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The Human Resource Development recently released the list of best Indian universities for this year, and the list of Top 10 Engineering institutes in India is filled with <keyword id="49737" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="IITs">IITs</keyword>, from top to bottom. Outreach and inclusivity, along with global footprint, are the parameters on which every institute was ranked and would be ranked in future, for which the institutes need to go global. 
 
Needless to say, the relatively younger IITs, having secured places in the list, are now looking at ways to boost their academic brand in the best way possible, for which they have identified a target area of bringing in world class faculty. 
 For this, the IITs are looking forward to hiring faculty from foreign countries. For example, <keyword id="222212" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="IIT-Ropar">IIT Ropar</keyword>, having secured the 9th place in the top 10 list, will start hiring from three countries and six locations next month, all the way from London to Los Angeles. 
 Similarly, <keyword id="656784" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IIT-Gandhinagar">IIT Gandhinagar</keyword>, the 8th ranked institute in the list, will be hiring a bulk of its assistant professor level faculty from foreign universities. 
 
While hiring, the institutes would focus on Indian students doing a post doctoral in reputed engineering schools abroad. After interviewing probable candidates, they might even issue an appointment letter then and there. 
 
For the best hiring process, the hiring teams from IIT Ropar would have its Director and Dean, three external experts from IISc, IIT, Delhi, and IIT, Roorkee. 
 
<a href="http://d152j5tfobgaot.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/yourstory-foreign-professor.jpg">Image source</a>

Global footprint requirement forces IITs to hire faculty from foreign shores

India's leading academic institutions like IITs and IIMs will now have the privilege of foreign faculty members this year under the national GIAN (Global Initiative of Academic Networks) programme. 
 IIT-Kharagpur has been selected as the national coordinator for collaborating with institutions like IITs, IIMs, <keyword id="41780" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IISC">IISc</keyword>, NITs etc. under GIAN. 

	Professor P P Chakrabarti, Director, IIT-Kharagpur, told PTI they have planned 500 such courses by foreign teachers in the year 2015-16 at an outlay of about Rs 35 crore. 
 

	The evolving scheme would initially include participation of foreign faculty in institutes as distinguished, adjunct, visiting faculty or professors of practice and others would participate in delivering short or semester-long courses. 
 

	Such courses would primarily be for credit and made available by the host institution for participation from other institutions. 
 

	Chakrabarti said that their flagship programme, the International Summer Winter Term (ISWT), has been adopted at the national-level. 
 

	Through ISWT, international experts would teach in India, they would be motivated to work on problems related to India and also develop high-quality course material in niche areas, both through video and print, which could be used by a larger body of students and teachers,IIT officials said. 
 

	The programme would also document and develop new pedagogic methods in emerging topics of national and international interest. 
 The programme would be implemented by the GIAN implementation committee chaired by <keyword id="3025052" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vinay-Sheel">Vinay Sheel</keyword> Oberoi, Secretary, Department of Higher Education under the <keyword id="4876598" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Union-Ministry-of-Human-Resource-Development">Union Ministry of Human Resource Development</keyword>, the officials said. 

	GIAN would create avenues for possible collaborations in research with international faculty and international students' visits. 
 

	It would also enable promotion of interaction and learning niche subject areas for students of different institutes and universities and provide opportunity for technical persons from the Indian industry to improve understanding and update their knowledge in relevant areas.

	 
	 
	(Image credits: Indiatimes)

