Mint - Best Colleges

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Top 30 governmentengineering colleges

Top 10mass communication colleges

Top 20medical colleges

Top 10fashion colleges

The global economy is struggling with recession and its impact is

obvious everywhere. Even in India, which has been spared the brunt

of the crisis that has only slowed the pace of its rapid economic

growth of recent years, many companies have put hiring on hold, cut

jobs, and slashed pay and bonuses as they attempt to ride out the

rough times.

One sector that’s still booming amid all the gloom is education,

driven by both established and newly proliferating institutions of

learning that promise to help young Indians realize their aspirations

and ambitions.

In this special issue ofMint, we bring you India’s Best Colleges,

based on the experience of students present and past, and their

teachers and recruiters. As in the past, our survey focuses partly on

the job fitness and performance of graduates, which remain key

concerns in a country where recruiters often complain that a

candidate who’s educated isn’t necessarily employable. The survey

also focuses onwhat recruiters are seeking andwhy, and how some

collegesmanage to attract the best and the brightest. Finally, the

institutes that are working best appear to be those that actively

engage students, from classroom theory and lab research tomusic

festivals and school friendships.

www.livemint.comE2WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2009

First published inFebruary 2007 toserve as anunbiased andclear-mindedchronicler of theIndianDream.

ISSUE EDITORAPARNAKALRA

MINT EDITORIALLEADERSHIP TEAM

R.SUKUMAR(EDITOR)

NIRANJANRAJADHYAKSHA(MANAGING EDITOR)

ANILPADMANABHAN

TAMALBANDYOPADHYAYMANASCHAKRAVARTYHARJEETAHLUWALIA

JOSEYPULIYENTHURUTHELELIZABETHEAPENVENKATESHABABUARCHNASHUKLA

©2009HTMediaLtdAllRightsReserved

I t’s an old curse: So muchgets said about the cryingneed to reform India’s

creaking education system butso little actually gets done.

So it is good to know thateducation policy is now in thehands of an able man withmodern sensibilities.

Kapil Sibal has alreadymade some encouragingstatements on the need to getthe education system backinto shape, a must for a coun-try that realistically hopes tobe an important global powerin the new century.

“There is a need to restruc-ture the set-up, decontrol and(get) rid of government con-trols,” the new human re-source development ministertold PTI on the sidelines ofthe 17th Commonwealth edu-cation ministers’ meet in Ma-laysia on 17 June.

This is the background ofhope against which Mintpresents its second ranking ofprofessional colleges, thetraining grounds for the nextgeneration of managers, engi-neers, lawyers, doctors, fash-

ion designers, journalists,chefs and such skilled work-ers. As was the case last year,this year too we have part-nered with the Centre forForecasting and Research(C-fore).

There is undoubtedly autilitarian objective in suchsurveys—to help companiesknow where the best pools oftalent lie. Hiring has beenslack in recent months be-cause of the sharp slowdownin the economy and prob-lems in individual compa-nies. But this rough patchwill pass and companies willhave to start looking out forfresh talent again. The Mintsurvey of colleges will be ahandy filter to have.

If some colleges have be-come better, there are alsocases of movements in the op-posite direction. One story wevisit in these pages is that ofthe Indian Institute of MassCommunication, New Delhi,which has lost some of itssheen and has slipped in ourrankings as well.

While there have been the

inevitable journeys up anddown the rankings ladder,there are some issues that alleducational institutes haveto battle.

One such issue is spottingand retaining good faculty.Announcing decisions to setup new engineering and busi-ness schools is one thing andfinding good teachers toguide students is another.Low salaries are one obviousproblem. But creating ateaching and research culturethat is not polluted by politicsis also something that needsto be done. Autonomy is onesolution.

There is more to our initia-tive than ranking the best pro-fessional colleges in India.Mint’s mission statement is tobe “an unbiased and clear-minded chronicler of the Indi-an dream”. Higher educationis an integral part of thatdream, both at the individualand national levels.

This special issue is, in thatsense, an important landmarkin our ongoing journey tochronicle changes in the Indi-

an education system: a closelook at the present, even aswe pay attention to the future.We at Mint believe that highereducation is perhaps the lastbastion of the licence-permitraj that throttled the economyfor many decades.

In a perverse way, the re-cent attacks on Indian stu-dents in Australia highlightthe mess that our own systemof higher education is in. Whywould thousands of young In-dians pay large sums of mon-ey to get a foreign degree ifthey have a good domestic ed-ucation system to learn skills?

Education is too importantto be left to political ideo-logues or turf-hungry bureau-crats. Even as the governmentshould continue to spendpublic money on education,the actual business of settingup and running educationalinstitutions should be openedto the private sector, foreigninvestment and autonomousinstitutions.

Sibal will hopefully be thecatalyst for many of theselong-overdue changes.

Opening up the education sector

The past few years haveseen a rapid proliferation

of colleges offering profes-sional degrees with the im-plicit promise of good jobs forgraduating students. As longas the world economy was infine fettle, the going lookedgood. But the global economywent into a tailspin last year,making jobs rarer and recruit-ers choosy.

In many colleges, place-ments have been below 50%.Institutes are now competingaggressively for recruiters andalso students. There arereports of many colleges notbeing able to get enoughstudents. This is primarily be-cause of a significant increasein seats for many professionalcourses. In engineering, forexample, the All India Coun-cil of Technical Education(AICTE) approved at least 200new colleges in the last oneyear. Now, there are close to2,000 engineering colleges inIndia, up from about 1,300four years ago.

The liberal grant of univer-sity status to many private in-stitutes has also given themfreedom to expand capacityeven if they don’t havematching physical or academ-ic infrastructure. This has leftmany lower-rung colleges un-able to fill their sanctionedquota of seats. According toAICTE officials, in AndhraPradesh, which has about 400engineering colleges, at least5,000 seats went vacant, thehighest for any state.

It’s a period of churn forprofessional colleges in India.Colleges need to wake up tothe competition from withinand abroad and improve theirteaching systems to survive.The major lacuna associatedwith professional educationin our country is a lack of ex-periential pedagogy, or learn-ing by doing. This is because

of a dearth of well-trainedfaculty and little interfacewith industry. I recently in-teracted with a civil engineer-ing graduate from one of thetop branded colleges. In hisfour years of college, notonce was he taken to a con-struction site.

This kind of teaching,which is based primarily ontheoretical inputs, is not suffi-cient to mould students. Asenior human resources exec-utive at a reputed informationtechnology firm told me thatthe company had to trainfresh recruits even from pre-mier institutes for at least sixmonths to make them fit forthe job. This is primarily be-cause students don’t gethands-on training.

For experiential learning-based pedagogy, or teachingmethod, it is essential to havea strong interface with indus-try. A supportive environmentfor faculty, which includes en-couragement to do research,is also important. Involve-ment in research is essentialfor faculty to have close inter-action with industry and re-main updated about new de-velopments in its area. This,in turn, will have a positiveimpact on the teaching-learn-ing process of the institute.

At the International Insti-tute of Information Technolo-gy, Hyderabad, for instance, itis mandatory for every facultymember to do research and itis mirrored not only in its re-search output, which is per-haps the highest in the coun-try, but also in the learningprocess of the students. Un-dergraduate students of thisinstitute are involved in thehighest number of researchprojects under way in thecountry and also get goodplacements. This modelshould be followed by insti-tutes that intend to excel.

