Page 112 - EW may 2026

Cover Story

INDIA’S TOP 200

PRIVATE B-SCHOOLS

The annual EWIHER ranks the country’s 200 most well-
reputed private B-schools. It serves a useful purpose inasmuch
as it beams a searchlight on easily accessible B-schools which
don’t receive the coverage and publicity of the IIMs

Dilip Thakore

A S FOUNDING-EDITOR OF Business

India and BusinessWorld — In-
dia’s first business news magazines
which planted the seeds of liber-
alisation and deregulation of the
Indian economy after 30 years of
licence-permit-quota raj strangled
Indian industry at birth — I recall
being very excited by the prospect of writing about the In-
dian Institutes of Management (IIMs), especially the high-
profile IIM-Ahmedabad. Over 40 years ago, I duly wrote de-
tailed cover stories on IIM-A, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta,
dutifully recording the great productivity leaps they were
planning to vault Indian industry into the orbit of devel-
oped western nations. But now almost half a century later,
although the number of IIMs — endowed by taxpayers with ISB, Hyderabad: #1 for a decade
huge 100-acre state-of-the-art campuses hosting only 500-
600 highly-subsidised students — has multiplied to 23, I like, which would enable India Inc to mine the fortune at
can’t recall any of them having ideated a headline-grabbing the bottom of the social pyramid as the late and forgotten
innovation or project to vault India or any corporate into Prof. C.K. Prahlad reminded us is available for the taking.
the league of OECD nations. Undoubtedly, IIM professors and graduates have concep-
I expected their learned research-oriented professors tualised plans and programmes that have marginally im-
and students to come up with something like mass afford- proved productivity of India Inc and the Central and state
able housing, a massive food processing industry and the governments, but one is still waiting for breakthrough ideas

112 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2026