IIT, IIM, IISc will have foreign faculty this year

Are you looking for the best universities to apply to for higher studies? Every year, QS World University ranking publishes the list of top universities in the world based on several criteria used to assess these institutions' merits, including academic and employer reputation. QS Top Universities website provides a comprehensive database of universities with detailed coverage about their features, facilities, courses, faculty, and other information. It also provides a university search tool that lets the users find and learn about different universities using very useful filters. India is a remarkable destination for higher education, with a long list of universities that offer students world class education. This article lists the <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2021">top 10 Indian universities</a> based on QS World University Ranking 2021. #1 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT B) Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT B) ranks as the <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-technology-bombay-iitb#wurs">number one university in India</a>, and stands at the 172nd position in the world ranking. The first of its kind to be set up with foreign assistance in India, this institution of national importance has 10,401 Indian students, including 99 international students, and around 974 faculty members. The institute is acknowledged globally as a leader in the field of engineering education and research. #2 Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IISc) Indian Institute of Science Bangalore <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-science#wurs">ranks second </a>on the QS Top Universities list and is at the 185th position among the world’s top universities. Founded in 1909 by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, a famous business tycoon in India and the Maharaja of Mysore, this top public university has 4,038 students from India, including 37 overseas students and 434 faculty members. Over a century since its inception, IISc has been celebrated as the leading institute for advanced scientific and technological research and education in India. #3 Indian Institute of Delhi (IITD) Placed in the <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-technology-delhi-iitd#wurs">third </a>position among the Indian universities, Indian Institute of Delhi (IITD) ranks 193rd position on the world’s best institutions list. It is one of the seven Institutes of Technology created in India. Established in 1961, the institution has 8,058 Indian students, with 62 foreign students and 778 faculty staff. #4 Indian Institute of Technology Madras, (IITM) Identified as one of the foremost universities in India of national importance, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, (IITM) ranks <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-technology-madras-iitm#wurs">fourth </a>among the top universities in India and stands at the 275th place among the world’s top ranked universities on the QS World University ranking list. IIT Madras has 16 academic departments and a few research centres in various fields of engineering and pure science. It is a residential institute with 9,911 students, including 81 foreigners and 878 faculty staff members. #5 Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) In the<a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-technology-kharagpur-iit-kgp#wurs"> 5th position </a>among the top ranked universities in India, we find Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP). This institution ranks in the 314th position among the world’s top universities. IIT Kharagpur is the first of sixteen institutes that were established in the IIT system. This university presently accommodates 10,928 Indian students, including 19 foreign students who are trained by 841 faculty members. #6 Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) The <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-technology-kanpur-iitk#wurs">sixth </a>position among the top ranked Indian universities goes to Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK). The global ranking of this university is 350. IITK was created in 1959, it is considered one of India’s leading institutions for pioneering science-based engineering education. At present, 7,099 Indian students, including 29 foreign students and 613 staff members are part of this institution. #7 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) ranks in the seventh position among India’s top ranked institutions and in the 383rd position among the world’s top rated universities. As on date there are 7,799 students from India studying here besides 189 foreign students trained by 476 faculty members. #8 Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) The tenth best position among the Indian universities on the QS top universities is awarded to Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG). Ranking in the 470th place among the top ranked institutions of the world, the university presently provides higher education to 5,999 Indian students, 44 foreign students. There are 411 staff members training them. #9 University of Delhi The seventh top university in India as per the QS Top Universities ranking is The University of Delhi which ranks 501-510 among the world’s best universities. Starting its journey in 1922, the university has 24,725 students from India, 290 students from abroad and 1,176 faculty members. #10 IIT Hyderabad The eighth position among the top universities in India is bagged by Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad that ranks in the 601-650 position among the QS global world ranking. Starting its journey in 2008, the university has today 2,454 students and 216 staff faculty members.

Top ten universities and Institutes in India

In a show of strength, a huge group of academicians is highlighting the flaws of Facebook’s Free Basics. 
 
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is trying everything possible to get people’s approval for Free Basics, through Facebook posts, print and television ads. 
 
However, nearly 50 faculty members of the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science, in a statement, blasted at the Free Basics programme, which is an internet platform that gives users Facebook and a few other services for free. 
 Many claim Free Basics is just a different word to internet.org and violates the principle of <keyword id="6391709" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Net-neutrality">net neutrality</keyword>. 
 
Read Full Statement here: 
 
Allowing a private entity 
 
- to define for Indian Internet users what is “basic”, 
 
- to control what content costs how much, and 
 
- to have access to the personal content created and used by millions of Indians 
 
is a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility, the Internet. Facebook's “free basics” proposal is such a lethal combination, having several deep flaws, beneath the veil of altruism wrapped around it in TV and other media advertisements, as detailed below. 
 
Flaw 1: Facebook defines what is “basic”. 
 
The first obvious flaw in the proposal is that Facebook assumes control of defining what a “basic” service is. They have in fact set up an interface for services to “submit” themselves to Facebook for approval to be a “basic” service. This means: what are the “basic” digital services Indians will access using their own air waves will be decided by a private corporation, and that too one based on foreign soil. The sheer absurdity of this is too obvious to point out. 
 
To draw an analogy, suppose a chocolate company wishes to provide “free basic food” for all Indians, but retains control of what constitutes “basic” food ̶ this would clearly be absurd. Further, if the same company defines its own brand of “toffee” as a “basic” food, it would be doubly absurd and its motives highly questionable. While the Internet is not as essential as food, that the Internet is a public utility touching the lives of rich and poor alike cannot be denied. What Facebook is proposing to do with this public utility is no different from the hypothetical chocolate company. In fact, it has defined itself to be the first “basic” service, as evident from Reliance's ads on Free Facebook. Now, it will require quite a stretch of imagination to classify Facebook as “basic”. This is why Facebook's own ad script writers have prompted Mr. Zuckerberg to instead make emotional appeals of education and healthcare for the poor Indian masses; these appeals are misleading, to say the least. 
 
Flaw 2: Facebook will have access to all your apps' contents. 
 