A period of churn forprofessional colleges

Methodology for ranking professional colleges

For engineering andmedical colleges, a perceptual survey was conducted among thefaculty of different engineering andmedical colleges. The perceptual data was collected using a structured questionnaire which was given to faculty members andfinalyear students of various colleges. The respondents were asked to rate the institutes they were familiar with on a 10point scale against different parameters. Theywere also asked to assign a weightage to each parameter. The parameters used forevaluating engineering colleges andmedical schools are listed below. The weightagegiven to each parameter was derived by taking the average weightage that facultygave to each parameter. In all, 1,013 faculty members and 1,207 finalyear studentsfrom different colleges were interviewed. Similarly, for rankingmedical colleges, 225faculty members and 253 finalyear students were interviewed. Notmore than onefaculty member from each department was interviewed. The rating that the facultygave to its own institute was not considered. Institutes that were not evaluated byat least 20 faculty members and 20 students are not listed.

ParametersIntellectual capital: Competence of faculty, research output, publications in refereedjournals, number of patents

Pedagogic systems and processes: The effectiveness of various systems and processes, such as the teachinglearning process, curriculum upgrade and admissions, etc.

Industry interface: Live projects taken by students, the number of research projectswith industry undertaken by faculty

Placements: The number and type of companies visiting for campus interviews,maximum,median andminimumsalary offered for Indian and overseas jobs, the number ofstudentswhowent for higher education in reputed Indian and foreign institutes

Infrastructure and support systems: The campus area, the total number of computers, the number of books in a library, the number of faculty cabins to facultystrength ratio, the number of seminar halls, the number of engineering drawing halls,the number of workshops, the number of machines in workshops, the number of laboratories, the budget allocated for laboratories, residential facilities for students andfaculty, facilities such as playgrounds, gym, etc., and the responsiveness of administration to student needs.

For ranking institutes in law, hotel management, healthcaremanagement, fashiontechnology, mass communication andmedia, faculty members and professionals inthe respective industries were contacted. They were given a structured questionnaire and asked to rate the institutes they were familiar with on a 10point scaleagainst four broad parameters—intellectual capital, pedagogic systems and processes, placements, infrastructure and support systems. They were also asked to giveweightage to each parameter in terms of relative importance. In order to eliminatebias, the rating that the respondents gave to the institutes that they were working inor had graduated fromwas not considered. The average rating that each institute gotagainst different parameters was calculated. The average rating score wasmultipliedby the corresponding aggregate weightage. The sum total of the weighted averageswas used to arrive at a score for an institute andwas ranked accordingly.

Research organization Cfore conducted the survey for ranking professional colleges in India.

NIRANJANRAJADHYAKSHAManaging editor, Mint

PREMCHAND PALETYDirector, Cfore, andMint columnist

DesignManoj MadhavanRaajan

Editorial teamAbhishek PrabhatFeroze Ahmed JamalChanpreet Khurana

GraphicsAhmed Raza Khan

DataC-fore

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For more profiles and detailedrankings of professionalcolleges, log on towww.livemint.com/bestcolleges

INDIA’S BEST COLLEGES

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2009E3www.livemint.com

30Government engineering collegesOur greatest strength is our faculty... It’s an egalitarian place,

so you could join as an assistant professor, but each is as independent as the next.“”

Research, startups findencouragement at IITB

BY GOURI SHAH

[email protected]······························MUMBAI

In August 2007, two engineer-ing students of the Indian In-stitute of Technology, Bom-

bay, or IIT-B, walked up to theirprofessor and dropped whatmost would consider a bomb-shell. “We want to build a satel-lite,” they said.

While an average professormight have been taken aback, atIIT-B, the proposal by SaptarshiBandopadhyay and ShashankTamaskar, third-year students ofthe aerospace department, aged21 and 22, respectively, at thetime, was dealt with like any oth-er project request.

“He asked us to do our home-work and come back,” says Tama-skar. “What was important wasthat he didn’t discourage us.”

Months of work, research andconsultations later, the now50-member team of students is

well on its way to building the in-stitute’s first student satellite,Pratham, and signing a prelimi-nary agreement with the IndianSpace Research Organisation toprovide them with funds to thetune of Rs1.5 crore.

“All kinds of exploration, aca-demic or extra-curricular, is en-couraged,” says Rohit Manchan-da, faculty member and authorof Monastery, Sanctuary, Labora-tory: 50 years of IIT Bombay. Headds that the liberal attitude andencouragement offered to stu-dents is one area where “IITBombay might steal a marchover the others”.

Known for its illustrious facultyand alumni, lavish cultural festi-vals and a smattering of SiliconValley-funded start-ups, IIT-Bhas long been considered themost glamorous of the IITs. Formany years now, it has attractedsome of the best students, facultyand recruiters. At least 50% of thestudents in the top 100 list in the

high-stakes Joint Entrance Exam(JEE) usually pick IIT-B, addingto its stature as a Mecca for as-piring engineers.

IIT-B didn’t start off with thisadvantage, explains Man-chanda. At its inceptionin 1958, it was set upwith financial aidfrom the then Sovi-et Union throughthe United Na-tions Educational,Scientific and Cul-tural Organization,or Unesco.

“In the early years, themost sought after, liberal, for-ward-looking IIT would havebeen IIT Kanpur, which thrivedunder the charge of its first direc-tor, professor (P.K.) Kelkar, con-sidered an academic visionary bymany, and a more modern andstate-of-the-art set-up, funded bythe US,” says Manchanda. IIT-Kwas robbed of its advantage in thelate 1970s as Uttar Pradesh be-

came a hotbed of politics.Mumbai, which by then had

developed into a financially vi-brant city, offered IIT-B the op-portunity to evolve. “The auraand ethos of the city, of the time,

also spilled into the insti-tute, making it one of

the most democraticand least hierarchicalinstitutes of the lot,”says Manchanda.Compared with the

other IITs, IIT-B isconsidered less rigid

and hierarchical, and hasthe widest mix of faculty

from all over the country.“Our greatest strength is our

faculty,” says Devang Khakhar,who took over as IIT-B directorearly this year. “It’s an egalitarianplace, so you could join as an as-sistant professor, but each is asindependent as the next.”

If anything needs to be doneon campus, committees areformed and the opinion and ex-

perience of several people is re-lied upon to reach a consensus.The committees could look intoeverything from a change in thecurriculum to ensuring that cer-tain campus residents, such asstray cattle, do not venture intoclass. Unfortunately, the “cattlecommittee” hasn’t been able tosort that one out yet.

While the infrastructure and ac-ademic excellence at all the IITs,endowed with the status of “insti-tutes of national importance”through an Act of Parliament, isfairly uniform, there are somethings that set the 51-year-old in-stitute apart: its liberal, egalitarianway of functioning; research facil-ities; mammoth cultural and tech-nical events; geographical loca-tion—it is located in the country’sfinancial capital, nestled betweentwo lakes, and with a nationalpark in its backyard—and, amongother things, a willingness to em-brace change that could benefitstudents and industry.

“It’s more forward-looking andliberal than most other insti-tutes,” says Khakhar. For in-stance, the institute changed thecurriculum for the undergradu-ate programme in 2007. Underthe new system, students canchoose to do a minor in a subjectof their choice or take an hon-ours course in their own subject,in addition to their main degree.

So instead of cramming 25-30courses under one discipline,they now have the option to study20 compulsory courses and takeup to eight courses from anotherdiscipline. A minor is awarded onthe completion of five coursesunder this option. Should a stu-dent wish to take up specializedcourses in his own department,he will be awarded honours alongwith the main degree. So, a stu-dent of mechanical engineeringcould graduate with a degree inmechanical engineering and aminor in math, or an honours inmechanical engineering.

