A survey revealed management students employability below 10%

According to recent survey findings the employability of management students remains below 10% for any functional role in fields such as HR, Marketing or Finance.

As per the National Employability Report prepared by Aspiring Minds, employability of management graduates is at the lowest level especially in the field of business consulting followed by analyst and functional roles.

Aspiring Minds COO and CTO Varun Aggarwal said, "there is an urgent need to audit whether we are training industry-ready individuals."

During the survey the company asked questions to 32,000 students from more than 220MBA schools. However the B-Schools pay special attention towards building capacity in management education but the same can't be practiced for building employability of the candidates.

Aggarwal added, "The low employability figures show that management students and colleges need personalised employability feedback and guidance to take the right corrective steps." Management institutes in the country have grown with rapid speed from just 200 managements institutes in nineties to more nearly 3500 college presently.

This analysis also revealed another important fact that employability of males and females is similar across all sectors except HR where females are more preferred by recruiters.

Employability of MBA graduates is just minimal somewhere to just as low as 2.52% in business consulting, whereas it is just 7.98% for analyst role. The report also revealed employability of some preferred streams such as corporate sales with just 10.56%, consumer sales with just double number of 21.72%. However, the employability for customer services roles is 16.01%

Some other fields such as marketing, BFSI and HR also recorded lowest employability with 6.99%, 7.69% and 9.63% respectively. The report said that in last decade the MBA-finance students employable in BFSI sector created a very large number of jobs.

IIM’s planning to introduce some changes in CAT

This year nearly 2.15 lakh aspirants have registered for Common Admission Test (CAT) for entry into leading management institutions of the country. But among this huge number nearly 67% candidates are from engineering background, which is big enough.

Looking at the current registration trends, the country's leading B-Schools are planning to make some necessary changes in the Common Admission Test to ensure participation of students from other steams too. IIM directors said we are making the draft for changes in exam pattern and it is just at initial stage.

CAT 2012 convenor and professor at IIM Kozikode SSS Kumar, said, "Efforts are on to have a relook at the Common Admission Test (CAT)… some changes that will be helpful for people from other disciplines. Over 67 per cent (over 1.44 lakh) of the candidates appearing for the ongoing CAT this year are from engineering discipline." However, he refused to disclose anything regarding these new changes by saying that this draft is at very beginning stage. The total number of candidates registered for CAT is 2,14,068.

IIM Kozhikode director Debashis Catterjee said the main motive behind making these changes is to encourage aspirants from all streams and disciplines. Soumitra Roy, Managing director of Prometric India which is partnering with IIMs in holding the test said the registration this year has indicated some important and interesting trends.

Nearly 17,000 aspirants who will take this test have two to three years of work experience. This year the numbers of students from agriculture and architecture background have also increased. The numbers of students from humanities backgrounds have dipped a bit from 3,708 last year to 3,404 this year.

The category wise registrations also indicate the participation from OBC category which is nearly 17.3%, SC at 5% and ST at 7.4%. This year maximum students have registered from Mumbai with 31,040 followed by Uttar Pradesh at 25,070 and Delhi with 21,507.

� ( a g �9 �9 strewn across papers which would have intimidated many engineering students leave alone a non-engineer. The fact that any graduate can take the CAT exam should necessarily be considered while setting papers. The Quant section, especially, should have questions from areas taught till the 10th standard. While some of the above topics mentioned are introduced in the 10th standard in many boards, there is hardly any depth in the concepts taught. 

Overall, a success

despite what has been said above, conducting of CAT 2012 as well as the paper(s) so far have pleased students, as now only those with genuine aptitude and preparation can get through the paper. 

CAT back to its pristine glory: VistaMind CEO

CAT back to its pristine glory: VistaMind CEO

In section II, the honours were equally divided among the three sub areas that students prepared for

The author of this column is Arks Srinivas, CEO, VistaMind Education. Mr Srinivas carries more than 15 years of diverse experience in industry, training and academia. A bachelor of engineering, Srinivas graduated from IIM Calcutta in 1997. In this column, he critically analyses the trends of CAT 2012 question papers and their difficulty levels so far. 

Apprehensions associated with CAT papers undergoing major changes with the exam becoming online have largely been proven unfounded. One of the mainstays of CAT was not just the competition (more than 2 lakh students writing the exam), but also the difficulty of the paper per se. The problem was not about solving difficult questions but about using the time available to solve the ones that are easy and score more. Resource management (time and knowledge) was the key to crack CAT. 

