For the second year in a row, Indian School of Business (ISB) has been ranked 15th in the global B-school rankings as released by the Financial Times, London. The institute earlier ranked 20 by Financial Times, making it the first Indian business school to be counted among the world?s top 20 among leading international business schools.
Congratulating the ISB community, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, said that this was a testimony of the dedication and commitment by the faculty, students, alumni and staff. ISB was established in the year 2001 by a group of leading industrialists and academicians from the country and abroad with 126 students. The class of 2009 will have 440 students graduating in April 2009. With a steady increase in the intake of students, ISB would be increasing the number of students to 560 in the class of 2010.
Besides, it would also be adding more faculty and may take the number to 35. ISB?s second campus at Mohali is likely to commence classes in 2012. The new campus aims to focus on public policy, infrastructure, healthcare and manufacturing with centres of excellence. It would also be looking at a few issues such as affordable housing, education and healthcare as well to help the masses.
On the former dean Ram Mohan Rao?s role as independent director on Satyam, Rangnekar said that the institute was shocked. ?We were handicapped as there were no authentic information available,?? he said without elaborating more on the whole saga.
Meanwhile, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc joined with students at the Indian School of Business (ISB) to mark the graduation of the first students in the 10,000 Women initiative in India. 10,000 Women is a global effort providing underserved women, predominantly in developing and emerging markets, with business and management education.
Graduating students met with leaders from Goldman Sachs, ISB, and presented business plans developed through their coursework and intended to expand their existing businesses. The first graduating class of 29 women began their course work in October. Graduates completed a 150-hour certificate programme in entrepreneurship that included three weeks of classroom instruction and nine weeks of mentoring and on-the-job support. The end goal of the coursework was to help the women expand their businesses from start-ups to growing and sustainable enterprises. A second group of women will begin their studies in Bangalore in February. A total of 300 Indian women will receive training over the five-year programme.
The 10,000 Women initiative was founded on research conducted by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others, which found that educating women is one of the most effective ways to increase economic growth and improve living standards in developing economies. Studies conclude that, on average, a one percentage point increase in female education raises annual GDP growth rates by 0.2 percentage point.
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative was launched March 5, 2008. It will commit $100 million over the next five years and has partnered with more than 50 universities and organisations in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and the US to seek, create and develop programmes to impact the quality and capacity of business education in developing regions around the world.