Thursday, April 06, 2006

Three letter words

With ISB grads in the news for crossing the one crore salary mark a whole bunch of you are gonna be asking: ISB jaaoon ya IIM?


My one line answer:
If you want an MBA within 2-3 years of graduating, IIMs remain your best bet.

If on the other hand, you wake at age 28 and then decide to do an MBA you should definitely consider ISB. Or an MBA abroad.

From April 1, IIM Ahmedabad has also introduced a 1 year MBA - the PGP X program targetted at executives with 7-15 years experience. As it is the first ever batch it's difficult to say how well that program will fare. Guess we will know by this time next year. However, I think in the 1 year space ISB will have the advantage for some time to come.

But given the surge in demand for MBAs from those with substantial experience, all the top tier b schools will have to introduce 1 year programs. And B school rankings will have to reflect that by slotting MBA programs into separate categories eg 2 year programs, 1 year programs, Family Business programs - and so on.

A couple of other thoughts re: ISB
a) The official press release has not given out enough details. It's fine to not quote names of specific companies or withhold names of students who have become 'crorepatis'. But broad profiles of those who bagged top jobs should be released so prospective students can make more informed choices.

b) From the ISB placement factsheet it appears that the bschool (as of now) is becoming a favoured hunting ground for Indian companies looking for middle and senior level talent. The number of foreign offers is 42, compared to 383 domestic offers. The Dean in fact commented that the 'one crore' salary was offered for a global position in an Indian company. Which I think is quite cool!

c) 19% women in a batch of 345 is a very impressive statistic. What's more 2 women have actually bagged salaries in excess of $200,000. But I am a little intrigued by the fact that the average domestic salary for women is 9.89 lakhs vs the overall average of 11.77 lakhs. There might be a story there.

Lastly, the ISB course costs Rs 15 lakhs (tuition + boarding/ lodging). Plus all participants would have foregone 1 year of income - let's assume Rs 5 lakhs.

I would be curious to know how the bottom half of the class (in terms of salaries bagged) feels. If you leave a Rs 5 lakh job, spend 15 lakhs and then bag a job with a salary of Rs 10 lakhs - is it still 'worth it'?

Vijay K Mulbagal of ISB's class of 2006 has worked out an 'NPV' formula and concludes that yes - the investment is worth it. Although he rightly observes at the end of it, "The benefits of an MBA are far greater than financial..."

The bigger picture
I think the more institutions of excellence we have in India, the better. We are a country of a billion people which means that millions are thirsting for quality education.

So it's not about ISB vs IIMs. Competition always brings out the best and the consumer - in this case student - will benefit. But can the IIMs compete effectively if the government keeps throwing in some new clause or spanner in their functioning?

Like the 27% additional reservation now being mooted for OBCs, applicable from the year 2007.

In his take on the ISB vs IIM story Govind observes: The ISB grads.. even look at the ISBs shortcomings as temporary glitches rather than as a sign of decline or decay.

The reason why ISB students can use a word like 'glitch' is that they are in complete control of their own destiny. For the IIMs, 27% OBC reservation - if implemented - will not a temporary setback. It will mark a permanent alteration in the character, the texture and the very foundation of an institution.

I certainly don't think reservation at PG level is an answer to uplifting backward castes. Access to quality education at the primary level is far more important. As are other factors such as personal drive and ambition, role models and family support.

An article in Frontline The IIT Story: Issues and Concerns provides one such shining example:

Patwatoli ... (is) a weavers' village of 10,000 families, belonging predominantly to Other Backward Classes (OBC), in Bihar's Gaya district. Since 1990, the village has produced 25 IITians. Many of those who enter the IIT system from this village are first generation learners.

While families in the village can hardly afford tutorial courses, many Patwatoli IITians have benefited from a strong village support network where those who make it to the IITs often return to counsel and coach younger aspirants.


Wish these IITians would come forward and speak up about what they feel on the reservation issue...