CAT 2012 is proving once again to be on the expected lines. Questions are neither easy nor very tough. The advantage of preparation for CAT is evident from the way students are attempting the paper. A well-prepared student now has more chance of scoring more and getting a better percentile than a person not thoroughly prepared. 

In the last three years, the CAT papers (in almost all slots) were relatively easy. So, the difference between a person getting a higher percentile and a person getting a lower percentile hinged upon who made lesser mistakes. The aptitude was hardly checked. That seems to have changed and changed for good!

If the feedback from students who wrote the test in the first week is any indication, the paper has all the ingredients of a good competitive exam. Balanced difficulty level, spread of questions across areas, a few surprises and above all, a smooth and faultless conduction of the exam have brought CAT back to its pristine glory!

As the convener has repeatedly said, the paper pattern has followed a very logical construct.  In section I, the number of questions in quantitative and data interpretation areas were divided in the ratio 2:1 (give or take a question form a total of 30 questions!). If DI was difficult, there were easier Quant questions and if Quant was tough, two sets out of three in DI were easy. This perfectly balanced the paper and the examiner therefore would be able to test the student’s ability not just in the areas given but also his usage and allocation of time. In addition, what gets automatically tested is one’s performance under pressure. 

Similarly in section II, the honours were equally divided among the three sub areas that students prepared for. The ratio of questions in verbal ability (para jumbles, para completion, word usage, fill-in-the-blanks, grammar), reading comprehension and logical reasoning (analytical ability)) was almost 1:1:1 in almost all papers (again give or a take a question in verbal/LA). The main feature of the papers (again in almost all slots) was that the difficulty level varied across areas. This gave students a unique chance to utilize his skills to maximize scores. 

The only hitch!

A couple of days back, in a press conference, Soumitra Roy and Prof SSS Kumar, MD of Prometric and convener of CAT 2012 respectively, mentioned that they were looking at rationalizing the CAT paper so as to ensure maximum participation from all streams of graduates. If that was the case, this year’s CAT paper does not reflect that mood. Questions from trigonometry coordinate geometry and higher algebra were strewn across papers which would have intimidated many engineering students leave alone a non-engineer. The fact that any graduate can take the CAT exam should necessarily be considered while setting papers. The Quant section, especially, should have questions from areas taught till the 10th standard. While some of the above topics mentioned are introduced in the 10th standard in many boards, there is hardly any depth in the concepts taught. 

Overall, a success

despite what has been said above, conducting of CAT 2012 as well as the paper(s) so far have pleased students, as now only those with genuine aptitude and preparation can get through the paper. 

Difference between CAT,XAT AND MAT

In the CAT, time management plays a crucial role for if you are able to crack 80-90 percent of the questions of a section, it would be considered a very good attempt. At the same time, there is virtually no pressure of time while cracking the MAT.

There is no General Knowledge test in CAT. But in the MAT, such a test exist under the section" Indian and Global environment". For this may need to do some extra bit of preparation.

GD end Interview: The CAT being a more sophisticated Instrument for testing intelligence and critical reasoning, it puts the weightage of 50 to 60 percent on Group Discussion and interview. In the MAT, on the other hand, the importance attached to these two vis-à-vis the written section is only 30-40 percent. Therefore, the rejection is also very high in the CAT. Last year about one-lakh students appeared for the 11,000 seats, of which only 30,000 received final interview calls. It means, selection rate was one in three. In case of MAT, everybody can hope to receive a call, although, It may not be from an institute of your choice. A good score in the written test is a prerequisite for a student to be called for the group discussion and a persona interview conducted to assess the students, personality and demeanor, with the final selection made in the three rounds.