The second major flaw in the model, is that Facebook would be able to decrypt the contents of the “basic” apps on its servers. This flaw is not visible to the lay person as it's a technical detail, but it has deep and disturbing implications. Since Facebook can access un-encrypted contents of users' “basic” services, either we get to consider health apps to be not basic, or risk revealing health records of all Indians to Facebook. Either we get to consider our banking apps to be not “basic”, or risk exposing the financial information of all Indians to Facebook. And so on. This is mind boggling even under normal circumstances, and even more so considering the recent internal and international snooping activities by the NSA in the US. 
 
Flaw 3: It's not free. 
 
The third flaw is that the term “free” in “free basics” is a marketing gimmick. If you see an ad which says “buy a bottle of hair oil, get a comb free”, you know that the cost of the comb is added somewhere. If something comes for free, its cost has to appear somewhere else. Telecom operators will have to recover the cost of “free basic” apps from the non-free services (otherwise, why not make everything free?). So effectively, whatever Facebook does not consider “basic” will cost more. 
 
If Facebook gets to decide what costs how much, in effect Indians will be surrendering their digital freedom, and freedom in the digital economy, to Facebook. So this is not an issue of elite Indians able to pay for the Internet versus poor Indians, as Facebook is trying to portray. It is an issue of whether all Indians want to surrender their digital freedom to Facebook. 
 
That the “Free Basics” proposal is flawed as above is alarming but not surprising, for it violates one of the core architectural principles of Internet design: net neutrality. Compromising net neutrality, an important design principle of the Internet, would invariably lead to deep consequences on people's freedom to access and use information. We therefore urge that the TRAI should support net neutrality in its strongest form, and thoroughly reject Facebook's “free basics” proposal.

Faculty
members of IITs and IISc are blasting Facebook’s Free Basics, highlighting the
‘lethal combination’ and it is getting viral! Here is the full text

Soon, five laboratories each in seven IITs will be at par with the best in the world, thanks to project 'Vishwajeet' that aims at catapulting 7 IITs to the top league of <keyword id="3119168" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-academic-rankings">global academic rankings</keyword>. 
 During a recent meeting of the <keyword id="6354859" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IIT">IIT</keyword> Directors, it was decided that five laboratories each at <keyword id="6364832" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IIT-Kharagpur">IIT Kharagpur</keyword>, Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Kanpur, Guwahati and Roorkee will get funding from government and industry, to make them at par with the world's best. 
 
It was also discussed that the 1:10 teacher-student ratio is desirable from the current 1:15. The HRD ministry has instructed IITs to hire faculty, foreign talent too. In this regard, the HRD ministry had put forward a proposal to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry recently to ensure the norms related to allowing foreign faculty are made easier. 
 
At the meeting, IIT directors spoke on expansion of student strength to one lakh in IITs. They said the bulk of expansion will take place in post-graduate and Ph.D. Even foreign students will be taken. The reason to induct foreign students is because it is one of the criterion to make way into global university rankings. 
 
In the meeting there was also a clear division on the issue of breaking into top 100 ranking done by foreign agencies. Many directors felt that IITs should rather concentrate on improving themselves and expand the number of courses being taught including humanities.

The IIT labs which will soon be at par with the world's best

Students of IIT, Kharagpur will now be able to study abroad, as a part of the 'Semester Away Programme'. 
 
After the completion of this programme, students will be able to opt for a semester or two at any foreign or Indian university before they complete their course. The course fee for the SAP will have to be arranged by the students. 
 
PK Das, dean of IIT-Kharagpur's post-graduate programme said, "A student will be able to choose an institution in India or abroad and a course offered by them. They will choose the course, take the approval of the faculty and apply." 
 
"The university does not necessarily have to be one we have an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with. If chosen, the students will be able to go there for one or a maximum of two semesters," he added. 
 
Criterion - At the UG level, a student would have to complete four semesters with a CGPA of more than 7 (with no backlog) in order to be eligible provided there are no disciplinary action pending against him/her. A PG candidate will have to complete two semesters (4 semesters for MMST students) with a CGPA more than 7(with no backlog) and no pending disciplinary action. 
 
On successful completion of the programme, students will stand the chance of getting their credits at IIT-KGP waived against the credits earned through SAP. It will depend on the courses they opt for. However, if a student chooses a course for which he cannot get his credits waived, he will be allowed to complete the pending semesters at IIT-KGP within an additional six months. 
 Application deadline for the <keyword id="4271906" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="autumn-semester">autumn semester</keyword> is March 31 and for the spring semester July 31.

