ISB's PG course launched

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 1. The prestigious Indian School of Business (ISB) here started its first Post-Graduate Programme in Management on Sunday, marking fruition of a four-year effort to set up India's global business school.

The Chief Minister, Mr.N.Chandrababu Naidu, formally inaugurated the programme on the sprawling ISB campus at Gachibowli, now part of Cyberabad.

Mr.Naidu, who is instrumental in bringing the international school to the city, promised all assistance from his Government for all future programmes of ISB. He recalled how he virtually chased the promoters of the school to locate it in Hyderabad in the face of stiff competition from Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, offering one additional facility than what the other competitors were willing to provide.

The Chief Minister said he would like to see more such institutes come up in the city to enable it to emerge as a knowledge hub. He would also expect the ISB to devise programmes ``to train me, my Ministers and the bureaucracy''. Special packages could be offered, he suggested.

Mr. Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the Governing Board of the ISB, giving a few reflections on the ups and downs faced by the promoters in the last four years, commended the support extended by the Chief Minister in ``making this come alive''.

Dr.Pramath Raj Sinha, who took over as the first full-time Dean of ISB, said Hyderabad was not initially their destination for the global school but they were ``floored by the hospitality and warmth with which the Chief Minister received us'' and provided all support.

Prof.Sumantra Ghoshal, the founding Dean of the ISB, said the school was capable of producing world leaders in management.

Earlier addressing a press conference, Mr.Rajat Gupta said the ISB boasts of facilities, the infrastructure, faculty and atmosphere comparable to any one of the 18 business schools in the world.

The ISB's PGP is a one-year programme and the first batch of 130 consists of 110 male and 20 female students. The average years of work experience of the students was 4.6 years and the average GMAT score secured by them was 690 marks. The students were drawn from a diverse educational and working backgrounds, having worked in reputed institutes like American Express, GE Capital, ICICI, Hewlett Packard and Infosys. The ISB received 600 applications for admission.

The ISB is connected to the global community through state-of- the-art technology. Each classroom is equipped with video projection and audio playback. All computers on the ISB campus would have access to the LAN and the Internet at any location.

The fully wired environment allows students to interact by computer or video link with business leaders, faculty and students across the globe. The ISB classrooms and other functional areas have been designed to allow quick, cost- effective adoption of new and emerging technologies that would keep pace with the changing business environment.

Mr. Rajat Gupta said by 2003, over 500 on-site students, 100 executives in the executive programme, 40 resident faculty would form the core community of the ISB.

The ISB campus was designed to support collaboration of the community in its placement of housing. Students would be housed in ``student cottages'' which can accommodate single and married students.

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