

As for the entrance, it will accept scores of Common Admission Test (CAT), Management Aptitude Test (MAT) and for NRI students it will also accept Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores.

It has also applied for approval from the regulatory body of technical education, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

"Our focus is to get maximum industry interface for our students. The curricula is planned such that a student will have to spend at least six months of the two-year period with industry," Reena Ramachandran, director general, J K Business School, who is also looking after the upcoming B-school, said.

The B- school has tied up with the Confederation of Indian Industry and local industries, for a project on CSR that students will have to do.

"The entire concept of CSR has changed. It is important for a management student to understand this aspect of a company. After the completion of the project the students will have to make recommendations to companies that they have worked with during the course of the project," Ramachandran added.

The upcoming B- school boasts of being the first 'green' B-school campus in India and is being developed with the expertise of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE).

"The campus with all the modern facilities, ensuring optimum utilisation of energy and water resources, includes appropriate use of building material, designing energy efficient building, water harvesting system and so on," Reena Ramachandran added.

It will initially run the Post- graduate diploma in Business management (PGDBM) programme and later, expand in specialised areas such as marketing, finance, IT, HR, international business (IB) and so on. Within a time frame of two years it is also looking at launching an executive MBA programme.

Companies already into full fledged management education include the Kirloskar group, Birlas and others. Recently, RPG Enterprises also announced their entry into mainstream management education. The RPG institute will come up in Kolkata by 2009.