“This flexibility in curriculumleads to some excitement, ratherthan having something forced

TURN TO PAGE E4®Creative licence: Students on the IIT Bombay campus. The school encourages entrepreneurship through organizations such as the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, or SINE.

ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT



down your throat,” says VaibhavDevanathan, 22, general secretaryfor academic affairs, and a dual-degree programme student. “Thiscould also help you in the jobmarket, it’s a huge differentiator.”

No surprise then that at the re-cently concluded post-JEE coun-selling session, a large number ofnew students made enquiriesabout the curriculum, says A.K.Pani, chairman, JEE-2009, IIT-B.

But some queries raised at thesession are of concern: Whichdepartment is best for crackingCAT (the Common AdmissionTest for the Indian Institutes ofManagement, or IIMs)? Which isthe best course for higher educa-tion and, more importantly, agood pay packet? Both questions

® FROM PAGE E3 indicate that IIT-B is seen as ameans to an end: a seat in theIIMs or a good salary.

IIT-B’s location in Mumbaimakes it the first port of call forrecruiters, considering many ofthe industries that hire engineers,such as telecom, finance, consult-ing, automobiles and processmanufacturing, are based here.The location and easy accessibili-ty make it a popular choice forguest lecturers as well, especiallythose who may be passingthrough India, and for faculty.

“Beyond the natural locationaladvantage of being in the indus-trial and commercial capital, an-other aspect that sets IIT-B apartis the fact that it has strong in-dustry linkages,” says RanganBanerjee, a professor in the de-partment of energy science andengineering. For instance, Baner-jee and his colleague K.J. Nayakare setting up a solar thermalpower station that is funded by aconsortium of industry players,including Tata Power Co. Ltd.

IIT-B also has adjunct facultyfrom industry, making up ap-proximately 10% of the institute’s470-strong faculty. “This is ex-tremely helpful as students get toknow of current industry practic-es,” says Khakhar.

This year, the institute willlaunch a customized postgradu-ate programme in technology foremployees of auto parts makerBharat Forge Ltd. Designed byIIT-B faculty in consultation withscientists and engineers from thecompany, the two-year coursewill meet the need for engineer-ing talent within the companyand encourage efficiency in proc-esses, innovation and productdevelopment.

IIT-B’s superior research anddevelopment facilities also tend tobe a big draw for faculty as well asstudents—at least 80% of the fac-ulty is involved in research. It isone of the few institutes in theworld to house state-of-the-art re-

search facilities related to nano-electronics, electronic devices thatare so small they function at amolecular level. The institute re-ceived in excess of Rs107 crorebetween April 2007 and Decem-ber 2008 for sponsored research.

Of all the creatures that trawlthe IIT campus in Mumbai—leopards and crocodiles from thenearby national park and cattleincluded—one expects most of-ten to find the archetypal nerd,the kind who spends every wak-ing moment poring over booksand research papers.

Jaideep Bansal, 21, and SauravAgarwal, 20, hardly fit the de-scription, though: They don’t cutclass, but notes are usually pho-tocopied from the anointed note-taker in class. They’re fairly hap-py to maintain above-averagescores, while pursuing other in-terests. “You can’t be one-dimen-sional all your life,” says Agarwal,guitarist and back-up vocalist for7 Spokes, a rock band that wasformed on campus. “When com-panies come to campus, theyalso want bright, well-roundedpersonalities who can also go onto represent them, not just geeksand nerds,” he adds.

Bansal, the drummer of theband, who has lived “all over In-dia” thanks to his father’s post-ings in the army, picked IIT-B be-cause he had “never been here”.Now, as part of a band that islooking to go professional, andmarketing head for IIT BombayRacing—a student group that hasbuilt its own racing car and an all-terrain vehicle—Bansal is happyjuggling various interests. “IITBombay throws opportunities atyou, it’s up to you to grab them.”

The cultural scene on campusalso tends to encourage studentsto do more than just study.Mood Indigo, one of the biggestcultural student festivals in India,manages sponsorships worth Rs1crore now. Beyond this, the insti-tute has at least 70 other cultural

programmes through the year,including an inter-hostel festivalcalled the Performing Arts Festi-val (PAF), where students are re-sponsible for everything fromlive acts and production to build-ing sets and design.

Last year, a PAF productionfeaturing a replica of the GoldenTemple in Amritsar required theactor to jump off the structureinto a pond, all of which was cre-ated by the students. Accordingto popular campus folklore, Nan-dan Nilekani, IIT-B alumnus andchief executive and managing di-rector of software services firmInfosys Technologies Ltd, has of-ten attributed his leadership andmanagement skills to his experi-ence in organizing Mood Indigo.

There is lobbying for a reduc-tion in cultural activities, out ofconcern that students today donot have the academic drive oftheir predecessors, who were pas-sionate about extra-curricular ac-tivities but also managed to main-tain a firm focus on academics.

“There is some concern…sosome of the events will have to beput on the chopping block thisyear,” says Rahul Gaur, generalsecretary for cultural affairs.

Another thing IIT-B has cometo be known for is its entrepre-neurial set-up. Over the last fewyears, SINE—the Society for In-novation and Entrepreneur-ship— has earned a name for it-self as one of the top incubatorsin the country. It has now takenon the task of helping other insti-tutes set up their own incubators.Unlike its counterparts at IIT Ma-dras or the IIMs in Bangalore andAhmedabad, SINE is not open tooutsiders but is aimed at IIT-Bgraduates, alumni and faculty.

The institute wants to helpcommercialize research and turnprojects into businesses. SINE isrun as a not-for-profit organizationchaired by the director of IIT-B,and its board comprises an equalnumber of faculty and industry

members, including venture capi-tal fund Seedfund managing part-ner Pravin Gandhi and Mastek Ltdchairman Ashank Desai.

The 32 companies incubatedwere started by faculty, formerstudents or a combination ofboth. A majority of the facultymembers hold doctorate degreesand specialize in one aspect oftheir discipline. Here, they canfurther their research and eventurn it into a business.

Take the case of start-up Se-demac Mechatronics Pvt. Ltd,which developed an electroniccontrol unit for fuel injection insmaller engines, to be used intwo- or three-wheeler vehicles.The new product promises to re-duce fuel consumption by10-15% and cut emissions by upto 70%. The company recently re-ceived seed funding of $500,000(around Rs2.4 crore) from NexusIndia Capital, a Mumbai-basedventure capital fund.

“The Indian market is notready to absorb semi-provenwork, neither are business hous-es. So, it made sense to gothrough SINE and see theproject to its logical end by cre-ating a viable company withpaying customers,” saysShashikant Suryanarayanan,founder and director, SedemacMechatronics, who founded theteam with three students.

While the institute is well on itsway to improving research anddevelopment facilities, some ofthe key challenges it faces are thesame that technical institutesacross the country face. “Thechallenge for us is to attract out-standing faculty,” says Khakhar.

The ratio of faculty to studentsis 1:13 at IIT-B, compared withthe 1:10 mandated ratio. Amongthe other key challenges facingthe institute is building addi-tional infrastructure to copewith the 54% increase in studentcapacity owing to caste-basedreservation policies.

Allrounders: Saurav Agarwal(left) and Jaideep Bansal.Agarwal, 20, is the guitaristand backup vocalist for 7Spokes, a rock band. Bansal.21, is the band’s drummer.

ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT





30Private engineering collegesPeople here never look at only jobs. A job is assured as far as PSG is concerned. They look for highprofile

companies. Students look at jobs from three parameters—profile matching, brand and pay.“”

BY V IDHYA

S IVARAMAKRISHNAN

[email protected]·························COIMBATORE

This college began with astory.Industrialist P.S. Govin-

daswamy Naidu had foursons, but while bequeathinghis wealth to the next genera-tion, he divided it into fiveparts instead of four. The fifthpart, he said, was for “thisbrother”, a reference to thetrust that manages PSG Col-lege of Technology—so goesthe college legend.

The founder principal alsowas prescient in the choice oflocation for the college, some-thing that has helped contrib-ute to its success to this day.PSG College of Technology, set

up in 1951 by PSG and Sons’Charities Trust, is on the samecampus in Coimbatore as PSGIndustrial Institute, whichmakes pumps and motors.

“The industrial institute is abig strength in our college,”says R. Rajkumar, 20, a studentwho will graduate next year inmechanical engineering.

“It is a rare combinationanywhere in India where anengineering college and acompany coexist in the samecampus. The company ismanufacturing pumps, motorsand machine tools. The stu-dents can walk over any timeand see the manufacturingprocesses,” says the currentprincipal of the college, R.Rudramoorthy.

The presence of the manu-facturing facility on the cam-

pus enables the college to of-fer what are called sandwichcourses, combining classes intheory with hands-on training.

The five-year bachelor ofengineering programmesare offered in me-chanical, electricaland electronics,and productionengineering. Inthese courses,students gettrained in the fac-tory for a fewhours and attendclass during the secondhalf of the day.

“I came to the college forthe sandwich course becauseno other college offers acourse along with industrialtraining. This gives morescope for getting a better

job,” says Afrose Kamal, 22,who will graduate next yearin electrical and electronicsengineering.

Kamal has converted a con-ventional Luna moped into an

electric bike, without theuse of an engine, by

connecting thewheels to a motorusing a belt. Hesays a senior train-ing manager at the

industrial unithelped the team of

students who did this.The college also has re-

lationships with variousmanufacturers that enabletwo-way learning betweenthe college and the compa-nies in terms of training andknow-how.

“We have people from in-

PSG College’s USP: anindustrial unit on campus

dustries coming and settingup the laboratories,” says P.V.Mohanram, head of the me-chanical department. Set upin 1956, it is one of the col-lege’s oldest departments.“We have people like Festo ofBangalore, we have peoplelike Rane of Chennai, and wehave (the) Ashok Leyland peo-ple—they have set up theirown laboratories in the de-partment. So, what happens isall the state-of-the-art equip-ment which they are produc-ing as well as what is beingdoled out in the market aremade available to us.”

Publicly listed Rane Hold-ings Ltd is the parent of thecompany that supplies autoparts to makers of passengercars and tractors, among oth-er industries. Festo ControlsPvt. Ltd makes pneumaticproducts, machines that workon compressed air. AshokLeyland Ltd is India’s secondbiggest maker of trucks.

The college operates on aunique public-private part-nership model in which thestate government providesaid to most of the courses of-fered in terms of salary pay-ments to faculty and otherstaff while the building andinfrastructure are financed bythe management of the pri-vate trust.

Money from two profit-making companies—PSG In-dustrial Institute and PSGFoundry, the latter a few kilo-metres from the college—aswell as the surplus from tui-tion fees become part of thetrust’s funds.

The management consistsof four principal trustees whoare members of Govindas-wamy’s family (one from thefamily tree of each son ofGovindaswamy) and othersappointed by the principaltrustees for a five-year term.

“All the trustees work with-out salary from the beginning.They have to come on their

TURN TO PAGE E7®

BABU PONNAPAN/MINT


Partners in progress: The college operates as a publicprivate partnership, with a charitable trust funding the infrastructure, while the government pays the faculty and staff salaries.


own, serve and then go; eventransport—nothing will bepaid,” says Rudramoorthy.“…They (the trust members)give full freedom to the headsof institutions to see that thereis growth. They never interferewith the academic freedom ofthe institution. Their job is onlyto provide the infrastructure fa-cilities and maintain the finan-cial requirements. How wehave to run the institution isdecided by the academic facul-ty led by me.”

The on-campus job place-ment record of the college isyet another magnet for aspir-ing engineers. Though com-panies have hired conserva-tively this year, at least 90%of PSG’s undergraduate stu-

® FROM PAGE E6 dents in most departmentshave secured jobs, witharound 60% of the offerscoming from the informationtechnology industry.

R. Anathakrishnan and S.Sundhar, both final-year engi-neering students, utter theword almost simultaneouslywhen asked about what attract-ed them to PSG—“Placements!”

“People here never look atonly jobs. A job is assured asfar as PSG is concerned. Theylook for high-profile compa-nies. Students look at jobsfrom three parameters—pro-file matching, brand and pay,”says R. Nadarajan, dean ofplacement and training.

Despite the good hiring sea-son, students say the decliningquality of faculty members andinfrastructure are concerns

that need urgent attention.“The new faculty members

joining our college do notteach very well. They pass outof their courses and join hereas lecturers,” says a second-year student who did not wantto be identified either by her

name or her course.Rudramoorthy is upbeat

about the future, and says hewants the institution to even-tually compete with the eliteIndian Institutes of Technolo-gy (IITs). “We always thinkwe should overtake the IITs.

It is a desire of every princi-pal to see that my institutionat least scores much betterthan IIT in (at least) one as-pect and we did it in indus-try-institution interac-tion—because of the supportof the management.”

New challenge: Some students sayteaching standards are falling.

BABU PONNAPAN/MINT



dio, a printing press, a photolab, one of Asia’s biggest masscommunications libraries, anddistinguished alumni. It alsoruns a community radio calledApna Radio, which gives stu-dents the opportunity to workon live projects.

“IIMC is one institutionwhere there is a heavy empha-sis on hands-on practicaltraining,” says S. Raghavach-ari, professor of broadcastjournalism at the institute.

NDTV anchorperson and re-porter Nidhi Razdan, who wasa student of the second radio-TV journalism batch in 1998,sums up why the institute at-tracts hundreds of studentsevery year, “The name carriesa lot of weight in the industry.”

But IIMC has had its shareof problems.

“I have never seen the clockturning back. The institute hasprogressed, but it’s not in itsfull-fledged glory now,” saysUpadhyay of Aaj Samaj.

Vacant faculty positions, apoor teacher-student ratio andgrowing competition from oth-er schools have taken some ofthe sheen off this premier in-stitute.

With 14 faculty members,IIMC offers a teacher-studentratio of 1:20. To reach a 1:10ratio, offered by most IndianInstitutes of Technology, IIMCwill need to hire 14 moreteachers. Its Dhenkanal branchhas just one full-time teacherfor 76 students.

“There was a lot of guest fac-ulty... Since they were not in-house faculty, the (teacher-stu-dent) interaction was limited,”says Anirudh Pahwa, whograduated from the advertisingand public relations coursethis year.

® FROM PAGE E8 “Most faculty members arein self-denial mode about (the)current situation at IIMC. Weare in a make-believe worldthat we are on (the) top,” saysa faculty member who did notwant to be identified.

