Institute director Dr S P Parashar offered the highlights of placements at IIM-I: Fifty eight companies have recruited graduates at IIM-I for Summer Placements this year. He was speaking at the IIM-Is convocation. One interesting trend has been the rise in stipend offered to students. The highest stipend was a respectable Rs 35,000 per month, while the average stipend was Rs 14,000 per month.

This program will be launched in August 2007, and the course fees will be around Rs 5 lakh. The PGPEX-VLM will be supported by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the industry.

The program will include course work at IIM Calcutta, IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras for 32 weeks; this will be followed by industry internship for 13 weeks and industry visits in India and abroad for 7 weeks.

Branded as The Prep Guide, the company plans to make the service available across all telecom operators.

As reported by MBAUniverse.com yesterday, the average international salary at ISB was a high Rs 59.5 lacs while the average domestic salary at ISB this year was a respectable Rs 15.03 lacs. ISBs placement process is quite different from the rest of Indian B-schools. Given that most ISBians have higher work experience and aim for Lateral placements in organization, both organization and the candidate are better off knowing each other well before they decide to take a plunge. The ISBs extended placement process, which was spread over six months this year, tries to ensure just that.

According to ISB, a graduate has bagged an international offer for a whopping USD 269,000 or Rs1.18crores! The average international salary was also a high USD 135,000 or Rs 59.5 lacs. The average domestic salary at ISB this year was Rs 15.03 lacs, while the highest domestic offer being Rs 43.91 lacs. ISB Dean Dr MR Rao is pleased with the showing. Said Dr Rao, The placement results for 2007 have been outstanding. There has been a sharp increase in the CTC levels. The high CTC levels demonstrate the confidence that companies have in the high quality of the ISBs management talent.

The institute has decided to use CAT scores only for short-listing candidates for the personal interview. This move comes after an IMI research showed no direct relationship between a candidates CAT scores and his scholastic performance at IMI.

An official from IIM-C confirmed the news with MBAUniverse.com this morning. The appointment of Mr Balakrishnan is for a period of five years. Mr Balakrishnan is also an IIM-C alumnus. He succeeds ITC chairman YC Deveshwar whose term ends this April.

The day was marked with addresses from the Chief Guest of the day Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission and respected economist Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, ISB Chairman and respected management thinker Mr Rajat Gupta and ISB Dean Dr M R Rao. In his address Dr Ahluwalia urged the students not to limit their management applications only to the corporate sector but to apply them to all sectors, which require huge management inputs. He added that economic development should be inclusive.

ISB dean Dr Rammohan Rao shared this resolve on the eve of its graduation day.

ISB currently has a student intake of 418 students for all its programmes and plans to hike it to 560 students in the next three years. The institute is also planning to add two new centres of excellence in the Strategic Marketing and Leadership & Change Management areas. These two centers will be in addition to the existing centers in analytical finance, global logistics and manufacturing strategies, IT and networked economy, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurial Development.