Bangalore: The Indian B-schools are witnessing a major shift towards entrepreneurship as more and more students forgo placements to give wings to their ideas. At Indian School of Business Hyderabad, 65 out of the 420 students signed up to forgo placements and enroll for the entrepreneurship program.
"In the last two years we had only 60 students volunteering for the entrepreneur development program. But this year, we had around 240 students showing interest for the program," says Krishna Tanuku, Executive Director of Wadhwani Centre at ISB. Tanuku adds, "Although recession is not responsible for triggering this trend, it has certainly accelerated it."
This is not the case with ISB alone. IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Lucknow are also seeing their incubation centers bustling with activities. IIM-A has already seen seven startup set ups this year. Tushar Walwadikar, final year student and Secretary of XLRI Placement Committee says, "Last year three students started their own ventures. But, this year we have more students showing interest in starting their own ventures." The trend is slowly gaining momentum. "The entrepreneurship development cell as well as the incubation facility has seen a good response this year," says Gayathri Krishnan, Secretary, External linkages (Media cell), XLRI.
Interestingly, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai provides its students with an option to return after two years for normal placements if their venture fails to kick off. Several students of this institute plan to setup an independent venture this year.
However, starting a venture is not the only path that many MBA graduates are taking. A lot of them are also opting to join their family businesses, due to the current economic scenario. Karan Oberoi, an MBA graduate from ICFAI Hyderabad, who has joined his family business says, "Everyone wants to gain some vital experience before joining their family business. However, given the current economic scenario, I didn't really have much of a choice."
While most B-schools are still grappling with the placement process, the pay packages that have so far been offered to MBA graduates are not good either. Unlike two years back, this year, MNC's hit by recession no longer throng to top tier B-schools for placements. In fact, the average salary in top tier B-schools came down by 25 percent this year. The situation has been similar in other top-line B-schools like FMS, JBIMS, XLRI, IIFT and SPJIMR which have seen a drastic decline in pay packages.
However, the fact that more and more MBA graduates are choosing to start their ventures will boost the Indian entrepreneurship eco-system further.
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