In the past, eminent personshave held the reins of the insti-tute, such as media adviser toIndira Gandhi H.Y. SharadaPrasad, former chairman of theEditors Guild M.V. Desai andUnesco communications ex-pert Lakshman Rao. Yet forthree years, the institute hasnot had a full-time director.

Stuti Kacker, joint secretaryin the information and broad-casting ministry, who is alsoholding the charge of IIMCchairman for the time being,says: “We have gone throughthe process twice in the lastthree years. But suitable candi-dates have not joined becauseof various reasons.”

The first time the process toappoint a director was con-ducted, it was dissolved by theinformation and broadcastingminister, as there was a possi-bility of framing the rules to fitparticular candidates. The sec-ond time, the selection com-mittee chose Uma KantMishra, a senior Indian Infor-mation Service officer, who didnot join. Mishra declined com-ment on the reasons for his de-cision.

Star News’ Deepak Chaura-sia, a 1991-92 alumnus, finds itsurprising that it is taking solong to find a qualified personto head a premier institutesuch as IIMC.

“There are so many qualifiedpeople in the field of journal-ism and also apart from it,”says Chaurasia.

It is a fact that recruiters arealso taking note of.

A senior journalist at one

news channel, who did notwant to be identified, ratedthe institute lower than be-fore. “The moment you don’thave a proper head, there willbe problems. And to add tothat, things in other instituteshave improved.”

Officials in the informationand broadcasting ministry saya selection committee will re-view candidates on 26 June,and a director will be appoint-ed soon after.

Despite these problems,however, IIMC has succeededin placing at least 70% of thestudents of the 2008-09 batch.

“Even in a recession, most ofmy batchmates have beenplaced. It speaks volumesabout the institute,” says An-shul Baijal, a student of radioand TV journalism.

“We are still attracting (the)best students who dream of acareer in journalism. We are apublic sector institution, notdriven by (the) profit motive.Other institutes are chargingexorbitant amount of fee incomparison to IIMC,” saysAnand Pradhan, associate pro-fessor, Hindi journalism, IIMC.

The course fee for the printjournalism course in English atIIMC is Rs34,000, againstRs2-2.5 lakh charged by pri-vate colleges.

Perhaps that is its unique

selling proposition.Himanshu Shekhar, 24, of

Aurangabad in Bihar, left hisjob to pursue a journalism pro-gramme at IIMC. “I don’t re-gret my decision. IIMC was thebest option for journalism.”

Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN news chan-nel, counts IIMC among theinstitutes where a media or-ganization should hunt for tal-ent. “We have had very goodproducts from IIMC,” he says.

Meanwhile, plans are afootto upgrade IIMC into an inter-national media university inthe 11th Plan (2007-12). IIMCwould then be able to offerboth postgraduate and doctor-al programmes.

Former director Yadav, how-ever, advises caution. “IIMChas the potential (to be a uni-versity). But it is important toaddress the issues facing theinstitute urgently, before ittakes the next big leap.”

HARIKRISHNA KATRAGADDA/MINT

Fully equipped: Students at the library on IIMC’s Delhi campus. Theschool is home to one of Asia’s biggest mass communications libraries.



20Medical collegesIf youwork in a rural area...you have to be able to handle a range of problems, you have to be

clinically confident and you have to work within the investigations and facilities available there.“”

Missionary vision givesCMC Vellore its advantage

BY VIDHYA

SIVARAMAKRISHNAN

[email protected]························VELLORE

A t the Christian MedicalCollege (CMC) in Vel-lore, Tamil Nadu, a ru-

ral stint after graduation isn’tan option that can be brush-ed aside. Two-year service inthe villages is mandatory, andstudents have to sign up for itbefore they can join the insti-tution. They also have toserve at hospitals in remoteareas during their first three

years in the college.Anand Zachariah, vice-

principal for undergraduatemedical education at CMC,says this kind of exposure“sensitizes students to the lo-cal problems”. The hospitalsserve as a huge “training re-source” for students.

This kind of training is pos-sible because of CMC’sunique structure. The collegehas a relationship with 225Christian mission hospitals,all in remote and rural areas.

This network, the studentssay, gives them the kind of

training no other medicalschool can offer.

“I think the level of exposurehere…is not somethingthat other colleges cancompete with,” saysSrujan Sharma, 22,an undergraduatestudent at CMCfrom Hyderabad.“We are sent tohospitals aroundthe country...missionhospitals where we actu-ally see grass-roots medicinebeing practised. This is notsomething that I have heard of

in other colleges.”CMC’s admission system

reflects the school’s relation-ship with the church. The

college admits only60 students a yearfor its undergrad-

uate programme;it boasts a stu-dent-teacher ra-

tio of 12:1. Of the60 seats, 50 are re-

served for Christianminorities; and of the

remaining seats, two are re-served for the ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribe

categories, and one is re-served for a governmentnominee.

The Christian Medical Col-lege Vellore Association, aregistered society formed by60 churches across the coun-try, manages the medicalschool and the hospital asso-ciated with it.

The churches nominate eli-gible students for training.The students, in turn, sign alegal document promisingtwo years of rural work aftergraduation.

Students in the open cate-gory were earlier excludedfrom the mandatory two-yearrural service, but they toohave to agree to the stint now.

“If you work in a rural area,you have to be multi-compe-tent; you can’t just be a spe-cialist... you have to be ableto handle a range of prob-lems, you have to be clinical-ly confident and you have towork within the investiga-tions and facilities availablethere,” says Zachariah.

Around 70% of CMC’salumni are working in India,80% of them in remote areas,according to statistics provid-ed by the school.

One of the most strikingfeatures of this medicalschool, 7km from the heart ofVellore, is the low tuition fee.Each student pays aroundRs3,000 a year. A part of thehospital’s income is also di-verted to the school.

The hospital also subsidiz-es treatment, charging thepoor 50% of actual expenses

Of its total income ofRs252.71 crore in 2007-08,Rs49.88 crore went towardstreatment subsidies for thepoor and Rs26.85 crore to-wards education subsi-dies—an average of Rs4.68lakh per student.

George Mathew, CMC’s

TURN TO PAGE E11®Fair treatment: Around 70% of the alumni of Christian Medical College, Vellore, are working in India, 80% of them in remote areas, according to the school’s statistics.

BABU PONNAPAN/MINT



principal, says the school’svalues come from Ida SophiaScudder, an American mis-sionary and doctor who,moved by a lack of medicalfacilities for women in Vel-lore a century ago, decidedto set up a hospital-cum-medical training institute.

Scudder was in India totake care of her ailing moth-er—her parents were Chris-tian missionaries. During herstay, she was witness towomen dying during child-birth owing to a lack of medi-cal attention. The local cul-ture barred male doc-tors—including Scudder’s fa-ther—from attending topregnant women. This in-spired her to study medicinein the US and return to Vel-lore, where she set up asingle-bed clinic.

Until the 1950s, CMC wasclosely associated with for-eign churches and voluntaryagencies that contributedfunds. Then, the institutionwas transferred into thehands of Indian churchesand voluntary bodies.

“From then on, the attempthas been to be self-sustainingbecause we knew that externalfund source(s) would becomeless and less. Now, we are fullyself-sustaining,” says Mathew.

In an era when medicalcosts can sometimes be exor-bitant, CMC manages to pro-vide subsidized healthcare toa significant percentage of itspatients. Mathew attributesthis to four factors: a largenumber of patients, cost-cut-ting, no unnecessary medicalinvestigations and modestsalaries for staff.

The students say the facultyis always accessible. “We geta lot of attention (from thefaculty members),” says Na-lini Newbigging, a 19-year-old student.

