Best MBA colleges in India in 2019

“MBA, are you sure?” asked my best friend.

“Why not, it adds up to your educational profile, you get an overall leadership development training and you also get to know how the business works.”

She looked at me in disbelief and asked, “Do you know there are approximately 5,500 B-schools in India currently? Every year, roughly 5 lakh students graduate as MBAs and the saddest part is only 7 % of them are actually employable.”

I was about to defend but she continued to warn, “The average salary that they receive after paying the mammoth amount of fees to the MBA colleges is somewhere around Rs 3 to 5 Lakhs annually. It is extremely uncertain whether you will even get any return on your investment through MBA.”

For days, I kept thinking about the facts and the statistics that my friend bombarded me with. It was too scary and risky but something within me kept me inquisitive. I started to do an extensive research about the positive probabilities.

As I read through articles and blogs, I came across many leading women in India from the business world. To name a few would be Leena Nair. She is the first female, first Asian chief HR officer of the Unilever group. Also, women like Indra  Nooyi and many others are ruling the business world.

The solution for all the above apprehensions was found and was indeed a very simple one.

If you want an MBA degree with a hi-fi corporate job in hand that would offer an exceptional pay along with work-life balance, then get into the best of the best MBA colleges in India.

The A++ B-Schools have years of experience in teaching, innovative Research and Development labs, case studies of the business world and the most intelligent minds as their students. Here, the students are hired right from their campuses with a very handsome pay and the knowledge that is imparted to them is of a premier quality.

Want to know which colleges should be on your target list to become a Master in Business Administration?

Read through the list of a few of the best MBA colleges in India. For more details about the selection criteria and fee structure, visit the official site of each.

#1. Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta etc)

Register the ABC of IIMs deep inside your mind and work extra hard to achieve your admission in any of these most prestigious colleges of India. The faculty, syllabus, campus, placement and everything about the college is at a supreme level. All these colleges have secured their position at the highest ranks, amongst all the colleges in India, consistently through many years. Getting into an IIM is a golden ticket to success. The IIMs are the best MBA colleges in India placement wise.

Ownership: Government

Intake Exam: CAT/GMAT

#2. XLRI – Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur

XLRI is another hot favorite college for the students who want to pursue an MBA. It is ranked 1st among private B-Schools. Along with many facilities provided to the students, it also has a partnership with prestigious foreign universities like Tulane University, ESADE Business School for student/faculty exchange, research and training. Needless to say, the placement records have been eye-catching all the time.

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: XAT/GMAT

#3. FMS - Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi

FMS is one of the oldest and an outstanding college for management studies. It was established in 1954 under the aegis of the University of Delhi. The striking feature of the college is the rich history that it holds, for it is a founding member of the Association of Management Development Institutions of South Asia and hence, has collaborations with institutions around the world.

Also, a fact not to be missed is the tie-up with Harvard Business School to exchange Journal of Management Research.

Ownership: Government

Intake Exam: CAT

#4. MDI - Management Development Institute, Gurgaon

MDI proudly holds the 2nd rank all over India and offers a number of specializations. Several plus points like the curriculum, teaching faculty, placement records are present, similar to other cream level B-Schools in India. However, the campus spans up to 12 km and has a library which has a huge collection of over 60,000 books.

Moreover it has a good electronic resources which include e-books, journals, databases, audio-visual materials, CDs/DVDs, e-journals, reports, case studies, conference proceedings, training manuals etc.

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: CAT

#5. SJMSOM - Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

SJMSOM is a B-School which is a part of the prestigious IIT Bombay. It provides management courses in leadership, economics, marketing, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, technology management, operations, strategy and other areas. Overall, the motto of the school is to develop managers for an integrated understanding of all business functions.

The rigorous syllabus taught at the school is well balanced with activities like Asia’s biggest cultural festival Mood Indigo. In addition to these, there are a few merit-based scholarships from the Shailesh J Mehta Endowment Fund.

Ownership: Government

Intake Exam: CAT

#6. SPJIMR - S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai

SPJIMR is a famous B-school situated in the western suburbs of Mumbai. Having a vast campus of 45 acres, it has an annual intake of some 700 students under various programmes. According to Wikipedia, SPJIMR was ranked 19 among management schools in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2018, fifth by Business Today's ‘India's best B-schools 2016’ and sixth in India by Outlook India's ‘Top 100 Management Schools of 2016’.

There are also some diverse short-term programmes which are salient features of this college:

- Start Your Business programme (SYB) aimed at budding entrepreneurs,

- Grow Your Business programme (GYB) to help meet the common challenges faced by small business owners,

- Programme in Strategic Media & Entertainment Management (PSMEM) conducted in partnership with the Times Centre for Learning Ltd. (TCLL)

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: CAT/XAT/GMAT

#7. IMT - Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, UP

IMT is consistently ranked as one of the best business schools in India. It offers distance learning as well as collaborative programmes. Here, the two-year PGDM programme is based on inputs from alumni and industry experts. An excerpt from wiki says that in addition to the two-month Summer Internship Program that all MBA graduates undergo, IMT Ghaziabad has a Long Term SIP (6 months) with a few companies wherein the students get more exposure with the companies that they are interning with. There are also a couple of interactive sessions done with the corporate sector and a number of events are organized for recreational purposes.

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: CAT/XAT/GMAT

#8. NMIMS - SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute Of Management Studies, Mumbai

NMIMS has a legacy of 36 years and is a multidisciplinary university that imparts an erudite culture and knowledge into the minds of their students. Narsee Monjee has an excellent placement record and enjoys the trust of leading MNCs. It has as many as 12000 students and 513 full-time faculty members. A number of reasons are there to enroll into Narsee Monjee but the one that would surely attract a passionate learner would be the chance to study various different subjects under a very generic course.

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: NMAT, NPAT

#9. SIBM - Symbiosis Institute Of Business Management, Pune

SIBM has a vision of “Promoting international understanding through quality education.” It is more of a student-driven institute which has illustrious alumni, exemplary students, full-time faculty and numerous visiting faculty members from various industries. It also has a placement record amongst the best of all in India, providing careers in diverse profiles across verticals and functional domains. SIBM also flaunts its stature with its picturesque campus, state-of-the-art infrastructure and is certainly one of the best B-Schools in India, situated in the Oxford of East (Pune).

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: SNAP

#10. TAPMI - T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal

TAPMI was established in 1980 and is located in the university town of Manipal in Karnataka. “TAPMI is designed to push students to go beyond their constraints and redraw their boundaries to achieve excellence in business. Every aspect of a student’s life in the two-year period involves decision-making, with its consequent results.” Student reviews like these speak volumes about their satisfaction by enrolling in this college. The course design is based on experiential learning and makes use of the case-study approach to simulate situations which the future managers might face in the real world.

Ownership: Private

Intake Exam: CAT/XAT/GMAT

A few days later, I met my Anti-MBA friend again.  Mockingly, she asked, “So, has the MBA fever left you?”

And I happily replied, “No, in fact, it has got even worse. I guess it will leave only when I am done with my entrances and have paved my way to one of the premium B-Schools. One last thing that you should probably know is that women are born managers. Also, as it is said, every coin has two sides, it depends on us which side we would prefer to keep our focus on.”