Now, IIT Kharagpur students will get to study in world's best colleges for a semester

Yes, India needs that transformation sooner than later as the country should keep the outflow worth $2 billion or more a year, spent by Indian students studying abroad. As most of them do not return, this is certainly a brain drain of sorts. The money goes out of the Indian economy and does not provide any benefit in return. 
 
Moreover, India is an emerging global power. Therefore, in sync with its growing sphere of influence, it not only has to retain its own students but should also attract overseas students. Of course, a few foreign students, mainly from the Middle East, other Asian countries and African nations study in a handful of Indian universities even now. But in tune with developing its economy and its huge IT industry, India should concurrently develop and upgrade its universities. It needs the trained manpower in order to get ahead. 
 
Tough competition in education space However, India faces stiff competition from the <keyword id="106608" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ivy-League">Ivy League</keyword> schools, such as Harvard, Yale and Columbia. In addition, countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and even Australia are developing their education systems and Indian students are also opting for these countries to pursue professional degrees. 
 
Also, Ivy League schools have the advantage of receiving billions of dollars in funding, subsidies and research grants from the US Federal and State governments, as well as their alumni and industry support. Harvard tops the list of recipients with more than $32 billion. Needless to say, no Indian university, however prestigious, can attract that kind of funding, especially in terms of research grants. 
 
Role of Indian institutions The Indian government has in place quite a few top quality technical and business education institutions, thanks to the creation and funding of premier IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and <keyword id="19478" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IIM">IIM</keyword>s (Indian Institutes of Management). Their alumni are in top places, not only in India (they are working with around 33% of Indian companies) but all over the world, especially in the IT industry. Today, Indians such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe Systems head Shantanu Narayen are managing industry-leading companies. Indra Nooyi, the current PepsiCo chairperson and CEO, is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. 
 
Although the number of IITs has grown to 15, the new ones are lacking in good teaching faculty, infrastructure, research funding and corporate support. 
 
Emerging trends 
However, it is heartening to see the success of the 10-year-old and privately funded Indian School of Business Management (ISB). It was placed at No. 12 in 2010 in the Financial Times’ global B-school rankings. 
 
To quote its dean, Ajit Rangnekar, “We identified five key areas in the beginning – an outstanding student body, a world class curriculum, global faculty, a strong infrastructure and a very committed staff to look after the ‘business’ part of the school.” It developed its curriculum with help from Wharton and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. 
 
IIM Ahmedabad, the most prestigious and sought-after business school in India, also got a ranking of No. 11 for its one-year course the first time it applied. In fact, IITs and IIMs are waking up to the fact that they have to go in for brand building if they want to become Ivy Leaguers. 
 <keyword id="6375590" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="amity-university">Amity University</keyword>, another private set-up, is also doing extremely well, attracting students from India and abroad. It has excellent facilities and top teaching faculty, and gives international exposure to its students. Its campuses are spread all over Uttar Pradesh and it has business schools all over India besides international campuses in London, Dubai, Singapore and Mauritius. 
 
Another player is Ashoka University in Delhi, a pure Liberal Arts college providing Ivy League education at a fraction of the cost. It aims to look beyond medical and engineering education. 
 
Joining the ranks 
In a bid to get ahead in the education space, the Indian government approved the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill back in 2010. The aim is to attract Ivy League universities to set up branches in India or collaborate with existing or new Indian institutes. It was proposed that the foreign university should be not less than 20 years old and have a corpus fund of over $10 million. 
 
The response has been lukewarm, though, as top overseas colleges are wary of spoiling their reputation. After all, expansion could lead to dilution of the brand value. Also, most of them run on Federal and State funding, and may not get the same kind of funds for their proposed branches in India. They would have to rely on other sources such as Indian industry/corporate houses and their alumni, and they would be competing with already established Indian institutes. 
 
Another snag that the foreign universities in India could face relates to research and research funding. Most of the cutting edge R&amp;D is carried out in the Ivy League universities and related centres. It is the major attraction for students worldwide. 
 
But research in India has not received the amount of government support it requires. The IITs and IIMs have to interact more closely with the industrial sectors, making education more relevant to commercial needs. Only then they can attract corporate funding. 
 
Indian industries, too, should get more involved in university education as they are drawing their manpower from these institutions. Additionally, private universities, too, should be encouraged. Genuine tie-ups with major foreign institutions in order to improve the quality of education could be the answer. 
 
It is a long road uphill, but India can achieve its dream of becoming an Ivy League destination.

Will India Become An Ivy League Destination?

Smriti Irani-led HRD Ministry is boasting of a slew of decisions and initiatives taken and also accomplished. 
 
The education ministry claims that it has achieved 100% target completion of construction of separate toilets for boys and girls in schools under Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan during the year 2015. 
 
Under several initiatives taken by the HRD ministry, higher education gains prominence as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced more allocation for higher education. 
 