“The teachers live on cam-pus, so we can interact withthem any time we want to,”says another student, AnnaPaul, also 19.

It’s the “foster family” con-cept at work. Each facultymember takes care of two-three undergraduate studentsand the student becomes a

® FROM PAGE E10

“foster child” of that facultymember.

“Each one of us in everybatch...we are actually takencare of by the staff like we aretheir own children,” saysAleena Jana, who will gradu-ate next year.

Many of the faculty areformer CMC students them-selves. John Jude, associateprofessor in the departmentof microbiology, decided tostay back at CMC after hispostgraduation because ofthe “work ethos”.

“There were no vacancieswhen I passed out in 1999,but (I) came back in 2004.There is job satisfaction here.What we take for grantedhere are considered greatoutside; what we considerroutine and normal here isvery difficult to get downelsewhere. I can say this be-cause I have worked in otherplaces as well,” he says.



10Healthcaremanagement collegesThe basic approach of teaching in TISS is through social work.

That’s how it was envisioned and that’s how it has evolved.“”At TISS, social work

is business as usualthen retain them. You know any-body? I’ll hire,” says Yesudian.

Alumni who have come backto teach say TISS programmesare different from the coursestaught elsewhere. “When I stepinto the class, I tell the students,let’s learn together,” says P.M.Bhujang, medical director ofMumbai’s Sir Hurkisondas Nur-rotumdas Hospital and ResearchCentre and a 1985-86 alumnuswho teaches quality, financialmanagement and medico-legalsubjects at TISS.

“The basic approach of teachingin TISS is through social work.That’s how it was envisioned andthat’s how it has evolved,” says R.V.Karanjekar, an associate vice-pres-ident at Wockhardt Hospitals.“Others started as business man-agement courses.”

The placement of TISS’ post-graduate health and hospital ad-ministration students is variedenough to qualify for a salad bowl.

The institute has placed stu-dents in top hospitals such as theHinduja Hospital in Mumbai andGlobal Hospitals and LV PrasadEye Hospital in Hyderabad, in gov-ernment-run programmes such asthe National Rural Health Mission,in non-profit agencies such as theNational AIDS Control Organiza-tion, and in the corporate sector,such as ICICI Lombard General In-surance Co. Ltd.

Asked if Wockhardt Hospitalshires students from TISS’ School ofHealth Systems Studies, Karan-jekar says, “On priority... They areespecially adept at project financeand problem handling.”

Detractors say TISS studentsprefer working in big hospitals inmetropolitan cities rather than inthe grime of rural areas.

Nachiket Sule, a 24-year-old ho-moeopathic doctor who will earnhis degree in health administrationfrom TISS next year, says he would,in fact, like to work for a non-profitin the countryside, if only as a step-ping stone.

“I would like to work for an NGO(non-governmental organization)that is deep in the rural interiorsand focusing on HIV/AIDS and tu-berculosis,” says Sule. “This will getme closer to working with an or-ganization such as WHO (WorldHealth Organization).”

management in a hospital or ahealthcare initiative.

And in 2008, TISS started a mas-ter’s course in public health withan enhanced research orientation.

From 150 applicants in 1993, thenumber of applicants for the post-graduation courses has gone up toabout 2,500.

A written exam and interviewlater, 50 successful aspir-

ants will gain a seat inthe hospital adminis-

tration course, 40 inthe health adminis-tration course and20 in the new publichealth course.

The heavy studentinflow has not made

the dean happy.“In 1993, we had 15 (stu-

dents) in one course and 10 in an-other. I’m not happy about this(year’s batch size). The course isnot interactive then,” says Yesudi-an, arms crossed over his chest,shaking his head.

One likely reason for this dis-pleasure could be the institute’sstruggle to find faculty. Its Schoolfor Health Systems Studies has a12-member faculty and an equalnumber of guest teachers, butneeds six more.

“It is very difficult to find peoplewho can fit the vacant slots and

Graduate School of Social Workwith 20 students. For the next fourdecades, it focused on social workstudies and research.

“The institute was established in1936 and till 1980, no new pro-gramme was included,” saysC.A.K. Yesudian, dean of theSchool of Health Systems Studiesand a TISS veteran. “That’s whywhen the hospital admin-istration course (the in-stitute’s first manage-ment course) wasoffered, there was alot of opposition.”

“Why get intomanagerial are-as?” he reminiscesabout what thecourse pioneers weretold internally then. “Wedidn’t get classrooms, so wewaited till 6pm for other classesto finish.”

When TISS started its hospitaladministration course, not manyin the country knew about healtheconomics, financing or network-ing with non-profits.

By 1993, the certificate pro-grammes in hospital administra-tion and healthcare administra-tion had evolved into postgradu-ation degree programmes thattaught students financial, mar-keting, quality and material

BY BHUMA SHRIVASTAVA

[email protected]·······························MUMBAI

Tata Institute of Social Sci-ences (TISS) student volun-teers helped Bihar flood vic-

tims with relief and health serviceslast year. And they provided coun-selling and trauma care to employ-ees of the Taj Mahal Palace andTower after the luxury hotel was at-tacked by terrorists in November.

Such work isn’t unusual for aninstitute that sent teams to refu-gee camps after Partition in 1947and, more recently, helped in re-construction work in the Anda-man and Nicobar Islands after the

devastating Indian Ocean tsuna-mi of 2004 and recorded farmersuicides in Maharashtra.

TISS has a record of stretchingthe definition of academics,from the postgraduate courses itoffers in public health and socialentrepreneurship to disabilitystudies and action.

But for two years in a row, TISS’health system courses havemissed the top slot in the Mint-C-fore survey by a whisker. Lastyear’s write-up in Mint on the top-ranked Institute of Health Man-agement Research in Jaipur gener-ated scathing comments fromTISS fans, who wrote in to com-plain that the Mumbai-based in-stitute was worth a lot more than ithad been given credit for.

All the more reason for a trek tothe TISS campus in Mumbai’s De-onar area, a campus that’s so sim-ple it could be a smaller version ofRabindranath Tagore’s Santiniket-an in West Bengal.

Even the greenery on the cam-pus is not in the form of carefullycultivated and manicured gardens.A stroll through the campus ismore like a walk in the woods, witheach tree and shrub allowed togrow and proliferate on its own, al-beit not wildly.

The pre-independence institutewas set up as Sir Dorabji Tata

Spirit of service: (top right) The convention centre at the Tata Instituteof Social Sciences,Mumbai; and (above)a hall in the academic building.

PHOTOS BY KEDAR BHAT/MINT



10Law collegesWith students and professors arguing to establish their point like

lawyers in a courtroom, a class of 20minutes would at times carry on for hours.“”Debates score over

lectures at NUJSBY AVEEK DATTA

[email protected]····························KOLKATA

What is perhaps moststriking about WestBengal National Uni-

versity of Juridical Sciences, orNUJS as it is popularly known, isthe age of its faculty members.

Most teachers at NUJS, a10-year-old law school on theeastern fringes of Kolkata, are intheir 30s, and perhaps becausethey are young, they experimentwith the way they teach—insteadof delivering lectures, they en-gage students in debate.

“With students and profes-sors arguing to establish theirpoint like lawyers in a court-room, a class of 20 minuteswould at times carry on forhours,” says Sarbojeet Nag, 23,who graduated this year.