Of quality and standards
The affirmative action policy in the US is often cited as a parallel to reservation. I think this kind of effort by IITs falls under the American definition more than the Indian one. And is a laudable one.

"SC/ST candidates failing to qualify with relaxed admission norms but satisfying certain minimum requirements may be offered admission to a preparatory course of one year duration. Candidates successfully completing the preparatory ourse may be offered admission to the first year in the next academic year without going through JEE again".

There is no point in relaxing norms for entry to the extent that you create a new kind of caste system within an IIT or IIM! Because if 50% of the class is taken through what we call "merit" and the remaining 50% has to be filled in by quotas - no matter what their merit - that is what is likely to happen.

So far it's not been that bad because at an unofficial level, IITs and IIMs do not actually fill up the entire 22.5% quota. Unless they get enough candidates who meet with their (to an extent relaxed) eligibility criteria.

Who is an OBC anyways?
A professor at an IIM recently told me that he is classified as "OBC" in 7 states of India. Incidentally, he is strongly opposed to any such reservation himself.

OBCs, in any case, do not deserve reservations, he says. They are the dominant castes in Bihar and UP - the landowners. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Yadav, Uma Bharti - almost the entire political class comprises OBCs.

No doubt they feel upset at not getting their 'share' of seats in higher education despite being the ruling class. It's not about lack of opportunity but getting the easy way out. What they cannot get through legitimate means (slog and struggle like everyone else) they wish to acquire through this kind of zor-zabardasti.

I think the time has come to do away with caste based reservations and look purely at economic criteria.

Yes, caste based discrimination prevails in villages till today but these reservations do nothing for such unfortunates. Today, the SC/ STs who make it to elite institutes are generally children of privilege (I had one such classmate whose dad was the police commissioner of Bangalore). If her kids can once again avail of reservation - that will be the real travesty.

So before implementing any further reservations the government must clarify how far it has reached in implementing the Supreme Court order barring reservations for the 'creamy layer'.

In fact, I say, the creamy layer should stand up and say - "We don't want reservation anymore. Give it to our less deserving bretheren - whatever their caste or creed".

When that day comes I do not know... but it is certainly a day to hold out hope for!

29 comments:

  1. I read somewhere that the ISB grad was a person with 10 years work exp

    Also remember that a lot of companies go to ISB because their CEOs are on the Governing Board !

    Of course, you get a more diverse set of students (not many campuses in B Schools have people from the Merchant Navy, although the fact that many merchant navy folks are in ISB could mean that they find ISB more affordable)

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  2. by the way, thanks for fixing the RSS feed, can access the full post now !

    And absolutely agree with your views on Reservation. The problem is that its usually the convent educated types who crack the B Schools thanks to the focus on English capability.

    They had a stranglehold on the IITs too until the IITs did away with the English language test.

    Can Indian B Schools do away with English focus, maybe not, but they can do some affirmative action by taking people from economically weaker sections and teaching them English and helping them to be successful

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  3. 'Creamy Layer' Phenomina is quite well in use in term's of OBC's , I am not sure why govenment is showing reluctance in applying the same phenomina to SC's also .. somehow i feel that yes reservation is required and it's need of the society ..Why ? the simple reason is how many of us want to establish a social relation with SC/ST...But the absense of Non-Creamy layer concept is forcing the concept to loose it's motive ..Again still we can see that number of upper caste student's are more in all of the academic institutes ... There is a Gene backing them which has got education from year's ...and we certainly dont want a society where ... All good things happen to one faction ,
    So Reservation . with Creamy layer .. restriction is the need for today's society

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  4. Rashmi - Couldn't agree more with your views on Education. I believe that we need to do some creative thinking about how to take education to the grass roots and I agree that answer is definitely not Caste based reservation. I don;t have any certain asnwers right now but it would be a good discussion to have.