In 2015-16 budget, Jaitley had marginally reduced overall allocations towards education but had increased the planned higher education budget by nearly 22%. 
 
Jaitley proposed to set aside Rs.69, 074.76 crore for education in 2015-16 and higher education was given a plan allocation of Rs.15, 8555.26 crore as against Rs13,000 crore pegged in the revised budget for 2014-15. 
 
Here are some initiatives take by the HRD ministry under higher education till December 31, 2015 
 
Campus connect programme 
All the central universities in the country are going to be connected through WIFI network at a cost of approximately Rs320 crore. Under this, all the classrooms, libraries, laboratories, hostels and places frequented by the students would be connected through a secured WIFI hotspots providing access to the educational and information resources to the students on 24x7 basis. This project will be implemented by ERNET and is expected to be completed by June 2016. 
 
Promoting start-ups 
37 new startup parks/research parks would be set up this year with the coordination of Dept of Science and Technology (fund sharing on 50:50 basis) covering all the IITs, NITs and some IIITs/Central Universities. These would incubate the start-ups and handhold them till they reach the stage of commercialization, normally for a period of five years. IIT Madras Research Park has already become fully functional. 
 
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 
This was launched connecting higher education and society to enable technology and its use for development of rural areas. Under this all technical and higher education institutions have been asked to adopt five villages each; identify technology gaps and prepare plans for innovations that could substantially increase the incomes and growth in the rural areas. 
 
Ucchtar Aavishkar Abhiyaan 
For promotion of innovation, All the IITs have been encouraged to work with the industry to identify areas where innovation is required and come up with solutions that could be brought up to the commercialization level. For this purpose, it is proposed to launch a scheme Ucchtar Aavishkar Abhiyan by investing Rs 250 crore every year on identified projects proposed by IITs and NITs. 
 
Engineering skills to unemployed youth 
An initiative as a part of the PMKVY is being launched to encourage all the 10,000 technical institutions (engineering and polytechnic) to provide engineering skills (through part-time courses of 6 to 8 months duration) to at least 100 unemployed youth using their infrastructure after college-hours. The training costs would be met by the central government and the placement of the trained youth is the responsibility of the institution. This is expected to provide high quality skilled persons required for the Make in India campaign. 
 
Imprint India 
Imprint India, Pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative, aims at direct research in the premier institutions into areas of social relevance. Under this, 10 domains have been identified, which could substantially impact the living standards of the rural areas, including healthcare technology, nano technology, computer science and ICT, manufacturing technology and environment/climate change. The research in each of these areas is being coordinated by one IIT. 
 
Global Initiative for Academics Network (GIAN) 
It was launched as an initiative to attract the best foreign academics to Indian Universities of Excellence. The programme has been launched to facilitate the partnership between higher education institutions of India and other foreign universities. Under this, 352 courses are being offered by foreign faculty from 38 countries. The cost of the travel and honorarium ranging from $8,000 - $12,000 is being met from the scheme funds. 
 
Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) 
The web portal is the Indian electronic e-education platform which proposes to offer courses from the high school stage to post-graduate stage in an interactive electronic platform. The IT platform for SWAYAM is going to be built and is expected to be operationalized by March 31, 2016 with a capacity to host nearly 2,000 courses. This would provide the best quality education to more than three crore students across the country. SWAYAM-MOOCs project is intended to address the needs of school level 9-12 to Under Graduate and Post Graduate students, covering all disciplines.

Budget 2015 report card: Here’s how Smriti Irani-led HRD Ministry fared

US tech company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Cognizant+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Cognizant</a> has retained its first place for the third time in the list of top recruiters in India, making as many as 192 offers at various MBA institutes in the country. 
 
Moreover, three other companies — <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Wipro" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Wipro</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Deloitte+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Deloitte</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=HCL" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">HCL</a> — made more than 100 offers in these institutes. Last year, only two companies had made offers in excess of 100, an exclusive ET survey has revealed. 
 
In a testimony to the growing demand for topnotch MBA talent, India Inc's top recruiters have stepped up campus hiring by 33.5%. 
Ten of India's biggest recruiters hired a total of 1,033 MBAs from 22 top business schools ET surveyed for this study. Around 774 graduates were picked by the top ten recruiters across 21 B-schools the previous year. 
 
These numbers, in absolute terms, reflect what is easily the most aggressive MBA talent drive in the five years that the ET India's Top Recruiters study is being conducted. 
 
