December 07, 2025

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``Management education must move faster to stay relevant"

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) leads BT-MDRA's 26th annual ranking of India's Best B-Schools, reaffirming its status as the country's premier management institution. For its Director, Bharat Bhasker, the real story is the race to keep management education relevant amid tectonic shifts in technology and global business. Edited excerpts from an interview with BT: Q: How would you describe the state of management education in India? A: Our management education ecosystem is in good shape, but the changes that are happening are quite drastic in nature. Technologies like artificial intel- ligence (AI), blockchain, robotics and autonomous systems will significantly impact workplaces. Management education must immediately begin to echo what is happening in the actual workplace, because ultimately, you are creating leaders for the futureA key challenge is how quickly we can transform the current curriculum into a new one, which incorporates and reflects the changing reality. We must also prepare graduates for uncertainty in global trade practices and shifting supply chainsOur management schools must immediately accelerate adaptation. We are in good shape and are trying to keep pace with the changing technology over time, but the pace must be accelerated to remain relevantQ:The syllabus of IIMA has undergone a major transformation. What has changed? A: Our curriculum is designed to transform graduates into business leaders, reflecting industry realities. A major mechanism is the case study method, which mirrors real scenarios; adopting the latest cases brings industry reflection into the classroomMore importantly, technology often moves faster than industry adoption. We prepare our students to become business leaders who lead the industry in technology adoption and drive changeOver the past year, we have introduced technologyoriented courses, including AI in human resources, AIdriven fintech, and technology-driven global supply chain managementWe integrate these shifts, and our students are

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IT IS PERHAPS fitting that the two oldest IIMs, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta, have come up tops by claiming first and second ranks, respectively, in the BT-MDRA India's Best B-Schools Survey in which 270 business schools participated. It was a close call: the difference between the two schools was just 0.6 points. The others in the Top Five are IIM Lucknow, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research and IIM Indore. In fact, there has been just a small reshuffle in the top ten pack. Further, in the top ten, the majority--six--are government-owned IIMs, while the other four are privately-owned and managedThe ostensible lack of action at the top hides the varied undercurrents in India's B-school landscape captured by the BT-MDRA study. For one, B-school education continues to be in heavy demand as students look to encash its value as a ticket to a good corporate career. The average batch strength of top 100 B-schools rose from 1,076 in 2024 to 1,173 in 2025. "The demand for business education continues to grow steadily, and our numbers reflect this trend. For academic year 2025­26, 61,595 students applied to NMIMS, an increase from the previous year," says Papiya De, Program Chairperson, SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, MumbaiThat said, the challenges remain, with global uncertainty, including trade wars, and fast adoption of technology such as AI, making companies wary of hiring. "On the placement front, we are aligned with global and national trends. The job market has remained muted over the past year, and like many B-schools, we have observed com- panies reducing the number of internships offers. This is not a reflection on student quality but a broader hiring slowdown," says Papiya DeThe dip in placements is showing in salaries as well. The average salary at the Top 25 B-schools dipped from `23.12 lakh in 2023 to `22.7 lakh in 2025. Average salaries for graduates from the Top 25 B-schools have recorded the slowest growth (16%) in five years. This, along with a much larger fee increase, has lowered the return on investment of a B-school degree. The average course fee of Top 25 colleges rose from `18.78 lakh to `20.17 lakh. It has risen nearly 23% in the last five yearsIs this a blip? For some, yes. Despite the above challenges, McKinsey seems to be gung-ho about hiring India's B-school graduates; in the past three years, 77% of its hiring in India has been from leading B-schools. It has expanded the MBA summer hiring by 41% over the last two years. MBA graduates have long been an integral part of its talent pipeline. The firm says they bring in a wide variety of competencies: problem-solving acumen, leadership potential, and diverse professional experience along with analytical rigour, collaborative mindset, and global perspectiveGiven the challenges of a world in flux, what practices are B-schools adopting to thrive and make a mark? ONE MBA The demand for a good management education encouraged many B-schools such as NMIMS, IIMA, Great Lakes Institute and SP Jain to open multiple campuses. But they often struggle to tap the full synergies between them. The School of Management, NMIMS, is out to change that. It has made its flagship MBA programme into an integrated offering designed to give students across campuses a seamless experience. Its `One MBA' initiative is more than a shared syllabus. It is a structured system in which faculty members from every campus come together to jointly design, deliver, and evaluate the course. The initiative is anchored by the Mumbai campus, which hosts weekly faculty meetings and collaborative workshops where course plans, teaching approaches, evaluation methods, and even classroom experiences are aligned. As a result, not only is the curriculum common, but so are the