Nag secured a job with Allenand Overy Llp.—a leading lawfirm in the UK—even beforecompleting his undergraduatecourse. He will move to Lon-don soon.

Nag declines to disclose hissalary, but says foreign law firmscan pay up to £38,000 (aroundRs30 lakh) per year.

Universities such as NUJS andthe National Law School of In-dia University, or NLSIU, Ban-galore, are redefining legal edu-cation in India.

“The concept of a national lawuniversity has emerged in Indiaonly recently,” says Soumik Das,who graduated this year and wasvice-president of the Student Ju-ridical Association, the studentbody of NUJS that manages on-campus recruitment. “Coupledwith the emergence of big lawfirms, both in India and abroad,offering handsome salaries, it ismaking many students take tolegal studies.”

Teachers at the university sayit is the way the lessons aretaught that makes this institutesought after.

“While discussing complexlaws, we at times deliberatelyconfuse students so they couldbrainstorm and derive a clearpicture on their own,” says Bha-vani Prasad Panda, a professor.

“This helps them think inde-pendently—a quality that everylawyer needs to be successful.”

It’s not just its faculty, NUJS it-self is a young university. It waslaunched in 1999, and was thefourth law university after NL-SIU, the Nalsar University ofLaw, Hyderabad, and the Na-tional Law Institute University,Bhopal. The Union governmentstarted it as part of a policy deci-sion to set up 12 independentlaw institutes in as many states.

NUJS offers three courses inlaw—one each at the undergrad-uate and postgraduate levels, be-sides a one-year master of phi-losophy (MPhil) programme. Ithas 125 seats in its undergradu-ate programme, and 20 and five,respectively, in its master of lawand MPhil programmes. TheMPhil is a one-year bridgecourse for students who want todo research in law.

Last month, around 16,000students aspiring to be lawyerssat for the second Common LawAdmission Test, or Clat. Theyearly test is an effort by the BarCouncil of India, a regulatorybody that prescribes standardsin legal practice and education,and the University Grants Com-mission (UGC), a governmentagency that provides funds to in-stitutions of higher education, to

cut down on the multiplicity oflaw school entrance exams inthe country. Clat, at present, ap-plies to admissions in the coun-try’s 12 national law schools, ofwhich NUJS is one. In 2008,around 13,000 students sat forthe common admission test androughly 1,200 made the cut, anacceptance rate of 9%.

The rise in student ap-plications is due to thegrowing demand forlegal services in ar-eas such as intel-lectual property,taxation and mer-cantile laws. Plumcorporate legal jobsare proving attractive,though young lawyers facethe criticism that most of themdo not enjoy the rough-and-tumble of litigation.

The university has had legalheavyweights at its helm, a factorwhich has contributed to its suc-cess. At the invitation of the WestBengal government, N.R. Mad-hava Menon, who has worked inlegal education for five decadesand founded NLSIU, led thelaunch of NUJS as its foundervice-chancellor.

Besides Menon, former chiefjustice of the Calcutta high courtChittatosh Mookerjee andformer West Bengal chief minis-

ter Jyoti Basu, who was also abarrister, have been connectedwith the institute.

“They were members of thegoverning council and their as-sociation with the institute sinceinception helped build confi-dence (among recruiters) thatwe deliver good students,” says

D. Mukhopadhyay, the regis-trar. Despite the econom-

ic downturn, NUJSmanaged to place90% of its graduatingstudents this yearwith top law firmsand state-owned

companies.Some nine students

landed foreign jobs withfirms such as Allen and Overy,

Clifford Chance Llp, HerbertSmith Llp and the Norton RoseGroup in the UK.

“Some of the other law collegesproduce students who are aca-demically brilliant but too book-ish in their approach, while thosethat are confident may not havesound legal knowledge. But inNUJS, students show a balance,”says Abhijit Joshi, partner at lawfirm AZB and Partners, whichregularly recruits from NUJS.(AZB and Partners contributes afortnightly column to Mint.)

The school wants to expandinfrastructure but is strapped for

funds, says Mukhopadhyay. Un-like other law schools that re-ceive financial support fromstate governments, NUJS’ onlysource of revenue is the tuitionfee students pay.

NUJS raised the course feethis year for its undergraduateprogramme from Rs60,000 toRs1.4 lakh a year. The steep in-crease, says Mukhopadhyay,was due to rising staff and fac-ulty costs, a result of the SixthPay Commission recommend-ing a hefty salary hike.

“The cost of maintenance, too,has gone up a lot,” he says.

The school has also appliedfor a UGC grant. “We want tobuild a central library in a sepa-rate building and make the cam-pus Wi-Fi-enabled...but we can’tdo anything until UGC releasesfunds,” says Mukhopadhyay.

Growing demand: TheNational University ofJuridical Sciences wasstarted by the Centre as partof a policy decision to set up12 independent law institutesin as many states.

PHOTOS BY INDRANIL BHOUMIK/MINT



10Hotel management institutesTop hotels were visiting us till the end of October, but the placements became difficult after the

(attacks) in November. Frankly, the recession did not hit job offers asmuch as terrorism did.“”Economic downturn, 26/11

hurt industry, placementsBY PALLAVI [email protected]······························NEW DELHI

In the middle of the economicdownturn, Arkodeep Ghoshgot four offers from top hotels

during the campus placements atthe Institute of Hotel Management(IHM), New Delhi.

Two of these were for manage-ment trainee positions. “It was verydifficult to choose between the two

since both are leading hotels with aglobal presence,” he recalls.

Next month, Ghosh, 21, will jointhe Hyatt Regency in New Delhi.The other offer, by the Tatagroup’s Taj Hotels Resorts andPalaces, stipulated a joining datein 2010 which, Ghosh says, madeit easy for him to opt for the Hyatt.

Not everyone in Ghosh’s batchof 130 students was as lucky. IHMDelhi, which offers a three-yeardegree programme in hospitality

management, has at least 30 stu-dents from the batch who ha-ven’t yet got jobs.

India’s hospitality sector hasbeen in a slump since October,when most hospitality manage-ment institutes are typically sometwo months into their placementseason, as the global slowdownforces companies and individualsto curb business and leisure travel.

The situation got worse afterthe November terror attacks inMumbai that targeted the Taj Ma-hal Palace and Tower and theOberoi group’s Trident hotel, be-sides other city landmarks.

“Top hotels were visiting us tillthe end of October, but the place-ments became difficult after the(attacks) in November. Frankly,the recession did not hit job of-fers as much as terrorism did,”Ghosh says.

According to a June report bytrade body Associated Chambersof Commerce and Industry of In-dia, the country’s hospitality sec-tor saw a 64% decline in profit inthe first quarter of this year be-cause of the economic slowdown.The report also noted a sharp fallin tourist arrivals and higher ex-penses for hotels.

The ill effects of the downturn

and terror attack were acutely feltin the drop in the number of reg-ular recruiters who visited cam-puses this year for placements.Companies such as Pizza HutInc., Shangri-La Hotels and Re-sorts and Le Meridien Hotels andResorts stayed away from IHMDelhi, says an official, on condi-tion of anonymity.

IHM has been sending studentresumes even to companies thatdo not typically visit its cam-puses for recruitment.

“This included retailcompanies like WillsLifestyle and evenBPOs (businessprocess outsourcingfirms). Earlier, ourstudents weren’t in-terested in such jobs,but this year they havevery little choice,” saysNaveen Menon, placement headat IHM Bangalore. Job offers at theBangalore institute have declined30-40% from the 250 openings for125 students last year, he adds.