The ET top 10 recruiters survey results are based on data from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IIM+Ahmedabad+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">IIM Ahmedabad</a>; IIM Bangalore; IIM Calcutta; IIM Kozhikode; IIM Indore; IIM Shillong; IIM Ranchi; IIM Raipur; IIM Udaipur; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade; International Management Institute, New Delhi; Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi; Faculty of Management Studies, BHU; Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi; XLRI Jamshedpur; XIM Bhubaneswar; SP Jain Institute of Management &amp; Research; IIM Rohtak; MDI Gurgaon; IIM Kashipur and IIM Trichy. 
 Meanwhile, IIT Delhi's Department of Management Studies and IIM Rohtak replaced <keyword id="3761718" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jamnalal-Bajaj-Institute-of-Management-Studies">Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies</keyword> this year. There were 21 institutes last year. 
 With one in every 20-25 technology professionals holding a master's in business administration, Sriram Rajagopal, vice president — HR at <keyword id="28721" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cognizant">Cognizant</keyword> Technology Solutions, says his company is probably one of the most aggressive MBA recruiters in India. 
Besides the 192 hired across the 22 business schools, the company offered jobs to more than 500 MBAs from the 2015 graduating batch. 
 
"We are in the midst of once-in-a-decade shift in the technology landscape. This trend is creating significant opportunities for B-school graduates. We believe our industry leading growth is, in part, a function of our ability to proactively provide solutions to business problems and not just technological capability and this attribute is strengthened by our MBA talent," said Rajagopal. 
 Following on the heels of Cognizant are Wipro, <keyword id="6358918" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Deloitte">Deloitte</keyword>, <keyword id="30331" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="HCL-Technologies">HCL Technologies</keyword>, ICICI Bank and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=KPMG" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">KPMG</a>. The first five companies have been regulars on the top 10 list for the past five years. 
 Moreover, the fifth position this year is shared by two. <keyword id="50041" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="KPMG">KPMG</keyword> has made a big entry into the list for the first time to be alongside ICICI Bank. The consultancy firm hired 90 students from the surveyed schools, and reported a more than 20% overall jump in its MBA intake over the past two years. 
"Our MBA intake over the past few years has increased substantially," said Shalini Pillay, head of people, performance and culture at KPMG in India. "This is commensurate with our growth across various services in the advisory space.” 
 
Rival Deloitte reported a 30% increase in overall MBA hiring over the previous year, taking in 108 graduates at the surveyed schools alone. Wipro said it strengthened its focus on hiring from select B-schools and recruited 127. HCL and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ICICI+Bank+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">ICICI Bank</a> hired 101 and 90, respectively, from the surveyed business schools. 
 
"Hiring talent from top-tier business schools through campus recruitment, thereby building a talent pipeline to create leaders for tomorrow, has been integral to ICICI Bank's recruitment strategy. This year, we have recruited 180 students from business schools across the country," said TK Srirang, the bank's senior general manager and HR head. 
 <keyword id="6370971" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Accenture">Accenture</keyword> and <keyword id="15492" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vodafone">Vodafone</keyword> enhanced B-school hiring and reported a significant uptick in this year's numbers. Accenture was the top recruiter at the top three IIMs, with 49 offers, of them 21 at IIM Ahmedabad alone. 
 
"Yes, we are hiring more MBAs now. We believe that MBA talent is extremely important and a key component of our hiring and growth strategy," said Sukhpreet Kalra, associate director, recruitment, for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Accenture+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Accenture</a> in India. 
 
Vodafone recruited 82 graduates from the surveyed schools to debut on the list at the eighth position. While Amazon led the ecommerce companies vying for fresh MBA talent, hiring 84 across the schools surveyed and moving to the seventh position from joint ninth last year. With <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> snapping up the ninth slot and making its debut on the list with 81 hires, India's largest online retailer, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, missed out on the top 10 rankings by a whisker. 
 
Raj Raghavan, HR director at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Amazon" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Amazon</a> India, said the company has seen a 140% increase in its MBA intake over the past two years. "B-school graduates are a key part of our growth story in India and we are building a leadership pipeline for the future," he said. The company offered roles across operations, consumer business, HR and finance, and around 25% of its MBA hires came through pre-placement offers. 
 
Snapdeal, for the first time, had a large structured B-school hiring plan. It hired for roles in sales and marketing, business strategy, category management, supply chain and product management. 
 
"MBA graduates have proven to be better equipped to analyse, interpret and find actionable trends from complex data. Thus, it is crucial for us to get on board MBA talent for the company's overall business and growth strategy. We have hired around 250 MBA graduates across Indian B-schools this year," said Vice President Saurabh Nigam. 
 
Companies like Deloitte and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Vodafone+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Vodafone</a> hired a big chunk of B-school graduates through pre-placement offers (PPOs). 
 
"In the last fiscal (year), we had about 288 interns... A majority of them went on to secure PPOs," said SV Nathan, senior director and chief talent officer at Deloitte in India. Out of the 100 B-school candidates Vodafone hired this year, 57% had been through PPOs. The focus on B-school talent is only going to sharpen for recruiters, the study shows. 
 
