In the competitive landscape of Indian management education, placement packages are the ultimate barometer of a B-school’s success. Both students and recruiters follow these numbers, and the data submitted by India’s top B-schools for the NIRF ‘India Rankings 2025: Management’ for the 2023-24 batch throws up some interesting insights – it also shows that a top-ranked B-school might not offer the best salary, and vice versa.
The big three
Although IIM Ahmedabad has been consistently topping the NIRF rankings, when it comes to the median salary of placed graduates, it’s IIM Mumbai that is leading the charts, with a package of Rs 33 lakh per annum. Founded in 1963 as the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), and turned into IIM Mumbai in 2022-23, the B-school has a strong focus on industrial engineering, operations, and supply chain management – specialisations that are highly sought after by manufacturing, logistics, consulting, and e-commerce companies. It also has location advantage – Mumbai, the financial and commercial capital of India, provides a massive advantage for corporate interaction, live projects, and placements.
At the second position is IIM Bangalore, with a median salary of placed graduates at Rs 32.5 lakh. The B-school has an elite brand reputation, strategic location in India’s technology hub, and is also featured prominently in the Financial Times (FT) Global MBA Rankings – making it popular with global recruiters.
At the third position is India’s most famous B-school, IIM Ahmedabad, whose students earned a median salary of Rs 31 lakh per annum. An education expert told FE that the reason why its package is lower than IIM Bangalore is because IIM Ahmedabad admits more freshers who are often hired for entry-level management roles, which have lower starting salaries, pulling the median down. IIM Bangalore, on the other hand, attracts students with relatively higher work experience, enabling more lateral placements and pushing the median higher.
The next tier
There is a tie between IIM Calcutta – India’s oldest IIM set up in 1961 – and IIM Lucknow, with both having a median package of Rs 30 lakh. Till 2022, IIM Calcutta was consistently ranked India’s third-best B-school, but lost the position to IIM Kozhikode in 2023. It slipped to the fifth position in 2024, and seventh in 2025. The median package of IIM Calcutta students has also dropped – from Rs 33.67 lakh (2022-23 batch) to Rs 30 lakh (2023-24).
At the sixth position is India’s oldest B-school – XLRI – Xavier School of Management, which was set up in 1949. Its students earned an average of Rs 28 lakh. Despite it being located in Jamshedpur (a non-metro city), XLRI’s success is driven by legacy, HR specialisation, and a strong alumni network, which outweigh any geographical constraints. XLRI’s PGDM (HRM) is considered among the best in Asia, and attracts top-tier firms looking to hire for high-paying HR leadership roles.
IIM Kozhikode – which is now India’s third-best B-school – is at the seventh position, with a package of Rs 27 lakh per annum.
Rounding up
At the eighth position is MDI Gurgaon (median salary of Rs 26.13 lakh), which benefits from its location, legacy, and alumni network. At the ninth rank is IIM Indore (Rs 25.5 lakh), and then comes the Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi (Rs 22.05 lakh), which often admits students with strong technical backgrounds.
Why median salary?
The median salary figure is arguably a more reliable indicator of overall placement strength than the often-publicised highest package, as it represents the central point of the salary distribution, minimising the skew caused by a few high-paying offers.
(The Indian School of Business, with campuses in Hyderabad and Mohali, also offers high placement packages to its students, with a median salary of more than Rs 30 lakh per annum, but the ISB doesn’t take part in the NIRF rankings, because till last year it didn’t offer the traditional two-year MBA that is used by the NIRF ranking framework.)
Median salary
(Placed graduates for academic year 2023-24)
IIM Mumbai: Rs 33 lakh
IIM Bangalore: Rs 32.5 lakh
IIM Ahmedabad: Rs 31 lakh
IIM Calcutta: Rs 30 lakh
IIM Lucknow: Rs 30 lakh
XLRI – Xavier School of Management: Rs 28 lakh
IIM Kozhikode: Rs 27 lakh
MDI Gurgaon: Rs 26.13 lakh
IIM Indore: Rs 25.5 lakh
IIT Delhi: Rs 22.05 lakh
(As per data submitted for the NIRF 2025 rankings)