Many companies have deferredcampus visits and several others,such as Ruby Tuesday and TheImperial hotel, have put their hir-ing plans on hold even after mak-ing job offers, says a student at

IHM Bombay, who did not want tobe named. Mint could not inde-pendently confirm the claim.

Many of the offers, Menon says,were for entry-level jobs ratherthan the coveted managementtrainee positions.

“Even top hotels offered veryfew management trainee pro-grammes to students. The com-panies did not negotiate onmoney but on positions, which

was very disappointing,”says Ghosh. “Most posi-

tions offered are usu-ally suited for stu-dents who do a di-ploma, and not forthose who do de-gree programmes

in the area.”Some students opt-

ed out of the placementprocess for higher studies or

to start a business. Apoorva Ku-mar, a student at IHM Bangalore,is finalizing a business plan,while Gaurav Sharma, a graduateof IHM Delhi, is headed for acourse in finance.

Some institutes have fared bet-ter. The Welcomgroup GraduateSchool of Hotel Administration(WGSHA), Manipal, for instance,had just eight visitors at its place-ment centre this year, but 98 ofthe 100 graduating students havebeen placed with groups such asWelcomgroup Hotels, Taj andthe Oberoi group.

WGSHA vice-principal Kul-mohan Singh admits, though,that some of the students havebeen asked to join only by theend of the year.

WGSHA, perhaps, gained fromthose planning to expand. YUMBrands Inc., for instance, recruit-ed 240 students this year for itsIndia operations. Binoo Wadhwa,director, human resource, YumRestaurants India, which ownsKFC and Pizza Hut, says the com-pany will hire more students thisyear as it expands.

“The downturn hasn’t affectedour operations. In fact, we wouldrecruit more whenever weneed,” he says. “Once recruited,we first train the students for thecompany’s needs before theycan start...We are in an expan-sion mode.’’

HEMANT MISHRA/MINT


Cutting edge: Students at theInstitute of Hotel Management,Bangalore.


10Fashion collegesIt’s not like an institute where (you) go in themorning and come back in the evening... They put in

very hard work and it’s genuine. They have a lot of passion tomake the students go to the next level.“”Pearl Academy: for

a global perspectiveBY RASUL BAILAY

[email protected]······························NEW DELHI

When Ashna Aggarwalsearched for a fashionschool and landed up in

west Delhi’s Naraina IndustrialArea four years ago, she wasn’tsure if the institute she had pickedhad been the right choice.

“Initially, the reaction was:‘Where have I landed? Are yousure this is a fashion college?’”says the 21-year-old from Ludhi-ana, Punjab, about her first im-pressions of the school, a red-brick building sandwiched be-tween industrial units.

Having graduated from thePearl Academy of Fashion, Aggar-wal says in retrospect that she hadmade the correct choice. “Defi-nitely, I made the right decision...My course, my teachers and theplacements I got (were) only be-cause of (the) college.”

She now works as a knittingdesigner with an exporter inNew Delhi.

The academy dates back to theearly years of India’s economicliberalization. It was founded in1993 by House of Pearl FashionsLtd that exported garments toglobal brands, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tesco Plc., Car-refour SA, JC Penney, Gap Inc.and H&M AB. The fashion housewanted to nurture talent in anarea virtually unknown at thetime in India as a career.

The academy offers undergrad-uate and postgraduate courses indisciplines such as fashion design,interior architecture, jewellery andtextile design, fashion businessmanagement and fashion retailmanagement.

Although it was launched in abid to “fill the void”, as chair-man Deepak Seth puts it, PearlAcademy is now among theleading fashion schools in thecountry, counting designerssuch as Mandira Virk and broth-ers Nikhil and Shantanu Mehraamong its alumni.

“Frankly, what I am today is be-cause of Pearl,” says Virk, whosells under her Mandira Virkbrand and hires from her almamater. “It’s not like an institutewhere (you) go in the morning

and come back in the evening...They put in very hard work andit’s genuine. They have a lot ofpassion in them to make the stu-dents go to the next level.”

At its start, House of Pearlpicked career bureaucrat A.K.G.Nair to spearhead the school.Nair had worked in ministriesbut, most importantly, he hadheaded administration at thecountry’s premier National Insti-tute of Fashion Technology, orNift, set up under the minis-try of textiles.

At Nift, Nair hadhelped secure a $5million (aroundRs24 crore now)United Nations De-velopment Pro-gramme project.

“The mandate wegot was to be globallyupdated because fashion is aglobal industry,” Nair says aboutthe brief he got from the Houseof Pearl.

With a focus on the global fash-ion industry, Nair hired Britishfashion author and consultantMartin Shoben to conceptualizethe school’s initial curriculum.

“In the 1980s and 1990s, (the)export industry was like a sunrisesector and there was a lot of de-

mand from overseas for exportsof garments,” says Seth. “At thattime, we had virtually no organ-ized education to cater to the ex-port industry.”

Seth says his efforts have paidoff. “Now, we have alumni work-ing all over the world. When I trav-el to countries like China, Viet-nam, Indonesia…I run into themall the time... It’s a great feeling.”

The school also has some for-eign faculty members..

Fashion designer MayaKaeschgens, along with

her two children, cameto India from Parisfour years ago to“discover India” andis now teaching atthe institute.

“After two years, Idecided to stay here

and I looked for an inter-esting job… (the present job) is

interesting because all my experi-ence from Europe I can give to In-dia,” she says.

Pearl Academy’s growth hasmirrored that of the fashion textileindustry in the country. When itstarted, fashion textile exportsfrom India were valued at aboutRs70 crore, a figure that has bal-looned to Rs40,000 crore.

Pearl is now branching out to

other cities. It has opened schoolsin Chennai and Jaipur, and haslined up 5 acres in Greater Noida,near New Delhi, where construc-tion is set to begin next year.

The school is scattered over sev-eral buildings among various in-dustrial units in Naraina, and Nairadmits they are a “little bit dis-persed”. Once the new campus inGreater Noida is ready, the schoolwill relocate some of the pro-grammes it offers to that campus.

In 2007, Pantaloon Retail, thecountry’s largest listed retailer,tied up with Pearl Academy tolaunch a six-month visual mer-chandising and retail experiencemanagement programme. Thecourse was aimed at training stu-dents in conveying the value of abrand through store display.

“Right from the moment a cus-tomer walks into a shopping en-vironment...what are the shop-ping experiences we can createboth in terms of look and feel?”says K.C. Kurien, marketing man-ager for Future Learning and De-velopment Ltd, a unit of Panta-loon’s parent company FutureGroup, explaining what thecourse set out to do. The course,however, has been put on holdthis year following a retail indus-try slowdown.

Retailers such as Pantaloon Re-tail (India) Ltd, Shoppers StopLtd, local units of global brandssuch as Benetton Group SpA andGap, and Indian designers in-cluding Rajesh Pratap Singh andSatya Paul hire from the school,according to its website.

House of Pearl has investedRs75 crore in the last five years inthe Little People Education Socie-ty, which funds educational activ-ities—the Pearl School of Retailand Little Pearl nursery schools.

The company says it is not wor-ried about returns on investment.“The returns, probably the futuregenerations may see,” says Seth.

Fashioning growth: NewDelhibased Pearl Academy ofFashion has opened branches inChennai and Jaipur and plans tobuild a 5acre campus in GreaterNoida, Uttar Pradesh.

PHOTOS BY HARIKRISHNA KATRAGADDA/MINT




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