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India: MBA or PGP?

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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Mon Apr 24, 2006 12:15 PM
Just out of curiosity: Whats the difference between MBAs und PGP degrees in India? It seems to me that most schools only offer PGPs?
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av_rad

Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 3
India: MBA or PGP?
Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:50 AM
sir, plz note that pgp is the indian equal to mba offered by the indian institute of management branches all across india like at ahmedabad and bangalore. it is a 2 yr course predominately.
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:14 AM
Thanks avrad, so are the pgps at the indian institute better than other (MBA) programs? Could one generally say that an MBA from India is less prestigous than a PGP from India?
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Nestor


Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 12
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 03, 2006 08:07 PM
Hi. i think so. the indian institutes are some of the highest ranked and most internationally recognized "B-schools" in India. I think its probably safe say they are at least as good if not better than the other indian mbas in terms of reputation and prestige.
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Thu May 04, 2006 03:23 PM
Yes, that was also my impression, still strange that they call it PGP instead of MBA but anyway..
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Nestor


Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 12
India: MBA or PGP?
Fri May 05, 2006 08:00 AM
don't think it bothers employers over there, tho. perhaps it would take some explaining in "the West" where the name mba is still king.
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Tue May 09, 2006 10:00 PM
Definitely! However, I dont think there are too many westerners doing their MBA in India.
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asdc

Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 37
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 10, 2006 09:34 AM
Who knows? Maybe thats the next big thing, forget Columbia... ;-)
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 10, 2006 11:41 AM
Definitely! However, I dont think there are too many westerners doing their MBA in India.


so far, india was not a destination for business......so no one was enchanted to do MBA..... but with the advent of business age in the emerging and surging India, more and more people will be tempted to learn from the ground where teachings of the west probably might not be very helpful.
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 10, 2006 11:50 AM
Yes, that was also my impression, still strange that they call it PGP instead of MBA but anyway..


i guess it should not be strage..........MBA stands for a well established culture of business in the west.......profit making and seeking economic well being are some of the well known top agendas in life.........but, in Indian culture, profit making has never been seen as something noble.........for good or bad, India untill recently never produced any great businessman.........India has at best been a country of merchants or tradesman.........not businessman...........thus the nomenclature comes from this tendency. In the psyche of people, MBA is a blunt expression of expansion of business ambitions, individual gains........whereas PGP simply denotes an enhancement of the knowledge......... and in my understanding, this seems the best explanation of why they dont name all these programs as MBA.........at least until now.
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 10, 2006 11:56 AM
Who knows? Maybe thats the next big thing, forget Columbia... ;-)


well, i would not be surprised if that happens..........as this is widely circulated belief among IITians in India that only those attend MIT who fail in IIT entrance...........noting Indian IT's strength, it does not sound totally false...........

so now as the fastest growing democracy in the world, the same happens to IIMs.....or IBS, i would not be startled....
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 10, 2006 12:13 PM
Finally someone with insight, very interesting indeed! IF this is in fact the explanation for the PGP name then it is certainly a different approach to the whole topic. I agree with you as far as future prospects are concerned. Although I dont think that Indian Bschools will take the place of the big US schools, I am sure that there will be much more cooperation with Indian schools, like there is already between Chinese and US/EU schools, especially for EMBAs.
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Thu May 11, 2006 07:39 AM
Finally someone with insight, very interesting indeed! IF this is in fact the explanation for the PGP name then it is certainly a different approach to the whole topic. I agree with you as far as future prospects are concerned. Although I dont think that Indian Bschools will take the place of the big US schools, I am sure that there will be much more cooperation with Indian schools, like there is already between Chinese and US/EU schools, especially for EMBAs.


I agree that in general, there may not be a match between US and Indian university output but considering the types of professionals these schools are churning, I would still like to take sometime before reaching any conclusion. Though not a very strict distinction, US biz schools have a large majority of students with economic, finance and management background......but in India, most of these people are from engineering, maths, medicin background combined with the ability to operate amidst corruption, poor infrastructure and several social constraints, ........so this combination will have an impact of how at least biz education and its prospects are seen in the coming years. There is a major shift in the turf...... I think this is the reason why many are opting for schools like ceibs in China or other Asian schools (including INSEAD singapore campus )........

Seems that IIT, IIM and ISB are not worried about world ranking or catching up with anyone as long as their students get amaging offers (like USD 233,800 for 2006 ISB which is not a very old school, let alone IIT and IIM).

some of the interesting reads:
www.isb.edu/campussbuzz1/Placements2006/index.html…
economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1024377.c…
in.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/17iim.htm
www.iimahd.ernet.in/latest/iim_placement.htm
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Genta


Joined: 18 Apr 2005
Posts: 5
India: MBA or PGP?
Thu May 11, 2006 09:33 AM
Good point lifelonglearner, at least for Asia/China you can already see how demand is shifting with many of the western programs offering their MBAS partly over here. Are there any programs like INSEAD in India, which are offered in collaboration with western bschoolz? I could not find any..

[Edited by link updater on 11 May 2006]
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Thu May 11, 2006 10:48 AM
Dear Genta,

I think due to some education policies, so far no collaboration has been materialized like INSEAD's singapore campus or joint programs in many Chinese universities.