XAT is conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur for admission to Post Graduate Management Jamshedpur in XLRI Jamshedpur and many other top MBA Colleges, Institutes, reputed B-Schools in India. For admission to, two years Post Graduate Programme in Business Management (BM ) and Human Resource Management (HRM), One year General management Programme and Four year Fellow Programme in Management. The Test contains Questions on three abilities or skills. These are, Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability

Sr. No.		CAT	MAT	XAT
1.	Test Pattern	CAT has a total of 3 sections in the test and the total number of questions is 60-70.	MAT has a total of 5 sections in the test and the total number of questions is 200.	XAT has 3 sections in the test and the total number of questions may be more than 100.
2.	Test Duration	The test duration in CAT is 2 hours and 15 minutes plus an additional 15 minutes for tutorials.	The duration of MAT is 2 hours and 30 Minutes.	The test duration of XAT is 2 hours 30 minutes.
3.	Mode of Test	CAT is Computer based test.	In MAT, students have the option of attempting either a paper-pencil based test or computer based test.	XAT is a paper-pencil based test.
4.	Eligibility Criteria	Candidate must hold a Bachelor Degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA.	Candidate should be a graduate, those who are in their final year of graduation can also apply for MAT for provisional admission subject to completion of their graduation.	Candidates who are graduate and are in their final year of graduation can apply. Candidate with less than 50% marks in graduation are also eligible to apply.
5.	Frequency of the Test	CAT is conducted in a year.	MAT is conducted 4 times in a year - February, May, September and December.	XAT is conducted once in a year, during the month of January.

Difference between CAT,XAT,MAT,FMS AND IIFT

Sr. No.		CAT	MAT	XAT	FMS	IIFT
1.	Level of the Test	CAT affiliated B-Schools (like IIMs and some other top B-Schools) are ranked a tad higher.	MAT affiliated B-Schools are mostly 2nd tier group of schools.	XAT affiliated B-Schools are considered to be generally ranked higher compared to MAT.	FMS is one of the premier institutes of the country and hence the test is considered to be of the same level as CAT, XAT etc.	IIFT is one of the prestigious admission entrance test and is of the same level as CAT, XAT, FMS etc.
2.	Test Pattern	CAT has a total of 3 sections in the test and the total number of questions is 60-70.	MAT has a total of 5 sections in the test and the total number of questions is 200.	XAT has 3 sections in the test and the total number of questions may be more than 100.	FMS has 4 sections and the number of questions is likely to be 175.	IIFT has 4 sections and number of questions likely to be around 200.
3.	Test Duration	The test duration in CAT is 2 hours and 15 minutes plus an additional 15 minutes for tutorials.	The duration of MAT is 2 hours and 30 Minutes.	The test duration of XAT is 2 hours 30 minutes.	Test duration for FMS exam is 2 hours.	Test duration is 2 hours.
4.	Mode of Test	CAT is Computer based test.	In MAT, students have the option of attempting either a paper-pencil based test or computer based test.	XAT is a paper-pencil based test.	FMS is a paper-pencil based test.	IIFT is a written test.
5.	Eligibility Criteria	Candidate must hold a Bachelor Degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA.	Candidate should be a graduate, those who are in their final year of graduation can also apply for MAT for provisional admission subject to completion of their graduation.	Candidates who are graduate and are in their final year of graduation can apply. Candidate with less than 50% marks in graduation are also eligible to apply.	Candidate who are graduate and are in their final year of graduation can apply. Candidates need Arts, Commerce or Social Science 50% Science - 50% Mathematics or Statistics - 60% Medicine, Engineering or Technology - 60% CGPA at least 6.00 in a scale of 10.00	The candidates applying for IIFT entrance exam should have a recognised Bachelor Degree of minimum three years duration in any discipline.
6.	Frequency of the Test	CAT is conducted in a year.	MAT is conducted 4 times in a year - February, May, September and December.	XAT is conducted once in a year, during the month of January.	FMS is conducted once in a year.	IIFT is conducted once in a year.

Top 20 B-schools in India:

With the B-school admission in full swing, it is time to evaluate the 20 best B-schools of India. Recently, The Week announced the results of their annual B-school survey for management institutes in India. Interestingly, ISB Hyderabad leads the top 20 list of business schools in India, ahead of IIM-Ahmedabad. These rankings are the latest one done this year.

The survey conducted by data provider MaRs (Monitoring and Research Systems Private Limited) is based on information received from multiple sources including data from over 800 management institutes in India, besides survey responses from employers who recruit students, students and alumni, consulting websites and online data sources.

The B-schools were evaluated on four parameters such as Brand Value, Input Value, Value Addition and Ambience. Let us examine these parameters in detail-:

Brand value: The attributes included tie-ups with foreign universities, campus placements, average salary offered to students, profile of corporate visitors and profile of recruiters.

Input value: The input value of an institute comprises of quality of entrance test, number of students with work experience, international students and students from other states.