    Freespirit - Couldn't agree more. We as in Indians have a lot of growing up to do. A person is not worth the money he/she makes. A person is not good or bas based on their vices (smoking drinking etc.) I could probably right a whole post.

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  5. On IIM vs ISB the point on reservation is an excellent one. ISB is my neighbour I also make the same claim w.r.t to IIT. IIT is also planning to have the reservation. Research wise we are as much as IIT if not better, It is that we are in control of our destiny that we will zoom past IIT in a few years. We have 0% reservation. Thanks to Chandra Babu Naidu who even rocked the Lok Sabha to keep us reservation free.
    Oh ya while all this talk of humumgous MBA sal tec schools sal dont get talked about. The highest made to our students was 8.0+ lpa (Google & MS).Comparable to IIT's


    Rajan
    hp://rajan.wordpress.com

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  6. Just to add to your ISB Vs IIM comparison, since ISB is a 1 year course, one would also earn an extra 12 Lac INR, which probably alleviates the 15 Lac burden by a fair amount. Forgive me if I sound biased, but I am just about to start my MBA at ISB next week.
    Your points about the reservation in higher education were very apt, and having seen people exploit this reservation facility so blatantly, I would say ban all reservations, save a few strictly economic ones.

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  7. Hi Rashmi,

    Your points regarding reservation are well taken. However, at the risk of inviting ire, I would like to add a few points.

    I would assume that a majority of the people who get into the IITs and IIMs have undergone coaching of some sort - hopefully it is not a unreasonable assumption, and is based on my experience when I was a student in both IIT as well as IIM. Now, the coaching classes expenses themselves are huge and would therefore place people with the required monetary strength at an advantage. Now, most of the SC / ST candidates (mind you, not all of them) are not so financially well settled to afford the same. Probably, the reservation will allow them to have a better shot in getting admitted to the IITs / IIMs

    Also, I do not agree that an economic criteria will solve the problem. We know the number of ways that the income figures can be deflated, right? and in fact this might result in a higher "loss of seats" to people of the "general" category.

    Having said that, the long term plan would be to scrap the reservation system in the higher education area. And, reservation in appointing faculty should be a strict no-no - that should be entirely merit driven!

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  8. The problem in my opinion is that there are very few institutions of good standing in a country of a billion people.Naturally competition is fierce so any consideration other than merit in admission to these few reputable institutions of learning is perceived to be,rightfully so, unfair. The government has a social responsibility towards creating opportunities for the under-privileged lot. times have changed and those in certain castes are no longer necessarily in a weak financial position. therefore reservation if any should be on the lines of economic status whatever the caste of the candidate be. the larger issue though is to increase the supply to meet the demand.

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  9. Your opinions about reservation are on the money.

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  10. the point about reservations following on year afetr year for the same family is really a big problem. i had a friend in IITM whose dad is an assistant collector. I mean why does he need reservation !!

    hope the situation will change sometime!!

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  11. the issue about reservations is quite a valid one. Although I am not aspiring for the IIMs right now.. and have passed the era of going for IIT, i can empathize with what the students have to contend with now.
    Maharashtra has a massive quota system that really affected a lot of students admission to engineering in my year (2000). For the uninitiated, its 50% for SC/STs, 30% for girls, 5-15% for the management to offer. Do the math, that leaves about 5-15% of the seats available for the general male candidate. In a class of 120 students, I was eligible to apply for only 12 of those seats. Its a time fraught with tension for students fresh out of class 12, not to mention their parents.
    Once we entered college, a kind of casteism was quite apparent. (ashamed to say it, but we "general" guys did not feel like interacting with the "quota" chaps.) of course, nobody minded the additional girls who came in, except maybe our seniors who waited for introductions!

    I dont see how doing this to the IITs and IIMs will help the system there. It'l only lower the quality of education, to ensure that everyone has an "equal" chance at doing well.

