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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 of Mint, 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 on what recruiters are seeking and why, and how some colleges manage 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 to music festivals and school friendships.

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INDIA’S BEST COLLEGES First published in February 2007 to serve as an unbiased and clear-minded chronicler of the Indian Dream. ISSUE EDITOR

Opening up the education sector

APARNA KALRA

MINT EDITORIAL LEADERSHIP TEAM

R. SUKUMAR (EDITOR)

NIRANJAN RAJADHYAKSHA (MANAGING EDITOR)

NIRANJAN RAJADHYAKSHA Managing editor, Mint

t’s an old curse: So much gets said about the crying need to reform India’s creaking education system but so little actually gets done. So it is good to know that education policy is now in the hands of an able man with modern sensibilities. Kapil Sibal has already made some encouraging statements on the need to get the education system back into shape, a must for a country that realistically hopes to be an important global power in the new century. “There is a need to restructure the set-up, decontrol and (get) rid of government controls,” the new human resource development minister told PTI on the sidelines of the 17th Commonwealth education ministers’ meet in Malaysia on 17 June. This is the background of hope against which Mint presents its second ranking of professional colleges, the training grounds for the next generation of managers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, fash-

ion designers, journalists, chefs and such skilled workers. As was the case last year, this year too we have partnered with the Centre for Forecasting and Research (C-fore). There is undoubtedly a utilitarian objective in such surveys—to help companies know where the best pools of talent lie. Hiring has been slack in recent months because of the sharp slowdown in the economy and problems in individual companies. But this rough patch will pass and companies will have to start looking out for fresh talent again. The Mint survey of colleges will be a handy filter to have. If some colleges have become better, there are also cases of movements in the opposite direction. One story we visit in these pages is that of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, which has lost some of its sheen and has slipped in our rankings as well. While there have been the

A period of churn for professional colleges T

PREMCHAND PALETY

Director, Cfore, and Mint columnist

Design Manoj Madhavan Raajan Editorial team Abhishek Prabhat Feroze Ahmed Jamal Chanpreet Khurana Graphics Ahmed Raza Khan Data C-fore

For more profiles and detailed rankings of professional colleges, log on to www.livemint.com/ bestcolleges www.livemint.com

he past few years have seen a rapid proliferation of colleges offering professional degrees with the implicit promise of good jobs for graduating students. As long as the world economy was in fine fettle, the going looked good. But the global economy went into a tailspin last year, making jobs rarer and recruiters choosy. In many colleges, placements have been below 50%. Institutes are now competing aggressively for recruiters and also students. There are reports of many colleges not being able to get enough students. This is primarily because of a significant increase in seats for many professional courses. In engineering, for example, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) approved at least 200 new colleges in the last one year. Now, there are close to 2,000 engineering colleges in India, up from about 1,300 four years ago. The liberal grant of university status to many private institutes has also given them freedom to expand capacity even if they don’t have matching physical or academic infrastructure. This has left many lower-rung colleges unable to fill their sanctioned quota of seats. According to AICTE officials, in Andhra Pradesh, which has about 400 engineering colleges, at least 5,000 seats went vacant, the highest for any state. It’s a period of churn for professional colleges in India. Colleges need to wake up to the competition from within and abroad and improve their teaching systems to survive. The major lacuna associated with professional education in our country is a lack of experiential pedagogy, or learning by doing. This is because

of a dearth of well-trained faculty and little interface with industry. I recently interacted with a civil engineering graduate from one of the top branded colleges. In his four years of college, not once was he taken to a construction site. This kind of teaching, which is based primarily on theoretical inputs, is not sufficient to mould students. A senior human resources executive at a reputed information technology firm told me that the company had to train fresh recruits even from premier institutes for at least six months to make them fit for the job. This is primarily because students don’t get hands-on training. For experiential learningbased pedagogy, or teaching method, it is essential to have a strong interface with industry. A supportive environment for faculty, which includes encouragement to do research, is also important. Involvement in research is essential for faculty to have close interaction with industry and remain updated about new developments in its area. This, in turn, will have a positive impact on the teaching-learning process of the institute. At the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, for instance, it is mandatory for every faculty member to do research and it is mirrored not only in its research output, which is perhaps the highest in the country, but also in the learning process of the students. Undergraduate students of this institute are involved in the highest number of research projects under way in the country and also get good placements. This model should be followed by institutes that intend to excel.

inevitable journeys up and down the rankings ladder, there are some issues that all educational institutes have to battle. One such issue is spotting and retaining good faculty. Announcing decisions to set up new engineering and business schools is one thing and finding good teachers to guide students is another. Low salaries are one obvious problem. But creating a teaching and research culture that is not polluted by politics is also something that needs to be done. Autonomy is one solution. There is more to our initiative than ranking the best professional colleges in India. Mint’s mission statement is to be “an unbiased and clearminded chronicler of the Indian dream”. Higher education is an integral part of that dream, both at the individual and national levels. This special issue is, in that sense, an important landmark in our ongoing journey to chronicle changes in the Indi-

an education system: a close look at the present, even as we pay attention to the future. We at Mint believe that higher education is perhaps the last bastion of the licence-permit raj that throttled the economy for many decades. In a perverse way, the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia highlight the mess that our own system of higher education is in. Why would thousands of young Indians pay large sums of money to get a foreign degree if they have a good domestic education system to learn skills? Education is too important to be left to political ideologues or turf-hungry bureaucrats. Even as the government should continue to spend public money on education, the actual business of setting up and running educational institutions should be opened to the private sector, foreign investment and autonomous institutions. Sibal will hopefully be the catalyst for many of these long-overdue changes.

Methodology for ranking professional colleges For engineering and medical colleges, a perceptual survey was conducted among the faculty of different engineering and medical colleges. The perceptual data was col lected using a structured questionnaire which was given to faculty members and finalyear students of various colleges. The respondents were asked to rate the insti tutes they were familiar with on a 10point scale against different parameters. They were also asked to assign a weightage to each parameter. The parameters used for evaluating engineering colleges and medical schools are listed below. The weightage given to each parameter was derived by taking the average weightage that faculty gave to each parameter. In all, 1,013 faculty members and 1,207 finalyear students from different colleges were interviewed. Similarly, for ranking medical colleges, 225 faculty members and 253 finalyear students were interviewed. Not more than one faculty member from each department was interviewed. The rating that the faculty gave to its own institute was not considered. Institutes that were not evaluated by at least 20 faculty members and 20 students are not listed.

