Written by Sameer Kamat

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) successfully ventured into the world of GMAT based 1-year programs in India by launching IIMA PGPX (IIM Ahmedabad), IIMB EPGP (IIM Bangalore) & IIMC PGPEX (IIM Calcutta). And soon enough the demand for these shorter duration MBA courses shot up. And so did the confusion about Executive MBA in India vs MBA for Executives.
The average GMAT scores, the average work experience and the overall calibre of students who join these one year IIM MBA programs in India demonstrate the quality of these courses. During IIM placements, the average salaries for graduates after completing the MBA program from these IIMs is significantly higher than the conventional 2-year progams in India.
Like thousands of Indian MBA applicants, Shiv Mallya was one of the hopeful Indian IT Male Engineer candidates who set his eyes on the IIMs. The earlier rejections from top 1 year MBA programs wasn’t exactly the best start he could’ve expected to his MBA admissions journey. But he evaluated and analysed what went wrong and took another shot. This time he got admits from…not one, not two, but all 3 IIMs that he applied to. Here’s how he managed to juggle his day-job, deadlines and diapers.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Business schools often have MBA essays that ask MBA applicants why they have chosen this specific MBA program. And more often than not, the answer isn’t as straight-forward as you might assume. Information that’s available on bschool websites can be categorised into one of two buckets:

Written by Sameer Kamat

IIM Calcutta offers a 1 year MBA Post Graduate Program for Executives (PGPex) that is meant for those with many years of work-experience. It competes with IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad that have similar programs.
Just like in the case of 2-year MBA programs offered by IIMA, IIMB and IIC, the shorter MBA programs (accepting GMAT as opposed to CAT scores) compete with each other for the best students from India. Ashish Rastogi explains why IIM Calcutta (IIMC PGPex) got his vote and scored over IIM Bangalore (IIM EPGP).

Written by Sameer Kamat

ISB Hyderabad reapplicants face a tough situation. Compared to first time applicants, reapplicants to ISB Hyderabad have the additional burden of justifying how their current application is much better than their previous one.
Madhur Chadha has gone through the experience and he has been accepted by ISB Hyderabad as well as IIMC. Read on to see what went wrong in his first attempt and how he fixed the shortcomings in his reapplication to ISB.
Trivia: Madhur’s photograph was taken, not after he got the good news from ISB Hyderabad and IIMC, but after he had just completed 600 miles of a 3600-mile cross-country trip, almost non stop.

Written by Sameer Kamat

While selecting bschools, variations of this question pop up in the minds of MBA applicants. Other queries falling in a similar category are as follows.

- Which is the best 2 year (or 1 year) MBA program?
- Are US universities better than those in the UK or Europe?
- Should I choose international business schools over Indian MBA colleges?

All of these questions are natural to have and justified, considering how much you would be investing in the program. Ask most Indian applicants and most would have a standard answer.

Written by Sameer Kamat

The IIM Ahmedabad PGPX (Post Graduate Program in Management for Executives), a 1-year MBA for executives offered by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is unlike any other in the world. Exaggeration? Not really if you consider the IIMA PGPX class profile (average age of 34 years, average work experience of over 10 years with 4.5 years internationally) and the extremely competitive selection process (average GMAT score 713). None of the global programs can match that combination.
If you have been searching for ‘IIM Ahmedabad Executive MBA’ you might want to quickly read this post before moving on – Executive MBA vs MBA for Executives – The Big Indian Confusion

Alright, now that we know that the IIMA PGPX is not an executive MBA at IIM Ahmedabad, but rather a GMAT-based full-time regular MBA for executives, let’s focus on the main agenda. We found the perfect alumnus (from the first PGPX batch) to tell us more about the program. Vivek Joshi had a Chemical Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (IIT-B) and a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from USA. He placed his trust in the IIM Ahmedabad PGPX course for senior executives when the course was just launched, did amazingly well academically and took up a job in Private Equity. He is currently an Associate Director at

Written by Sameer Kamat

Jeffrey just got ‘Bangalored’ and he’s lovin’ it. Most Indian MBA applicants are keen to leave the country in pursuit of their MBA dreams. Jeffrey’s story goes the other way around – starting off in Europe and ending in India. He was only looking at 1 year MBA programs in India (read this related post first: Executive MBA vs MBA for Executives – The Big Indian Confusion).
After spending more than a decade in Europe, Jeffrey chose an Indian MBA. He focussed on IIMA Ahmedabad PGPX, IIM Bangalore IIMB EPGP, IIM Calcutta IIMC PGPex and ISB Hyderabad. He chose to skip the other Indian 1-year MBA programs like XLRI GMP and Great Lakes Chennai

Written by Sameer Kamat

The Financial Times (FT) MBA rankings for 2011 are out. And as is normally the case with all such rankings, there are the usual suspects and the surprise entries. Just when you thought ISB (Indian School of Business) was getting a little lonely waving the tricolour out there, guess who decided to join in the party – IIMA (Indian institute of Management, Ahmedabad) with its PGPX

Written by Sameer Kamat

Irrespective of your GMAT score, your post MBA career goals and your penchant/hatred for saas-bahu serials, if you are an Indian MBA applicant there are a few schools that you’ve GOT to have on your radar. And it doesn’t matter if you are eligible or qualified to get in. The fact is most of your peers will be talking about it before, during and after you complete your MBA course from another university. So spend a little time getting to know these top MBA programs. Here’s MCB’s take on it.

Written by Sameer Kamat

As the joke goes, the ones who cannot get into the IIMs settle for Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and the rest of the top 10 programs globally. Those who say that aren’t being arrogant (well, maybe some are). Their comments are just reflecting the statistical reality in a country like India. Fantastic talent minus the resources to match. 

The scale and reach of the GMAT is huge. No doubt. But compare it with apna CAT (the IIM entrance exam) and it looks like a nanha-munna cousin in comparison.