Nilesh's Weblog

"The MBA Mafia"

Inspite of all the current hype which was built around the IITs the reality is that the IIT graduates have not served the country's interests the way they were expected to, because, they were rare commodities in the Indian market for engineers. Most of them were available floating around freely in America or some rare ones in the Indian MBA market. The reality also is that IIT education has nothing to do with the IT revolution and success stories in the Silicon Valley. Agreed many of the people involved in top positions in Silicon Valley might be ex IITians but it is the knowledge they acquired over the last 20 - 30 years and the entire shift in focus that they under went in their career after leaving IIT that helped them reach where they are today. Even today the software part of education at IIT is not world class. In fact it is a pity that they tied up with a private education company to spread the IIT, Kharagpur and IIT, Delhi certified courses through a shady arrangement with them (by setting up something called CEP, a private body with a managing director inside the IIT Kharagpur campus and FITT, another private body with a managing director inside the IIT, Delhi campus) in an effort to confuse the students that they were getting something from IIT.

So you ask who is this person so jealous of the IITs? There's more --

Looking at things around I am forced to feel that this country today has a mafia operating in the field of MBA education. A group of people with vested interests who want to keep this simple common sense education limited only to a few so that their starting salaries can be artificially jacked up to anything between Rs. 6 lakhs and 10 lakhs per annum. If they are so good then why don't our public sector companies too employ them and revive instead of going on sale. Why don't  we produce 2000 MBAs in each of the IIMs with such phenomenal facilities, acres of land and huge buildings? It is not done so that companies get intimidated by the huge infrastructure, in which just about 150 to 200 students are made to feel in the ninth clouds, and get compelled to pay astronomical sums of money. These schools therefore create an artificial scarcity and capitalise on it. If the number of students are not artificially and unnecessary limited the salaries perhaps would come down to Rs. 1.2 lakhs per annum at the maximum which is their actual worth and with more better quality MBAs the growth rate of our country might break the 2% to 3% barrier which the current number of highly educated MBAs have been able to give the country.

And then you ask again, who is this so jealous of the IIMs? Given the latest events in the Indian blogosphere, you should be quickly able to guess. Yes, its our respected professor and economic 'guru' Arindam Chaudhuri on his off-track, hypocritic train of thoughts!  Its fine to have more management institutes around the country but throwing mud at the institutions that have made India famous for? Nah! And don't you talk about "phenomenal facilities"! And well, its not just coincidence that Rashmi & Gaurav are IIM graduates, is it? And does anyone need to explain who is the real MBA mafia here?!

For the benefit of those who are clueless about this online drama, here is a gist. A few months ago, Rashmi Bansal, the editor of JAM magazine did an expose on the shoddy practices of the IIPM. Gaurav Sabnis came out in support of Rashmi on his blog and put in his opinion. IIPM, instead of clarifying their side, launched a smear campaign against Rashmi. IIPM was not happy about Gaurav's personal post either and surprise, surprise, served legal notices to both Rashmi and Gaurav for defaming IIPM through their blogs! And then the whole thing just exploded in the Indian blogosphere. There was an outburst of angry emotions on all the Indian blogs I ever knew. Desipundit has it all listed. The current episode has ended with Gaurav voluntarily resigning from his company.

Hats-off to a smart, rational, fearless girl for exposing the facts. Hats-off to a guy who stands up for the truth, his freedom of speech and great concern for his employer. Given the same situation, how many of the rest of us would stand up for our principles?

For those who are still wanting to join IIPM because they rank in the top ten b-schools in India, keep in mind that they were booted out of the Outlook Top B-schools list for various reasons.