Parameters Intellectual capital: Competence of faculty, research output, publications in refereed journals, number of patents Pedagogic systems and processes: The effectiveness of various systems and proc esses, such as the teachinglearning process, curriculum upgrade and admissions, etc. Industry interface: Live projects taken by students, the number of research projects with industry undertaken by faculty Placements: The number and type of companies visiting for campus interviews, maxi mum, median and minimum salary offered for Indian and overseas jobs, the number of students who went for higher education in reputed Indian and foreign institutes Infrastructure and support systems: The campus area, the total number of com puters, the number of books in a library, the number of faculty cabins to faculty strength 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 lab oratories, the budget allocated for laboratories, residential facilities for students and faculty, facilities such as playgrounds, gym, etc., and the responsiveness of adminis tration to student needs. For ranking institutes in law, hotel management, healthcare management, fashion technology, mass communication and media, faculty members and professionals in the respective industries were contacted. They were given a structured question naire and asked to rate the institutes they were familiar with on a 10point scale against four broad parameters—intellectual capital, pedagogic systems and process es, placements, infrastructure and support systems. They were also asked to give weightage to each parameter in terms of relative importance. In order to eliminate bias, the rating that the respondents gave to the institutes that they were working in or had graduated from was not considered. The average rating that each institute got against different parameters was calculated. The average rating score was multiplied by the corresponding aggregate weightage. The sum total of the weighted averages was used to arrive at a score for an institute and was ranked accordingly. Research organization Cfore conducted the survey for ranking professional colleges in India.

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Government engineering colleges Our 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 find encouragement at IITB BY GOURI SHAH gouri.s@livemint.com

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n August 2007, two engineering students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, or IIT-B, walked up to their professor and dropped what most would consider a bombshell. “We want to build a satellite,” they said. While an average professor might have been taken aback, at IIT-B, the proposal by Saptarshi Bandopadhyay and Shashank Tamaskar, third-year students of the aerospace department, aged 21 and 22, respectively, at the time, was dealt with like any other project request. “He asked us to do our homework and come back,” says Tamaskar. “What was important was that he didn’t discourage us.” Months of work, research and consultations later, the now 50-member team of students is

well on its way to building the institute’s first student satellite, Pratham, and signing a preliminary agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation to provide them with funds to the tune of Rs1.5 crore. “All kinds of exploration, academic or extra-curricular, is encouraged,” says Rohit Manchanda, faculty member and author of Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory: 50 years of IIT Bombay. He adds that the liberal attitude and encouragement offered to students is one area where “IIT Bombay might steal a march over the others”. Known for its illustrious faculty and alumni, lavish cultural festivals and a smattering of Silicon Valley-funded start-ups, IIT-B has long been considered the most glamorous of the IITs. For many years now, it has attracted some of the best students, faculty and recruiters. At least 50% of the students in the top 100 list in the

high-stakes Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) usually pick IIT-B, adding to its stature as a Mecca for aspiring engineers. IIT-B didn’t start off with this advantage, explains Manchanda. At its inception in 1958, it was set up with financial aid from the then Soviet Union through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or Unesco. “In the early years, the most sought after, liberal, forward-looking IIT would have been IIT Kanpur, which thrived under the charge of its first director, professor (P.K.) Kelkar, considered an academic visionary by many, and a more modern and state-of-the-art set-up, funded by the US,” says Manchanda. IIT-K was robbed of its advantage in the late 1970s as Uttar Pradesh be-

came a hotbed of politics. Mumbai, which by then had developed into a financially vibrant city, offered IIT-B the opportunity to evolve. “The aura and ethos of the city, of the time, also spilled into the institute, making it one of the most democratic and least hierarchical institutes of the lot,” says Manchanda. Compared with the other IITs, IIT-B is considered less rigid and hierarchical, and has the widest mix of faculty from all over the country. “Our greatest strength is our faculty,” says Devang Khakhar, who took over as IIT-B director early this year. “It’s an egalitarian place, so you could join as an assistant professor, but each is as independent as the next.” If anything needs to be done on campus, committees are formed and the opinion and exABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT

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

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perience of several people is relied upon to reach a consensus. The committees could look into everything from a change in the curriculum to ensuring that certain campus residents, such as stray cattle, do not venture into class. Unfortunately, the “cattle committee” hasn’t been able to sort that one out yet. While the infrastructure and academic excellence at all the IITs, endowed with the status of “institutes of national importance” through an Act of Parliament, is fairly uniform, there are some things that set the 51-year-old institute apart: its liberal, egalitarian way of functioning; research facilities; mammoth cultural and technical events; geographical location—it is located in the country’s financial capital, nestled between two lakes, and with a national park in its backyard—and, among other things, a willingness to embrace change that could benefit students and industry. “It’s more forward-looking and liberal than most other institutes,” says Khakhar. For instance, the institute changed the curriculum for the undergraduate programme in 2007. Under the new system, students can choose to do a minor in a subject of their choice or take an honours course in their own subject, in addition to their main degree. So instead of cramming 25-30 courses under one discipline, they now have the option to study 20 compulsory courses and take up to eight courses from another discipline. A minor is awarded on the completion of five courses under this option. Should a student wish to take up specialized courses in his own department, he will be awarded honours along with the main degree. So, a student of mechanical engineering could graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in math, or an honours in mechanical engineering. “This flexibility in curriculum leads to some excitement, rather than having something forced TURN TO PAGE E4®