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  12. Good post Rashmi,

    I believe in principle that reservation should be present.
    But how to implement the reservation is tricky and debatable.

    Here is a fable Mother's Dilemma
    which describes the need of reservation.

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  13. Some much has been said about all this everywhere.
    Its sad that all this doesn't matter in any manner to the policy makers coz they dont take the opinion of the stake-holders i.e. students, professors etc.

    btw...your Media (TV) popularity has been growing day-by-day. Kudos!

    keep up the good work.

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  14. Rashmi,

    I agree with you completely. Caste based reservations do not make sense as you pointed out that all the so called low caste members are not really that backward in society. Some even belong to the high class.

    I think we need a more complex reservation system, which takes into account real factors, like income level, family economic history etc., rather than caste alone.

    Also, I belong to the OBC category. I am an aspirant to the civil services and because of my father's income level, I fall in the creamy layer category. So I ticked the box against "General Category" in the application.

    I welcome this wholeheartedly. I dont think I need any reservation. I am good enough to get through on my own.

    You said: In fact, I say, the creamy layer should stand up and say - "We don't want reservation anymore. Give it to our less deserving bretheren - whatever their caste or creed".

    Here I am saying exactly that. That day you hoped for is not that far away.

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  15. Yes reservations in any institute are bad. It shows that in India there is little respect for merit and talent. No wonder then that intelligent Indians are going to US and other foreign countries to pursue studies. They settle there so that their children do not have to suffer from reservation. Not everyone is as foolish as Mohan Bhargav.

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  16. what is difference between and IIM-or-ISB-post-graduate and plain-graduate-or-post-graduate-from-institure-other-than-iim in long run?

    it is same as Kazi Taukeer (Indian idol fame) and a struggling-singer-who-could-not-participate-in-any-such-show

    :)

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  17. How many SC/ST students actually make it out of school? The government is turning a blind eye to that...instead of concentrating at the grassroots level, they are making changes at the higher levels....this way, only Ram Vilas Paswan's son would get into an IIT/ IIM...

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  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  19. The most pernicious impact of reservations in IITs and IIMs is the damage it will do to the brand equity of these institutes. If half the grads from IITs / IIMs are mediocrities, why should recruiters waste time going through the truly painful process. If this comes through, as a recruiter, I'd rather focus on ISB. For more on this perspective, please see my blog

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  20. Rashmi - The reservation issue merited a post in itself. Reservations should be done away with completely and merit should be allowed to rule.

    The only concession allowed should be reduced fees for the poorer (poorer mind you not just belonging to a caste) students.

    Will V P Singh, who resurrected reservations, go to a doctor who became a doctor because of relaxed admission procedures?

    If I remember right, he chose to fly to London for treatment.

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  21. this OBC funda is shit...
    pure shit.

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  22. This one's for desiblogger
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action.
    Please go and check what affirmative action is all about before bandying the word around. Read the fine print (percentages awarded and situations where it is acceptable). It’s great to see that your parents never let you use your caste to get a seat. Just scroll down a few posts and you'll see some IIT-Madras kid saying how his classmate, an administrative official's son, has used his caste to get into IIT.
    I have no qualms with a person being of any caste and most youngsters today don't, also don't give me the rural India-urban India divide gyaan. Your OBCs around the country are just as powerful as anyone, and power (physical, monetary) my dear has a stronger hold in rural India than in the cities.
    By labeling someone as a SC/ST/NT/OBC you're just marking him out in public, just as the Nazis marked out the Jews. The only difference is we shall not send them to the gas chamber but trust me present a reservation candidate in front of a student who got into college after sweating it out for months on end, and you'll see what discrimination is all about.

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  23. Hi Rashmi,
    well ur blog makes all the sense but I feel that the same is lacking on part of the IIMs, as one of my frnds from MDI has told me that these are quite inflated salaries and the way media projects the dollar salaries int INR without considering the extremely stressful job, the standard of living in a city like NY, USA is terrible.