Amazon's Raghavan said with India becoming a major growth story for the US-headquartered company, it was looking for top talent from business schools to build a career in Amazon. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Cognizant is top recruiter in India! Wipro, Deloitte, HCL, ICICI Bank and KPMG in top five

We are all familiar with the challenges for <keyword id="6375224" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="higher-education">higher education</keyword> in India. Not enough capacity – the danger that we will not be able to cope with sheer numbers and provide direly needed education to the majority of our young in the years to come, turning our so called <keyword id="576921" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="demographic-dividend">demographic dividend</keyword> into a disaster. Very poor quality – our existing institutions are in decline and the quality of new institutions are generally sub-par. Obsession with specialisation – in a society hankering for employment the emphasis on studying engineering, management, law, medicine, commerce, etc., is creating legions of trained manpower rather than problem-solvers and leaders. The government is making tremendous efforts to expand capacity by creating greenfield institutions, but there is only so much the government can do. It needs to be given a leg up by the private sector, but deplorably the regulatory <keyword id="6356826" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="environment">environment</keyword> remains constraining even for legitimate private players to set up institutions – most private institutions tend to be perceived as money-making rackets, with little or no concern for their students. In this context, much has been written and said about how to solve India’s higher education mess. Let me suggest three ideas that could radically change our country’s trajectory. While these ideas may seem far-fetched, I believe we, other than any country, have the opportunity to innovate in higher education and, in fact, have no choice but to do so. 
 
• Create education SEZs 
• Offer surplus land within existing public institutions to new public or private institutions 
• Rapidly expand Massive Open Online Courses) (MOOCs ) 
 
Creating SedZs Creating <keyword id="776571" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Special-education">Special education</keyword> Zones (SedZs) akin to the industrial Special economic Zones (SeZs) can transform access to and the quality of higher education in this country. every year hundreds of thousands of our bright young students have no choice but to go abroad for higher studies. They spend billions of dollars and thousands of crores to get this education. What is worse, a simple demand-supply analysis of higher education suggests that these numbers will continue to grow, and grow exponentially. We are, in effect, outsourcing higher education to the US, UK, Australia and <keyword id="22501" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="New-Zealand">New Zealand</keyword>. Recently, one of my employees sent her son to study dentistry in <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> even though she could ill-afford it. The new craze is “twinning programmes” where you study in an Indian university for 2 years and then complete your graduation and get a degree in the foreign university. <keyword id="6356662" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Singapore">Singapore</keyword> and <keyword id="6354539" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Dubai">Dubai</keyword> are ostensibly building education hubs for Asia, but the reality is that it is Indian students hungry for a good education who are swarming new institutions in these locations. The tragedy is that home-grown public and private institutions are now setting up campuses in neighbouring and far-away foreign locations to escape overpowering local regulatory constraints. In effect, even though we can ill-afford to, as a country, we are outsourcing, and increasingly so, our higher education to the west. Given that both the supply of students and the demand for college graduates are right here in India, why not replicate the “overseas and higher-quality” experience in India by creating SedZs along the lines of the manufacturing SeZs. Interestingly, the concept of SeZs for education first seemed to have surfaced in 2004. In a then oped, the <keyword id="2776992" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="erstwhile-commerce-Secretary">erstwhile commerce Secretary</keyword> <keyword id="2776991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="P-P-Prabhu">P.P. Prabhu</keyword> had made a case vigorously for SedZs saying, “The Special education Zone (SedZ) institution should be treated as though it is deemed to have been established in a foreign enclave, and, therefore, freed from all domestic controls and restrictions. An SedZ institution...should not be required to seek any approvals for its courses; it would need to be allowed to charge any fees, follow its own admission criteria and award its own degrees, and so on. However, if an SedZ institution wants recognition of its degrees and diplomas in our country, it would be required to meet the standards and conditions of affiliation and recognition.” 
 