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

down your throat,” says Vaibhav Devanathan, 22, general secretary for academic affairs, and a dualdegree programme student. “This could also help you in the job market, it’s a huge differentiator.” No surprise then that at the recently concluded post-JEE counselling session, a large number of new students made enquiries about the curriculum, says A.K. Pani, chairman, JEE-2009, IIT-B. But some queries raised at the session are of concern: Which department is best for cracking CAT (the Common Admission Test for the Indian Institutes of Management, or IIMs)? Which is the best course for higher education and, more importantly, a good pay packet? Both questions ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT

indicate that IIT-B is seen as a means to an end: a seat in the IIMs or a good salary. IIT-B’s location in Mumbai makes it the first port of call for recruiters, considering many of the industries that hire engineers, such as telecom, finance, consulting, automobiles and process manufacturing, are based here. The location and easy accessibility make it a popular choice for guest lecturers as well, especially those who may be passing through India, and for faculty. “Beyond the natural locational advantage of being in the industrial and commercial capital, another aspect that sets IIT-B apart is the fact that it has strong industry linkages,” says Rangan Banerjee, a professor in the department of energy science and engineering. For instance, Banerjee and his colleague K.J. Nayak are setting up a solar thermal power station that is funded by a consortium of industry players, including Tata Power Co. Ltd. IIT-B also has adjunct faculty from industry, making up approximately 10% of the institute’s 470-strong faculty. “This is extremely helpful as students get to know of current industry practices,” says Khakhar. This year, the institute will launch a customized postgraduate programme in technology for employees of auto parts maker Bharat Forge Ltd. Designed by IIT-B faculty in consultation with scientists and engineers from the company, the two-year course will meet the need for engineering talent within the company and encourage efficiency in processes, innovation and product development. IIT-B’s superior research and development facilities also tend to be a big draw for faculty as well as students—at least 80% of the faculty is involved in research. It is one of the few institutes in the world to house state-of-the-art re-

search facilities related to nanoelectronics, electronic devices that are so small they function at a molecular level. The institute received in excess of Rs107 crore between April 2007 and December 2008 for sponsored research. Of all the creatures that trawl the IIT campus in Mumbai— leopards and crocodiles from the nearby national park and cattle included—one expects most often to find the archetypal nerd, the kind who spends every waking moment poring over books and research papers. Jaideep Bansal, 21, and Saurav Agarwal, 20, hardly fit the description, though: They don’t cut class, but notes are usually photocopied from the anointed notetaker in class. They’re fairly happy to maintain above-average scores, while pursuing other interests. “You can’t be one-dimensional all your life,” says Agarwal, guitarist and back-up vocalist for 7 Spokes, a rock band that was formed on campus. “When companies come to campus, they also want bright, well-rounded personalities who can also go on to represent them, not just geeks and nerds,” he adds. Bansal, the drummer of the band, who has lived “all over India” thanks to his father’s postings in the army, picked IIT-B because he had “never been here”. Now, as part of a band that is looking to go professional, and marketing head for IIT Bombay Racing—a student group that has built its own racing car and an allterrain vehicle—Bansal is happy juggling various interests. “IIT Bombay throws opportunities at you, it’s up to you to grab them.” The cultural scene on campus also tends to encourage students to do more than just study. Mood Indigo, one of the biggest cultural student festivals in India, manages sponsorships worth Rs1 crore now. Beyond this, the institute has at least 70 other cultural

programmes through the year, including an inter-hostel festival called the Performing Arts Festival (PAF), where students are responsible for everything from live acts and production to building sets and design. Last year, a PAF production featuring a replica of the Golden Temple in Amritsar required the actor to jump off the structure into a pond, all of which was created by the students. According to popular campus folklore, Nandan Nilekani, IIT-B alumnus and chief executive and managing director of software services firm Infosys Technologies Ltd, has often attributed his leadership and management skills to his experience in organizing Mood Indigo. There is lobbying for a reduction in cultural activities, out of concern that students today do not have the academic drive of their predecessors, who were passionate about extra-curricular activities but also managed to maintain a firm focus on academics. “There is some concern…so some of the events will have to be put on the chopping block this year,” says Rahul Gaur, general secretary for cultural affairs. Another thing IIT-B has come to be known for is its entrepreneurial set-up. Over the last few years, SINE—the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship— has earned a name for itself as one of the top incubators in the country. It has now taken on the task of helping other institutes set up their own incubators. Unlike its counterparts at IIT Madras or the IIMs in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, SINE is not open to outsiders but is aimed at IIT-B graduates, alumni and faculty. The institute wants to help commercialize research and turn projects into businesses. SINE is run as a not-for-profit organization chaired by the director of IIT-B, and its board comprises an equal number of faculty and industry

members, including venture capital fund Seedfund managing partner Pravin Gandhi and Mastek Ltd chairman Ashank Desai. The 32 companies incubated were started by faculty, former students or a combination of both. A majority of the faculty members hold doctorate degrees and specialize in one aspect of their discipline. Here, they can further their research and even turn it into a business. Take the case of start-up Sedemac Mechatronics Pvt. Ltd, which developed an electronic control unit for fuel injection in smaller engines, to be used in two- or three-wheeler vehicles. The new product promises to reduce fuel consumption by 10-15% and cut emissions by up to 70%. The company recently received seed funding of $500,000 (around Rs2.4 crore) from Nexus India Capital, a Mumbai-based venture capital fund. “The Indian market is not ready to absorb semi-proven work, neither are business houses. So, it made sense to go through SINE and see the project to its logical end by creating a viable company with paying customers,” says Shashikant Suryanarayanan, founder and director, Sedemac Mechatronics, who founded the team with three students. While the institute is well on its way to improving research and development facilities, some of the key challenges it faces are the same that technical institutes across the country face. “The challenge for us is to attract outstanding faculty,” says Khakhar. The ratio of faculty to students is 1:13 at IIT-B, compared with the 1:10 mandated ratio. Among the other key challenges facing the institute is building additional infrastructure to cope with the 54% increase in student capacity owing to caste-based reservation policies.

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INDIA’S BEST COLLEGES

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Private engineering colleges

People 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.