    As far as IIMs and IITs are concerned regarding the reservation I think this time too IIMs should take a bold stand as they had last time against such a move. I am from IIT too but somehow I don't feel that IITs too can stand upto it.

    Definitely reservation does good to some and a "deserving candidate" will enter IITs or IIMs with the already established criterion.. so why this increase... definitely your say is true when u say that it should be based on economic considerations and not caste...

    I tried to think how cud this whole thing be corrected so that everyone wins... may be there shud be a coupon for every SC/ST/OBC... he can use it only once in his entire lifetime... more such thoughts here

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  24. I don't get how you can make a statement like "IIM jaoon ya ISB". How many people are there who yearn to get into a college whose degree is atleast acknowledged as more than just a piece of paper, and you talk of IIMs and IITs and ISBs so casually.

    An "insight on indian youth" should not just concentrate on the 3-4 thousand people who get into IIMs. India's youth is not centralized in these places. The youth are the ones who are still struggling to get into decent colleges. Especially now, with this insane 50% quota.

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  25. Blogs and comments are fine

    BUT THE TIME NEEDS A CONCRETE ACTION...

    KNOW MORE AND BE A PART OF:

    MISSION DREAMSINDIA

    http://dreamsindia.com

    Express your freedom at The Voice of India

    http://voice.dreamsindia.com

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  26. I have been studying for IITJEE for the last 2 years, i know i have a bleek chance of making it and i might not. Its unfair to me a person getting 1/20th of my marks will get computer science but i wont even get chemical engineering just because he was born into an OBC.

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  27. 50% reservation is height of stupidity. Previously, I had some regard for our ministers but now looking on their actions and damned lack of senses, just make me think what the hell people think when they vote for these A##h###s. No wonder, Arjun Singh is trying to help his ego by breaking down the stature IIT and IIMs have built till now. He tried before with fee issue nonsense, that time he missed. IIMs stood out together in defense. Now, he is trying popularity with outright insanity to serve his personal ego in getting back with IITs and IIMs.
    Who don't need outsiders to roll us over and make us slaves, we have plenty among us who are ready on first opportunity to behave like one.
    First point, backward caste people need money and encouragement, not the reservation. Reservation in jobs is little bit understandable as it opens the gate for people who might not get the chance because of senior individual's personal fancies. But academic blocks are built on meritocracy, they are there for helping capable people achieveing intellectual heights. No shortcut suffice for personal talents.

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  28. WOW!!
    I found quite a few bighearted people showing their approval for the proposed 27% OBC reservation in all Institutes. What I want to ask them is that once you have helped a OBC/SC/ST gain admission to a premier engg (graduation) college in the country so that he is studying with the best, why does he still need reservation in the IIMs or any PG course? It means that even after spending 3-4 years with the best of peers, studying under the best teachers, he would still be incapable of gaining a meritorious seat in a PG course and if he is so DUMB, he does not deserve to be in any top college, reservation or no reservation.

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  29. hi!
    ur blog does offer a lot on youth issues and uve got the inside story from the OBC controversy.Keep upto good work.
    I want to present another view,the view of a citizen:

    My view:
    Why this move by the govt. is unwelcome?

    Coz of the many points that u might have read on other blogs: merit sacrifice, politics etc.

    But what I say is that this move must be scrapped not only because it effects the fore said points but also it encourages vote bank politics. Tell me, where is Advani now, who was going on the Rath Yatra for "National integeration". Doesn't he feel that this move is dividing India?
    Why has every party hesitated to speak out openly on these issues?Simply because the votes are dearer to them?

    Even more,if this continues,soon,just to ensure their votes from the OBCs (why only OBCs,from Religions,minorities,SCs,STs)they'll have reservations in the Cricket team,in the Army,in Commonwealth games,in even BUSSES!!

    I also write for India,feel free to visit:pryaas.blogspot.com

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