Thanks for your insightful cover story ‘Indias most respected non-IIM B-schools (EW July). Your analysis that the huge reputation the IIMs enjoy is because they attract the countrys best graduates, is bang on. Only the top 2 percent who score 98-99 percent in the Common Admission Test qualify for admission into the IIMs. These are the countrys brightest of the best graduates and are inherently motivated to do well.Though nobody can deny that the ABC (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta) IIMs enjoy great reputations, other B-schools are fast catching up. As your cover story highlights, the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, XLRI, Jamshedpur, S.P. Jain, Mumbai, among others which feature in ‘Indias Top 50 non-IIM B-schools rankings, are well on their way to bridging the teaching-learning gap which separates them from the IIMs. For the great majority of students who dont qualify for the IIMs, your rankings are extremely useful, enabling them to make informed choices. Rajashekar Murthy Chennai Informative league tables Your latest cover story (EW July) featuring the league tables of the countrys top law, hotel management, fashion, mass communication and animation design colleges was very useful and informative. Given that these professional disciplines are new and still evolving, there are many doubts about the quality of professional courses offered by education institutions. In fact of late, a large number of private professional education institutions, which make tall claims in their advertisements, have mushroomed and its very difficult to be unimpressed. Your rankings, based on the informed opinion of industry experts, faculty and students, will go a long way in helping parents and students shortlist bona fide institutions. I hope next year you will expand the rankings to include healthcare management and computer training institutes. Ramesh Kulkarni Mumbai Glaring omission In your cover story ‘Indias most respected non-IIM B-schools (EW July), we are un-able to find the rankings on the parameter of ‘Infrastructure. Rankings of only eight parameters are featured in the magazine. Priti Miranda S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai The Top 10 Infrastructure parameter ranking table was inadvertently omit-ted. The omission is deeply regretted. The table is reproduced below — Editor Infrastructure (100) 1 ISB, Hyderabad 92 2 XIM, Bhubaneswar 84 3 XLRI, Jamshedpur 83 4 MDI, Gurgaon 81 4 NITIE, Mumbai 81 6 Alliance Business School, Bangalore 80 7 SIBM, Pune 79 7 BIMTECH, Greater Noida 79 9 NIRMA University, Ahmedabad 78 9 BIMM, Pune 78 Public relations blitz I compliment your Gujarat correspondent R.K. Misra for his unbiased report on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modis primary school enrolment drive and the states education record (‘Controversial blitzkrieg, Education News, EW July). Its easy to get swayed by the public relations blitz which projects Modi as an education champion, and Gujarat as the countrys most developed state. But the truth is that public education in Gujarat — as elsewhere in the country — is grossly neglected. Government schools in the state are poorly equip-ped, student attendance is much below the national average, learning outcomes are poor…
