IIM-A best B-School in India: CNBC-TV18 survey

Candidates, who cleared the CAT this year, would want to know which is the best B-School in India to apply to. CNBC-TV18 is out with its annual B-School rankings study. IIM Ahmedabad has again topped the list of CNBC-TV18's annual B-school rankings, but IIM-Bangalore is close on the heels.

The fourth edition of the CNBC-TV18's 'India's Best B-Schools 2012' ranking covered 145 B-Schools and 235 recruiters, making it one of India's most comprehensive and definitive rankings for management education.

IIM Ahmedabad led the rankings and continues to be the benchmark for MBA education in India. However, IIM Bangalore is running very close driven by its improved performance in areas such as industry interface and international linkages. IIM's continued their pre-eminence amongst management schools, with as many as six out of the top 10 B-schools being an IIM.

Out of the top 10 B-schools, six are IIMs, with IIMs with Calcutta ranking third, IIM Lucknow fourth and XLRI Jamshedpur, fifth. The schools were rated on 6 broad parameters including, Intellectual capital, Placements, Infrastructure, Industry Interface, International Linkages and Recruiter Satisfaction.

Rank of B-Schools:

1 IIM, Ahmedabad

2 IIM, Bangalore

3 IIM, Calcutta

4 IIM, Lucknow

5 XLRI, Jamshedpur

6 MDI, Gurgaon

7 NITIE, Mumbai

8 IIM, Indore

9 SP Jain, Mumbai

10 IIM, Kozhikode

Note: ISB, Hyderabad & SIBM, Pune did not participate in the data survey

With regards to placements, BFSI, IT, Consulting & FMCG continue to be favorite haunts for India's top B-school graduates as they accounted for almost 70 per cent of B-School recruiters. In terms of average salaries, India's top B-schools saw an average increase of approximately 20 per cent in 2011.

At IIM-A, the maximum salary offered for an Indian job was Rs 37 lakh per annum and for a foreign posting it was $139.64 thousand per annum. The average and median salary figures were Rs 16.36 lakh per annum and Rs 15.15 lakh per annum respectively. About 14 per cent of the graduates were posted abroad. As is known, IIM-A has recently introduced the 'cohort' based placement system, wherein companies that offer similar roles, profiles, salaries, locations etc would visit campus together at a particular time basis batch preferences. So much for fears of a recession then?