Leveraging surplus land in existing institutions 
I have recently been part of an effort to build a new private university in India. With our poor infrastructure it is impossible to build a high-quality institution away from a large urban centre in India. Faculty are unwilling to teach and live in a place that does not offer employment opportunities for their spouses and an excellent school for their children. A case in point are the new IITs and IIMs, several of which, established in far-flung areas of the country on vast tracts of land in isolated settings, are struggling to attract faculty for the lack of adequate social infrastructure around their campuses. Clearly, for new institutions, urban or suburban locations make most sense. Urban and suburban locations make sense also because of the emerging trend of inner-city university campuses that are tightly integrated with their host cities. As <keyword id="2776994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Kerstin-Hoeger">Kerstin Hoeger</keyword>, full <keyword id="2776990" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="professor-of-architecture">professor of architecture</keyword> and urban design at Norwegian university of Science and Technology points out, “worldwide, universities and their host cities are evolving into ‘knowledge cities’.” She and others in the field argue that the erstwhile ideal of a mono-functional and isolated greenfield campus removed from the city, providing academics and students the distance to reflect on humanity, is fast becoming obsolete in the context of modern knowledge societies, and is giving way instead to open campuses that share a close relationship with their host city. In fact, when seen today many of the top 50 universities of the world – for instance, <keyword id="54274" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="MIT">MIT</keyword>, LSE, <keyword id="53675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="harvard">Harvard</keyword> and TU Berlin to name a few – are embedded in such ‘knowledge ecosystems’ enabling them to perform better. However, the model demands tracts of centrally located urban or semi-urban land that are increasingly hard to come by and come at exorbitant prices. For a new university to incur the high cost of land acquisition in its early stages is crippling – most new institutions end up investing large amounts in <keyword id="6354553" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="real-estate">real estate</keyword> even before they get started, unless they get subsidized and free land from the Government. Even so, most urban centres do not have unutilised land that the Government can allot for higher education. By contrast several central universities and institutes have vast tracts of land within urban areas that are underutilised. As an example, the <keyword id="58265" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jawaharlal-Nehru-University">Jawaharlal Nehru University</keyword> (JNU) in Delhi has a 1000-acre campus that is largely unused. <keyword id="105777" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Osmania-University-in-Hyderabad">Osmania University in Hyderabad</keyword> has a 2000-acre campus. Why not allow new institutions to co-build and co-habit campuses for a fee and ensure more efficient utilisation of scarce and precious space. The “rentals” for the land will help supplement and improve the <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> of existing institutions and not needing to spend their initial capital on land acquisition will help the new institution, in addition to giving them an attractive location to launch from. At the very least, the government should expand capacity and diversify areas of study in its central and public universities and institutes of national importance situated in central urban locations and built on vast tracts of land. 
 
Rapidly scaling up Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) India has no option but to <keyword id="819920" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="embrace">embrace</keyword> online education in a big way. This is because MOOCs are capable of solving two of India’s most pressing constraints at once – access and quality. It is near impossible for the country to provide a high-quality university education to the millions of deserving students with the existing numbers and quality of faculty. Current faculty-student ratios will just not get us there. The only way to fundamentally shift that ratio is to have “massive” classes made possible by the new MOOCs. In online education, unlike in traditional education, a few high-quality professors can reach manifold students. Of course, people will get into a debate whether this has the potential to replace teachers but we have also seen developments like Kindle and music players which have redefined usage patterns. There is also the classic intellectual debate about whether online education will work in isolation, in the absence of a classroom full of students, peers and teachers, but new theories show that self-learning is a new model whose time has come. But more importantly, we need to ask ourselves if we can afford to engage in such debates. India seemingly has no choice! Unlike in the West, where online education only adds to what already exists (more like education for the educated), in India it has the potential to be the first port of call for millions of students who are currently left out of the higher education system, or are having to settle for lower quality alternatives. Even if this model is the second or third choice for developed countries, it is a luxury for India to spurn it out of hand. In fact, many young Indians are already taking to MOOCs in a big way. At roughly 10%, Indian students form the second-largest group on Coursera, the biggest US-based MOOC, which has 4.3 million enrolments from over 190 countries. On Udacity and EdX, the other top-3 MOOCs, Indians represent equally large proportions. Clearly, innumerable Indian students see great value in MOOCs since the demand for education, particularly high-quality education, is way higher than supply and availability. At the very least, online education provides another chance to students who cannot understand or clear a course in the first attempt, and acts as a great democratiser. Agreed that distance or online learning is not the newest idea on the block – it has been around for a while. There are 176 institutes in India that offer distance learning programmes and 26% students are enrolled in them. However, there is a need to deregulate and scale up the distance/online learning model to be much larger than what it currently is. If we are ever to achieve quality with access, there is also a need to mainstream this sort of learning. The ideal solution has to be a blend where online education plays an important role in mainstream education. 
 
(The <keyword id="842" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="author">author</keyword>, Pramath Raj Sinha, is <keyword id="1535570" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="founder-and-managing-director">founder and managing director</keyword> 9.9 Media. He has also served as the founding <keyword id="6548521" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="dean">dean</keyword> of the <keyword id="6357275" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-School-of-Business">Indian School of Business</keyword>. This article was contributed to Thinkers, a quarterly thought leadership magazine that features the brightest thinkers in the areas of economics and governance, philosophy and literature, science and technology, and management. To learn more about the magazine, please visit: <a href="http://www.thinkers.in/">www.thinkers.in</a> )

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