In India, MBA degree is synonymous with with great pay and fast career growth. Candidates primarily aim for management degrees with these two objectives in mind.
As every year passes, we see a substantial increase in the top and average salaries offered. Placement reports from top MBA colleges boast of rising salaries (highest, mean and median).Names of leading recruiters dorn these reports.
Majority of the placement reports released by B-Schools do not give an overall perspective of salaries offered. Almost none of these talk about the lowest packages offered or how many students were offered lower salaries. Placement reports are like popular Bollywood flicks on good times, with no bad memories in sight.
So, the media reports only about the highest packages offered in sublime words, the lowest salary offered is said very little about.
IIM Ahmedabad started the ‘Indian Placement Reporting Standards’ (IPRS), in an effort to bring transparency and uniformity, in 2011. Under IPRS, colleges have a standardised way of reporting salary and non-salary information (related to placements). Data submitted undergoes a third party audit process (by CRISIL), making the placement reports reliable.
The objective behind IPRS is to provide wholesome, standardised and trustworthy data that’ll enable aspiring candidates to make informed choices.
As per the official IPRS website, 30 MBA colleges have signed up for it (abiding by it). We decided to take a look at the reports. However, we could find detailed placement reports of just nine colleges. Out of these nine colleges, only three colleges have been regularly submitted the reports.
We also found some CRISIL (Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited) audited placement reports online.
We collated the data of last two years (2013 and 2014) to find out the lowest audited salaries. Here are the details:
| Institute | 2013 | 2014 |
| IIM Ahmedabad | Rs 6.5 Lakhs (Domestic) $ 26,140 (International) |
Rs 10 lakhs (Domestic) $ 34,323 (International) |
| S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research | Rs 3,49,200 (Domestic) | Rs 8,83,518 (Domestic) |
| T.A. Pai Management Institute | Rs 6 lakh (Domestic)$ 28,800 (International) | Not Available |
| Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development | Rs 6,11,770 (Domestic)$ 45,506 (International) | Not Available |
| Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar | Rs 2,40,000 (Domestic) | Not Available |
| IIM Udaipur | Rs 4 lakh (Domestic) $ 30,057 (International) |
Not Available |
| Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies | Rs 2,40,000 | Not Available |
| MITSOB | Not Available | Rs 1,20,000 (Domestic)$ 5002 (International) |
(Source: IPRS & CRISIL)
Placement statistics for 2015 are yet to be uploaded (post audit). Going by the trends of last two years, we can expect the lowest salaries offered to be a notch higher than that of 2014.
Who receives low packages?
According to sources, students receiving low packages are usually the ones who are repeating a year or those who have not been able to perform well in academics.
Speaking to us on condition of anonymity, a recent IIM graduate said, “It’s the typical scenario. If you can’t perform well in academics and extra-curricular, recruiters have no reason to hire you. Also, many institutes have large batches. It gets especially difficult for them to place students from the lower end of the spectrum. At times, more than 10% of the batch are yet to be placed by the term-end. They either opt of out placements or go for rolling placements. Some institutes even force such students to sign out of placements in an effort to maintain placement standards.”
Accountability
It is interesting to note that most leading B-schools of the country publish no audited reports for the benefit of aspiring students and common citizens. Instead, these institutes release placement reports to the media with quotes of highest, mean and median salary figures. We accept these placement reports at their face value without any crosschecking. There’s no accountability of the information published.
In other words, it’s practically impossible to find the official lowest packages offered at top business schools or get a complete scenario of placements.
Other B-Schools
Since getting information from official sources is practically impossible, we decided to speak to participants of various B-Schools and know the lowest salaries offered.
Below, we have compiled a list of lowest packages of some top MBA colleges based on student’s feedback.
PLEASE NOTE: The figures quoted below are not based on any audited reports and neither have they been conveyed by the institute/college. These are based on student accounts and cannot be verified independently.
| College | Approximate Package(Year) |
| IIM Calcutta | Rs 8 lakh (2013) |
| IIM Lucknow | Rs 6 lakh (2013) |
| IIM Bangalore | Rs 8 lakh (2014) |
| IIM Kozhikode | Rs 6 lakh (2013) |
| IIM Indore | Rs 6 – 7 lakhs (2014) |
| Xavier Labour Relations Institute ,Jamshedpur | Rs 10-11 lakhs (2014) |