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PSG College’s USP: an industrial unit on campus B Y V IDHYA S IVARAMAKRISHNAN vidhya.s@livemint.com

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his college began with a story. Industrialist P.S. Govindaswamy Naidu had four sons, but while bequeathing his wealth to the next generation, he divided it into five parts instead of four. The fifth part, he said, was for “this brother”, a reference to the trust that manages PSG College of Technology—so goes the college legend. The founder principal also was prescient in the choice of location for the college, something that has helped contribute to its success to this day. PSG College of Technology, set

up in 1951 by PSG and Sons’ Charities Trust, is on the same campus in Coimbatore as PSG Industrial Institute, which makes pumps and motors. “The industrial institute is a big strength in our college,” says R. Rajkumar, 20, a student who will graduate next year in mechanical engineering. “It is a rare combination anywhere in India where an engineering college and a company coexist in the same campus. The company is manufacturing pumps, motors and machine tools. The students can walk over any time and see the manufacturing processes,” says the current principal of the college, R. Rudramoorthy. The presence of the manufacturing facility on the cam-

pus enables the college to offer what are called sandwich courses, combining classes in theory with hands-on training. The five-year bachelor of engineering programmes are offered in mechanical, electrical and electronics, and production engineering. In these courses, students get trained in the factory for a few hours and attend class during the second half of the day. “I came to the college for the sandwich course because no other college offers a course along with industrial training. This gives more scope for getting a better

job,” says Afrose Kamal, 22, who will graduate next year in electrical and electronics engineering. Kamal has converted a conventional Luna moped into an electric bike, without the use of an engine, by connecting the wheels to a motor using a belt. He says a senior training manager at the industrial unit helped the team of students who did this. The college also has relationships with various manufacturers that enable two-way learning between the college and the companies in terms of training and know-how. “We have people from inBABU 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.

dustries coming and setting up the laboratories,” says P.V. Mohanram, head of the mechanical department. Set up in 1956, it is one of the college’s oldest departments. “We have people like Festo of Bangalore, we have people like Rane of Chennai, and we have (the) Ashok Leyland people—they have set up their own laboratories in the department. So, what happens is all the state-of-the-art equipment which they are producing as well as what is being doled out in the market are made available to us.” Publicly listed Rane Holdings Ltd is the parent of the company that supplies auto parts to makers of passenger cars and tractors, among other industries. Festo Controls Pvt. Ltd makes pneumatic products, machines that work on compressed air. Ashok Leyland Ltd is India’s second biggest maker of trucks. The college operates on a unique public-private partnership model in which the state government provides aid to most of the courses offered in terms of salary payments to faculty and other staff while the building and infrastructure are financed by the management of the private trust. Money from two profitmaking companies—PSG Industrial Institute and PSG Foundry, the latter a few kilometres from the college—as well as the surplus from tuition fees become part of the trust’s funds. The management consists of four principal trustees who are members of Govindaswamy’s family (one from the family tree of each son of Govindaswamy) and others appointed by the principal trustees for a five-year term. “All the trustees work without salary from the beginning. They have to come on their TURN TO PAGE E7®

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own, serve and then go; even transport—nothing will be paid,” says Rudramoorthy. “…They (the trust members) give full freedom to the heads of institutions to see that there is growth. They never interfere with the academic freedom of the institution. Their job is only to provide the infrastructure facilities and maintain the financial requirements. How we have to run the institution is decided by the academic faculty led by me.” The on-campus job placement record of the college is yet another magnet for aspiring engineers. Though companies have hired conservatively this year, at least 90% of PSG’s undergraduate stu-

dents in most departments have secured jobs, with around 60% of the offers coming from the information technology industry. R. Anathakrishnan and S. Sundhar, both final-year engineering students, utter the word almost simultaneously when asked about what attracted them to PSG—“Placements!” “People here never look at only jobs. A job is assured as far as PSG is concerned. They look for high-profile companies. Students look at jobs from three parameters—profile matching, brand and pay,” says R. Nadarajan, dean of placement and training. Despite the good hiring season, students say the declining quality of faculty members and infrastructure are concerns

New challenge: Some students say teaching standards are falling.

that need urgent attention. “The new faculty members joining our college do not teach very well. They pass out of their courses and join here as lecturers,” says a secondyear student who did not want to be identified either by her

name or her course. Rudramoorthy is upbeat about the future, and says he wants the institution to eventually compete with the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). “We always think we should overtake the IITs.

It is a desire of every principal to see that my institution at least scores much better than IIT in (at least) one aspect and we did it in industry-institution interaction—because of the support of the management.”

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Fully equipped: Students at the library on IIMC’s Delhi campus. The school is home to one of Asia’s biggest mass communications libraries. ® FROM PAGE E8

dio, a printing press, a photo lab, one of Asia’s biggest mass communications libraries, and distinguished alumni. It also runs a community radio called Apna Radio, which gives students the opportunity to work on live projects. “IIMC is one institution where there is a heavy emphasis on hands-on practical training,” says S. Raghavachari, professor of broadcast journalism at the institute. NDTV anchorperson and reporter Nidhi Razdan, who was a student of the second radioTV journalism batch in 1998, sums up why the institute attracts hundreds of students every year, “The name carries a lot of weight in the industry.” But IIMC has had its share of problems. “I have never seen the clock turning back. The institute has progressed, but it’s not in its full-fledged glory now,” says Upadhyay of Aaj Samaj. Vacant faculty positions, a poor teacher-student ratio and growing competition from other schools have taken some of the sheen off this premier institute. With 14 faculty members, IIMC offers a teacher-student ratio of 1:20. To reach a 1:10 ratio, offered by most Indian Institutes of Technology, IIMC will need to hire 14 more teachers. Its Dhenkanal branch has just one full-time teacher for 76 students. “There was a lot of guest faculty... Since they were not inhouse faculty, the (teacher-student) interaction was limited,” says Anirudh Pahwa, who graduated from the advertising and public relations course this year.