But IIT and IIM have plans to go beyond the Indian territory in near future.......... I think Singapore is said to be one of the first destinations ..... Otherwise for study in India at a school with global outlook, check for ISB Hyderabad (isb.edu) that has a very impressive faculty and academic alliance with Wharton, Kellogg and LBS.
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Genta


Joined: 18 Apr 2005
Posts: 5
India: MBA or PGP?
Fri May 12, 2006 08:01 AM
Interesting, I am going to check out the link. I think this is really a gap in the market that ought to be bridged..
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Mon May 15, 2006 08:11 AM
....came across this article while going through updates in emerging markets. .....hope this will give some more idea on what they are looking for in India.........cheers....

----------------
Move over Wharton, IIT is here
appeared in The Times of India of 15 May 2006

Brand IIT may have just got bigger. This year, for the first time, investment firms, which usually hire management graduates from Princeton, Wharton and MIT, were seen knocking on the doors of IIT Delhi to recruit engineering graduates for finance jobs.

The annual pay packages are in the range of $60,000-100,000 . the same amount that a Wharton or MIT graduate for the same position would be offered. Out of the batch of 450, about 25 have got offers from I-banks like Merrill Lynch, PIMCO, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, UBS and Lehman Brothers. Rachit Jain,who has got an offer of $100,000 from Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), is elated.

"I had planned to do an MBA and only then was I expecting to be made such a lucrative offer. Had this not worked out, my career would have charted a different course.' Geetanjai Mittal, an associate with Merrill Lynch, said: "We usually hire students from MIT, Wharton and IIMs, and many of them have an IIT degree too. So this year, we decided that we might as well hire directly from IIT.' Students are essentially being hired for finance jobs . which have traditionally been considered the preserve of MBA students.

"An MBA degree is not mandatory for these jobs.What's actually required are number-crunching skills which are well-possessed by these engineering students," added Mittal.

What this also means is that many of these students have quit the idea of pursuing an MBA since it would be precisely for such jobs that they would want that degree.

Akhilesh Chaudhary, who has got an offer from Merrill Lynch, has dropped plans to go to IIM Bangalore where he had been selected. "I've been offered an annual package of $60,000, plus a $10,000 sign-on bonus and performance-based incentives, and I'll most probably be posted in London or New York. So this just changes my career plans,' he says.

Amit Aggarwal, who has been offered the position of an analyst at Merrill Lynch, says: "If I went into management after this, it would be because that would allow me to shift into finance. I had got a job with Google, Bangalore and after a few years of work experience, would have gone in for an MBA. Now all these plans appear to be pretty much redundant.'
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Mon May 15, 2006 08:44 AM
Hey, thats interesting stuff, thanks again! Btw, where are you planning to do your MBA, in India or abroad?
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Mon May 15, 2006 03:39 PM
........i would love to be in ISB if they accept me.........but not sure as the competition is pretty tough.............
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Wed May 17, 2006 12:32 PM
I see, and going abroad is not an option for you?
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Thu May 18, 2006 11:40 AM
well.......i m already a world citizen for a decade and a half.....in various countries........ might opt for a European school in the coming years........not sure yet........trying to be stingy and save money... ........cuz now, as i feel, not a big brand name but a ground knowledge would matter a lot in dealing with the emerging markets ....and that is 'what they dont teach at harvard' :)

[Edited by link updater on 18 May 2006]
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Fri May 19, 2006 08:34 AM
Interesting, have you been to Europe before, Germany even? Berlin is quite exciting at the moment, well, actually already has been for 10-15 years now...
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lifelonglearner


Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 19
India: MBA or PGP?
Fri May 19, 2006 11:27 AM
yeah, few times to Europe........thrice to Germany; loved frankfurt and munich.........never been to Berlin........maybe in the coming months.........

btw, could you suggest some nice masters programs in economics, health economics, energy sector management etc.........mainly intersted in one year (or less than 2 years) programs in english.........in leading german institutions..

also, how those programs are rated in the industry..........
cheers...........
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Roland


Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 52
India: MBA or PGP?
Mon May 22, 2006 09:28 AM
Hmm, it really depends. Most German b schools are not very well known internationally, so if you plan to return to India afterwards, maybe the new ESMT program or the pan-European ESCP-EAP Program (both in Berlin) will probably be the best bet since they are known elsewhere too.
If you want to work in Germany after your MBA, then its a different story. You have schools like the Fachhochschule Reutlingen or the WHU, which have a good name in the industry (although I would not recommend them locationwise). In general, the differences arent too great in quality. If I were you I would think location and then pick a school there. Dont know much about Health care, sorry, maybe try the search function. Hope this helps.

[Edited by link updater on 22 May 2006]
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header

Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7
India: MBA or PGP?
Mon Nov 09, 2009 04:24 AM
Guys,

Just to benefit anyone looking at this thread in the archives let me clarify the misconception that had been expressed in the posts in this thread.

MBA is a degree. Degrees can be offered only by universities in India. Indian Institutes of Managements and Indian School of Business are not universities. So they offer something called PGP(or PGDM), which is a post graduate diploma. This way these premier institutes don't have to tie up with any university and go through the bureaucracies of that university while making changes to curriculum, the methodologies used in teaching, etc. PGP in India is the equivalent of MBA in other countries.

Though the "non-profit mindedness of Indians" funda sounds cogent, its not the reason :)

Cheers,

Header
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