Value Addition: When we talk about Value Addition, we talk about international linkages, industry visits, visits of industry professionals to the school, profile and strength of the faculty.

Learning ambience: Attributes includes whether the institute has state-of-the-art infrastructure, IT and library facilities and industry-student interaction.

Top 20 B-schools of India


1. Indian School of Business-Hyderabad


2. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad


3. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore


4. Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata


5. Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur


6. Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, (JBIMS) Mumbai


7. Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode


8. SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai


9. Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.


10. Indian Institute of Management, Indore


11. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi


12. National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai


13. Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad


14. Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune


15. TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal


16. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University


17. Management Development Institute, Gurgaon


18. Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai


19. Xavier Institute of Management (XIM), Bhubaneshwar


20. Sydenham Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai

PS: Business schools like Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, Indian Institute of Management -Lucknow,FMS-Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai, Narsee Monjee, Mumbai and Symbiosis, Pune that did not participate in the survey. Hence,, the recruiters’ scoring was the basis after the scores were normalized with other schools.

Top 10 B-Schools in Pune 2012

There are just 13 IIMs in the country and they offer just 2650 seats to grab. It is not possible for every student to get seat in premier IIMs of the country. For those students who do not get a seat in IIMs of the country they can search an institute in their city or other cities. There are many top MBA institutes in Pune. Students who want to pursue MBA after completion of their graduation can search for some good B-schools in Pune. There are many management institutes which offer various MBA programmes to students. Some management institutes offerMBA with specialization and some offer general MBA and post graduate diploma in management. IIMs are not the only B-Schools which impart quality education to students, but there are many top management institutes in Pune which are rated as leading management institutes of the country. While choosing a B-School it is really important that students consider few points in mind and B-School ranking is one of the major factor which plays very important role. It is not easy to select any institute but B-school ranking helps you in making right choice. Here is the list of top 10 B-Schools of Pune:

Institute Name	City	Entrance Test	Eligibility
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OFMANAGEMENT & RESEARCH (ISMR)	Pune	MH-CET	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
National Insurance Academy	Pune	CAT,XAT, GMAT, ATMA score	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
MIT School of Business	Pune	No entrance test required	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
St.Vincent College of Commerce	Pune	No entrance test required	Minimum Graduate/Post graduate from a recognized university
Sinhgad Technical Education Society’S Sinhgad Institute Of Management	Pune	MH-CET score	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
Vishwakarma Institute of Technology	Pune	MAH-CET score	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
Genesis Institute of Business Management	Pune	Written test, CAT/ MAT/ MH-CET score also accepted	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management	Pune	No test score required	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
Institute Of Management Development and Research	Pune	No test score required	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation
INSTITUTE OF BUSINESSMANAGEMENT & RESEARCH	Pune	Written Test,MAT/ATMA/CAT/XAT/NATscore also accepted	Minimum 50% marks in Graduation

Top MBA Colleges in Sales & marketing In PUNE

1.	Alard Institute of Management Science	2.	Allana Institute of Management Sciences
3.	ASM’s Institute of Business Management & Research	4.	ENA Institute of Management And Technology
5.	Foresight Institute of Management & Research	6.	Indian Institute of Cost and Management Studies & Research
7.	Indian Institute of Job-Oriented Training (IIJT)	8.	Indira School Of Business Studies
9.	Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR-P)	10.	Kasturi Shikshan Sanstha Institute of Management

Top MBA Colleges in Finance In PUNE

1.	Management Institute for Leadership and Excellence – MILE	2.	Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR-P)
3.	Institute of Hotel & Tourism Management	4.	Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development
5.	Maeer Mit World Peace University	6.	Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune (MIT)
7.	National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM)	8.	Pune Institute of Business Management
9.	Pune University	10.	Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL), Pune
11.	Zenith Institute of Business Management (ZIBM)	11.	Sinhgad Institute of Management (SIOM)

Top MBA Colleges in Human Resource In PUNE

1.	Indian Institute of Commerce and Trade, (IICT)	2.	MITCON Institute of Management (MIMA)
2.	Allana Institute of Management Sciences	4.	ASM Group of Institutes
5.	Balaji Institute of Modern Management (BIMM)	6.	Bharati Vidyapeeth University
7.	ENA Institute of Management And Technology	8.	Indian Institute of Cost and Management Studies & Research (IndSearch)
9.	IndSearch School of Business Management	10.	Pune MBA Institutes – Sales & Marketing Management