“Most faculty members are in self-denial mode about (the) current situation at IIMC. We are in a make-believe world that we are on (the) top,” says a faculty member who did not want to be identified. In the past, eminent persons have held the reins of the institute, such as media adviser to Indira Gandhi H.Y. Sharada Prasad, former chairman of the Editors Guild M.V. Desai and Unesco communications expert Lakshman Rao. Yet for three years, the institute has not had a full-time director. Stuti Kacker, joint secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry, who is also holding the charge of IIMC chairman for the time being, says: “We have gone through the process twice in the last three years. But suitable candidates have not joined because of various reasons.” The first time the process to appoint a director was conducted, it was dissolved by the information and broadcasting minister, as there was a possibility of framing the rules to fit particular candidates. The second time, the selection committee chose Uma Kant Mishra, a senior Indian Information Service officer, who did not join. Mishra declined comment on the reasons for his decision. Star News’ Deepak Chaurasia, a 1991-92 alumnus, finds it surprising that it is taking so long to find a qualified person to head a premier institute such as IIMC. “There are so many qualified people in the field of journalism and also apart from it,” says Chaurasia. It is a fact that recruiters are also taking note of. A senior journalist at one

news channel, who did not want to be identified, rated the institute lower than before. “The moment you don’t have a proper head, there will be problems. And to add to that, things in other institutes have improved.” Officials in the information and broadcasting ministry say a selection committee will review candidates on 26 June, and a director will be appointed soon after. Despite these problems, however, IIMC has succeeded in placing at least 70% of the students of the 2008-09 batch. “Even in a recession, most of my batchmates have been placed. It speaks volumes about the institute,” says Anshul Baijal, a student of radio and TV journalism. “We are still attracting (the) best students who dream of a career in journalism. We are a public sector institution, not driven by (the) profit motive. Other institutes are charging exorbitant amount of fee in comparison to IIMC,” says Anand Pradhan, associate professor, Hindi journalism, IIMC. The course fee for the print journalism course in English at IIMC is Rs34,000, against Rs2-2.5 lakh charged by private colleges. Perhaps that is its unique

selling proposition. Himanshu Shekhar, 24, of Aurangabad in Bihar, left his job to pursue a journalism programme at IIMC. “I don’t regret my decision. IIMC was the best option for journalism.” Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-inchief of CNN-IBN news channel, counts IIMC among the institutes where a media organization should hunt for talent. “We have had very good products from IIMC,” he says.

Meanwhile, plans are afoot to upgrade IIMC into an international media university in the 11th Plan (2007-12). IIMC would then be able to offer both postgraduate and doctoral programmes. Former director Yadav, however, advises caution. “IIMC has the potential (to be a university). But it is important to address the issues facing the institute urgently, before it takes the next big leap.”

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Medical colleges If you work 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 gives CMC Vellore its advantage B Y V IDHYA S IVARAMAKRISHNAN vidhya.s@livemint.com

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t the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, a rural stint after graduation isn’t an option that can be brushed aside. Two-year service in the villages is mandatory, and students have to sign up for it before they can join the institution. They also have to serve at hospitals in remote areas during their first three

years in the college. Anand Zachariah, viceprincipal for undergraduate medical education at CMC, says this kind of exposure “sensitizes students to the local problems”. The hospitals serve as a huge “training resource” for students. This kind of training is possible because of CMC’s unique structure. The college has a relationship with 225 Christian mission hospitals, all in remote and rural areas. This network, the students say, gives them the kind of

training no other medical school can offer. “I think the level of exposure here…is not something that other colleges can compete with,” says Srujan Sharma, 22, an undergraduate student at CMC from Hyderabad. “We are sent to hospitals around the country...mission hospitals where we actually see grass-roots medicine being practised. This is not something that I have heard of

in other colleges.” CMC’s admission system reflects the school’s relationship with the church. The college admits only 60 students a year for its undergraduate programme; it boasts a student-teacher ratio of 12:1. Of the 60 seats, 50 are reserved for Christian minorities; and of the remaining seats, two are reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe BABU PONNAPAN/MINT

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.

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categories, and one is reserved for a government nominee. The Christian Medical College Vellore Association, a registered society formed by 60 churches across the country, manages the medical school and the hospital associated with it. The churches nominate eligible students for training. The students, in turn, sign a legal document promising two years of rural work after graduation. Students in the open category were earlier excluded from the mandatory two-year rural service, but they too have to agree to the stint now. “If you work in a rural area, you have to be multi-competent; you can’t just be a specialist... 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,” says Zachariah. Around 70% of CMC’s alumni are working in India, 80% of them in remote areas, according to statistics provided by the school. One of the most striking features of this medical school, 7km from the heart of Vellore, is the low tuition fee. Each student pays around Rs3,000 a year. A part of the hospital’s income is also diverted to the school. The hospital also subsidizes treatment, charging the poor 50% of actual expenses Of its total income of Rs252.71 crore in 2007-08, Rs49.88 crore went towards treatment subsidies for the poor and Rs26.85 crore towards education subsidies—an average of Rs4.68 lakh per student. George Mathew, CMC’s TURN TO PAGE E11®

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principal, says the school’s values come from Ida Sophia Scudder, an American missionary and doctor who, moved by a lack of medical facilities for women in Vellore a century ago, decided to set up a hospital-cummedical training institute. Scudder was in India to take care of her ailing mother—her parents were Christian missionaries. During her stay, she was witness to women dying during childbirth owing to a lack of medical attention. The local culture barred male doctors—including Scudder’s father—from attending to pregnant women. This inspired her to study medicine in the US and return to Vellore, where she set up a single-bed clinic. Until the 1950s, CMC was closely associated with foreign churches and voluntary agencies that contributed funds. Then, the institution was transferred into the hands of Indian churches and voluntary bodies. “From then on, the attempt has been to be self-sustaining because we knew that external fund source(s) would become less and less. Now, we are fully self-sustaining,” says Mathew. In an era when medical costs can sometimes be exorbitant, CMC manages to provide subsidized healthcare to a significant percentage of its patients. Mathew attributes this to four factors: a large number of patients, cost-cutting, no unnecessary medical investigations and modest salaries for staff. The students say the faculty is always accessible. “We get a lot of attention (from the faculty members),” says Nalini Newbigging, a 19-yearold student. “The teachers live on campus, so we can interact with them any time we want to,” says another student, Anna Paul, also 19. It’s the “foster family” concept at work. Each faculty member takes care of twothree undergraduate students and the student becomes a

“foster child” of that faculty member. “Each one of us in every batch...we are actually taken care of by the staff like we are their own children,” says Aleena Jana, who will graduate next year. Many of the faculty are former CMC students themselves. John Jude, associate professor in the department of microbiology, decided to stay back at CMC after his postgraduation because of the “work ethos”. “There were no vacancies when I passed out in 1999, but (I) came back in 2004. There is job satisfaction here. What we take for granted here are considered great outside; what we consider routine and normal here is very difficult to get down elsewhere. I can say this because I have worked in other places as well,” he says.

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Healthcare management colleges The 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 usual BY BHUMA SHRIVASTAVA bhuma.s@livemint.com

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ata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) student volunteers helped Bihar flood victims with relief and health services last year. And they provided counselling and trauma care to employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower after the luxury hotel was attacked by terrorists in November. Such work isn’t unusual for an institute that sent teams to refugee camps after Partition in 1947 and, more recently, helped in reconstruction work in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after the

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

devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and recorded farmer suicides in Maharashtra. TISS has a record of stretching the definition of academics, from the postgraduate courses it offers in public health and social entrepreneurship to disability studies and action. But for two years in a row, TISS’ health system courses have missed the top slot in the Mint-Cfore survey by a whisker. Last year’s write-up in Mint on the topranked Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur generated scathing comments from TISS fans, who wrote in to complain that the Mumbai-based institute was worth a lot more than it had been given credit for. All the more reason for a trek to the TISS campus in Mumbai’s Deonar area, a campus that’s so simple it could be a smaller version of Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan in West Bengal. Even the greenery on the campus is not in the form of carefully cultivated and manicured gardens. A stroll through the campus is more like a walk in the woods, with each tree and shrub allowed to grow and proliferate on its own, albeit not wildly. The pre-independence institute was set up as Sir Dorabji Tata

Graduate School of Social Work with 20 students. For the next four decades, it focused on social work studies and research. “The institute was established in 1936 and till 1980, no new programme was included,” says C.A.K. Yesudian, dean of the School of Health Systems Studies and a TISS veteran. “That’s why when the hospital administration course (the institute’s first management course) was offered, there was a lot of opposition.” “Why get into managerial areas?” he reminisces about what the course pioneers were told internally then. “We didn’t get classrooms, so we waited till 6pm for other classes to finish.” When TISS started its hospital administration course, not many in the country knew about health economics, financing or networking with non-profits. By 1993, the certificate programmes in hospital administration and healthcare administration had evolved into postgraduation degree programmes that taught students financial, marketing, quality and material

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management in a hospital or a healthcare initiative. And in 2008, TISS started a master’s course in public health with an enhanced research orientation. From 150 applicants in 1993, the number of applicants for the postgraduation courses has gone up to about 2,500. A written exam and interview later, 50 successful aspirants will gain a seat in the hospital administration course, 40 in the health administration course and 20 in the new public health course. The heavy student inflow has not made the dean happy. “In 1993, we had 15 (students) in one course and 10 in another. I’m not happy about this (year’s batch size). The course is not interactive then,” says Yesudian, arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head. One likely reason for this displeasure could be the institute’s struggle to find faculty. Its School for Health Systems Studies has a 12-member faculty and an equal number of guest teachers, but needs six more. “It is very difficult to find people who can fit the vacant slots and

then retain them. You know anybody? I’ll hire,” says Yesudian. Alumni who have come back to teach say TISS programmes are different from the courses taught elsewhere. “When I step into the class, I tell the students, let’s learn together,” says P.M. Bhujang, medical director of Mumbai’s Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital and Research Centre and a 1985-86 alumnus who teaches quality, financial management and medico-legal subjects at TISS. “The basic approach of teaching in TISS is through social work. That’s how it was envisioned and that’s how it has evolved,” says R.V. Karanjekar, an associate vice-president at Wockhardt Hospitals. “Others started as business management courses.” The placement of TISS’ postgraduate health and hospital administration students is varied enough to qualify for a salad bowl. The institute has placed students in top hospitals such as the Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai and Global Hospitals and LV Prasad Eye Hospital in Hyderabad, in government-run programmes such as the National Rural Health Mission, in non-profit agencies such as the National AIDS Control Organization, and in the corporate sector, such as ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. Asked if Wockhardt Hospitals hires students from TISS’ School of Health Systems Studies, Karanjekar says, “On priority... They are especially adept at project finance and problem handling.” Detractors say TISS students prefer working in big hospitals in metropolitan cities rather than in the grime of rural areas. Nachiket Sule, a 24-year-old homoeopathic doctor who will earn his degree in health administration from TISS next year, says he would, in fact, like to work for a non-profit in the countryside, if only as a stepping stone. “I would like to work for an NGO (non-governmental organization) that is deep in the rural interiors and focusing on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis,” says Sule. “This will get me closer to working with an organization such as WHO (World Health Organization).”

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INDIA’S BEST COLLEGES

Law colleges With students and professors arguing to establish their point like lawyers in a courtroom, a class of 20 minutes would at times carry on for hours.

Debates score over lectures at NUJS BY AVEEK DATTA aveek.d@livemint.com

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hat is perhaps most striking about West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, or NUJS as it is popularly known, is the age of its faculty members. Most teachers at NUJS, a 10-year-old law school on the eastern fringes of Kolkata, are in their 30s, and perhaps because they are young, they experiment with the way they teach—instead of delivering lectures, they engage students in debate. “With students and professors arguing to establish their point like lawyers in a courtroom, a class of 20 minutes would at times carry on for hours,” says Sarbojeet Nag, 23, who graduated this year. Nag secured a job with Allen and Overy Llp.—a leading law firm in the UK—even before completing his undergraduate course. He will move to London soon. Nag declines to disclose his salary, but says foreign law firms can pay up to £38,000 (around Rs30 lakh) per year. Universities such as NUJS and the National Law School of India University, or NLSIU, Bangalore, are redefining legal education in India. “The concept of a national law university has emerged in India only recently,” says Soumik Das, who graduated this year and was vice-president of the Student Juridical Association, the student body of NUJS that manages oncampus recruitment. “Coupled with the emergence of big law firms, both in India and abroad, offering handsome salaries, it is making many students take to legal studies.” Teachers at the university say it is the way the lessons are taught that makes this institute sought after. “While discussing complex laws, we at times deliberately confuse students so they could brainstorm and derive a clear picture on their own,” says Bhavani Prasad Panda, a professor.

“This helps them think independently—a quality that every lawyer needs to be successful.” It’s not just its faculty, NUJS itself is a young university. It was launched in 1999, and was the fourth law university after NLSIU, the Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad, and the National Law Institute University, Bhopal. The Union government started it as part of a policy decision to set up 12 independent law institutes in as many states. NUJS offers three courses in law—one each at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, besides a one-year master of philosophy (MPhil) programme. It has 125 seats in its undergraduate programme, and 20 and five, respectively, in its master of law and MPhil programmes. The MPhil is a one-year bridge course for students who want to do research in law. Last month, around 16,000 students aspiring to be lawyers sat for the second Common Law Admission Test, or Clat. The yearly test is an effort by the Bar Council of India, a regulatory body that prescribes standards in legal practice and education, and the University Grants Commission (UGC), a government agency that provides funds to institutions of higher education, to

cut down on the multiplicity of law school entrance exams in the country. Clat, at present, applies to admissions in the country’s 12 national law schools, of which NUJS is one. In 2008, around 13,000 students sat for the common admission test and roughly 1,200 made the cut, an acceptance rate of 9%. The rise in student applications is due to the growing demand for legal services in areas such as intellectual property, taxation and mercantile laws. Plum corporate legal jobs are proving attractive, though young lawyers face the criticism that most of them do not enjoy the rough-andtumble of litigation. The university has had legal heavyweights at its helm, a factor which has contributed to its success. At the invitation of the West Bengal government, N.R. Madhava Menon, who has worked in legal education for five decades and founded NLSIU, led the launch of NUJS as its founder vice-chancellor. Besides Menon, former chief justice of the Calcutta high court Chittatosh Mookerjee and former West Bengal chief minis-

ter Jyoti Basu, who was also a barrister, have been connected with the institute. “They were members of the governing council and their association with the institute since inception helped build confidence (among recruiters) that we deliver good students,” says D. Mukhopadhyay, the registrar. Despite the economic downturn, NUJS managed to place 90% of its graduating students this year with top law firms and state-owned companies. Some nine students landed foreign jobs with firms such as Allen and Overy, Clifford Chance Llp, Herbert Smith Llp and the Norton Rose Group in the UK. “Some of the other law colleges produce students who are academically brilliant but too bookish in their approach, while those that are confident may not have sound legal knowledge. But in NUJS, students show a balance,” says Abhijit Joshi, partner at law firm AZB and Partners, which regularly recruits from NUJS. (AZB and Partners contributes a fortnightly column to Mint.) The school wants to expand infrastructure but is strapped for

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funds, says Mukhopadhyay. Unlike other law schools that receive financial support from state governments, NUJS’ only source of revenue is the tuition fee students pay. NUJS raised the course fee this year for its undergraduate programme from Rs60,000 to Rs1.4 lakh a year. The steep increase, says Mukhopadhyay, was due to rising staff and faculty costs, a result of the Sixth Pay Commission recommending a hefty salary hike. “The cost of maintenance, too, has gone up a lot,” he says. The school has also applied for a UGC grant. “We want to build a central library in a separate building and make the campus Wi-Fi-enabled...but we can’t do anything until UGC releases funds,” says Mukhopadhyay.

Growing demand: The National University of Juridical Sciences was started by the Centre as part of a policy decision to set up 12 independent law institutes in as many states.

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Hotel management institutes Top 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 as much as terrorism did.

Economic downturn, 26/11 hurt industry, placements BY PALLAVI SINGH pallavi.s@livemint.com

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I Cutting edge: Students at the Institute of Hotel Management, Bangalore.

n the middle of the economic downturn, Arkodeep Ghosh got four offers from top hotels during the campus placements at the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), New Delhi. Two of these were for management trainee positions. “It was very difficult to choose between the two

since both are leading hotels with a global presence,” he recalls. Next month, Ghosh, 21, will join the Hyatt Regency in New Delhi. The other offer, by the Tata group’s Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, stipulated a joining date in 2010 which, Ghosh says, made it easy for him to opt for the Hyatt. Not everyone in Ghosh’s batch of 130 students was as lucky. IHM Delhi, which offers a three-year degree programme in hospitality HEMANT MISHRA/MINT

management, has at least 30 students from the batch who haven’t yet got jobs. India’s hospitality sector has been in a slump since October, when most hospitality management institutes are typically some two months into their placement season, as the global slowdown forces companies and individuals to curb business and leisure travel. The situation got worse after the November terror attacks in Mumbai that targeted the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and the Oberoi group’s Trident hotel, besides other city landmarks. “Top 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 as much as terrorism did,” Ghosh says. According to a June report by trade body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the country’s hospitality sector saw a 64% decline in profit in the first quarter of this year because of the economic slowdown. The report also noted a sharp fall in tourist arrivals and higher expenses for hotels. The ill effects of the downturn

and terror attack were acutely felt in the drop in the number of regular recruiters who visited campuses this year for placements. Companies such as Pizza Hut Inc., Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts stayed away from IHM Delhi, says an official, on condition of anonymity. IHM has been sending student resumes even to companies that do not typically visit its campuses for recruitment. “This included retail companies like Wills Lifestyle and even BPOs (business process outsourcing firms). Earlier, our students weren’t interested in such jobs, but this year they have very little choice,” says Naveen Menon, placement head at IHM Bangalore. Job offers at the Bangalore institute have declined 30-40% from the 250 openings for 125 students last year, he adds. Many companies have deferred campus visits and several others, such as Ruby Tuesday and The Imperial hotel, have put their hiring plans on hold even after making job offers, says a student at

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IHM Bombay, who did not want to be named. Mint could not independently confirm the claim. Many of the offers, Menon says, were for entry-level jobs rather than the coveted management trainee positions. “Even top hotels offered very few management trainee programmes to students. The companies did not negotiate on money but on positions, which was very disappointing,” says Ghosh. “Most positions offered are usually suited for students who do a diploma, and not for those who do degree programmes in the area.” Some students opted out of the placement process for higher studies or to start a business. Apoorva Kumar, a student at IHM Bangalore, is finalizing a business plan, while Gaurav Sharma, a graduate of IHM Delhi, is headed for a course in finance. Some institutes have fared better. The Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration (WGSHA), Manipal, for instance, had just eight visitors at its placement centre this year, but 98 of the 100 graduating students have been placed with groups such as Welcomgroup Hotels, Taj and the Oberoi group. WGSHA vice-principal Kulmohan Singh admits, though, that some of the students have been asked to join only by the end of the year. WGSHA, perhaps, gained from those planning to expand. YUM Brands Inc., for instance, recruited 240 students this year for its India operations. Binoo Wadhwa, director, human resource, Yum Restaurants India, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, says the company will hire more students this year as it expands. “The downturn hasn’t affected our operations. In fact, we would recruit more whenever we need,” he says. “Once recruited, we first train the students for the company’s needs before they can start...We are in an expansion mode.’’

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INDIA’S BEST COLLEGES

Fashion colleges It’s not like an institute where (you) go in the morning and come back in the evening... They put in very hard work and it’s genuine. They have a lot of passion to make the students go to the next level.

Pearl Academy: for a global perspective BY RASUL BAILAY rasul.b@livemint.com

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hen Ashna Aggarwal searched for a fashion school and landed up in west Delhi’s Naraina Industrial Area four years ago, she wasn’t sure if the institute she had picked had been the right choice. “Initially, the reaction was: ‘Where have I landed? Are you sure this is a fashion college?’” says the 21-year-old from Ludhiana, Punjab, about her first impressions of the school, a redbrick building sandwiched between industrial units. Having graduated from the Pearl Academy of Fashion, Aggarwal says in retrospect that she had made the correct choice. “Definitely, I made the right decision... My course, my teachers and the placements I got (were) only because of (the) college.” She now works as a knitting designer with an exporter in New Delhi. The academy dates back to the early years of India’s economic liberalization. It was founded in 1993 by House of Pearl Fashions Ltd that exported garments to global brands, including WalMart Stores Inc., Tesco Plc., Carrefour SA, JC Penney, Gap Inc. and H&M AB. The fashion house wanted to nurture talent in an area virtually unknown at the time in India as a career. The academy offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in disciplines such as fashion design, interior architecture, jewellery and textile design, fashion business management and fashion retail management. Although it was launched in a bid to “fill the void”, as chairman Deepak Seth puts it, Pearl Academy is now among the leading fashion schools in the country, counting designers such as Mandira Virk and brothers Nikhil and Shantanu Mehra among its alumni. “Frankly, what I am today is because of Pearl,” says Virk, who sells under her Mandira Virk brand and hires from her alma mater. “It’s not like an institute where (you) go in the morning

and come back in the evening... They put in very hard work and it’s genuine. They have a lot of passion in them to make the students go to the next level.” At its start, House of Pearl picked career bureaucrat A.K.G. Nair to spearhead the school. Nair had worked in ministries but, most importantly, he had headed administration at the country’s premier National Institute of Fashion Technology, or Nift, set up under the ministry of textiles. At Nift, Nair had helped secure a $5 million (around Rs24 crore now) United Nations Development Programme project. “The mandate we got was to be globally updated because fashion is a global industry,” Nair says about the brief he got from the House of Pearl. With a focus on the global fashion industry, Nair hired British fashion author and consultant Martin Shoben to conceptualize the school’s initial curriculum. “In the 1980s and 1990s, (the) export industry was like a sunrise sector and there was a lot of de-

mand from overseas for exports of garments,” says Seth. “At that time, we had virtually no organized education to cater to the export industry.” Seth says his efforts have paid off. “Now, we have alumni working all over the world. When I travel to countries like China, Vietnam, Indonesia…I run into them all the time... It’s a great feeling.” The school also has some foreign faculty members.. Fashion designer Maya Kaeschgens, along with her two children, came to India from Paris four years ago to “discover India” and is now teaching at the institute. “After two years, I decided to stay here and I looked for an interesting job… (the present job) is interesting because all my experience from Europe I can give to India,” she says. Pearl Academy’s growth has mirrored that of the fashion textile industry in the country. When it started, fashion textile exports from India were valued at about Rs70 crore, a figure that has ballooned to Rs40,000 crore. Pearl is now branching out to

other cities. It has opened schools in Chennai and Jaipur, and has lined up 5 acres in Greater Noida, near New Delhi, where construction is set to begin next year. The school is scattered over several buildings among various industrial units in Naraina, and Nair admits they are a “little bit dispersed”. Once the new campus in Greater Noida is ready, the school will relocate some of the programmes it offers to that campus. In 2007, Pantaloon Retail, the country’s largest listed retailer, tied up with Pearl Academy to launch a six-month visual merchandising and retail experience management programme. The course was aimed at training students in conveying the value of a brand through store display. “Right from the moment a customer walks into a shopping environment...what are the shopping experiences we can create both in terms of look and feel?” says K.C. Kurien, marketing manager for Future Learning and Development Ltd, a unit of Pantaloon’s parent company Future Group, explaining what the course set out to do. The course, however, has been put on hold this year following a retail industry slowdown.

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Retailers such as Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, Shoppers Stop Ltd, local units of global brands such as Benetton Group SpA and Gap, and Indian designers including Rajesh Pratap Singh and Satya Paul hire from the school, according to its website. House of Pearl has invested Rs75 crore in the last five years in the Little People Education Society, which funds educational activities—the Pearl School of Retail and Little Pearl nursery schools. The company says it is not worried about returns on investment. “The returns, probably the future generations may see,” says Seth.

Fashioning growth: New Delhibased Pearl Academy of Fashion has opened branches in Chennai and Jaipur and plans to build a 5acre campus in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

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INDIA’S BEST COLLEGES