Business Today 9 July 2023

Change, as the saying goes, is the only constant. And so it is with India’s management education landscape, where sweeping changes are being witnessed in keeping with the rapidly evolving business ecosystem. Reflecting this transformation is the much-awaited Business Today-MDRA annual ranking of India’s Best B-schools—the definitive compendium of the best business schools in the country. Over the past few years, particularly during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the management education space has seen the emergence of a variety of options. B-schools now offer flexibility in course delivery, and the emergence of edtech companies offering management courses (where they have tie-ups with business schools) has also come as a welcome alternative. While online management courses cannot match the immersive experience of an on-campus programme, edtech firms offer a convenient option…

₹971 CRORE The cost of the new Parliament complex, which has a total of 1,272 seats in two chambers, nearly 500 more than the old building 2.3 MILLION+ MAN DAYS The employment generated by the construction of the new building that took two and a half years to build 30 PER CENT Expected energy savings in the new Parliament—built using green techniques—compared to the old one SOURCE WWW.CENTRALVISTA.GOV.IN…

₹17.40 lakh THE AVERAGE ANNUAL SALARY OF GOVERNMENT B-SCHOOL STUDENTS, COMPARED TO THE ₹10.20 LAKH FOR STUDENTS OF PRIVATE B-SCHOOLS IN THE TOP 100 LIST IN 2023 Source BT-MDRA India’s Best B-schools Survey 2023 1.6X THE AVERAGE RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF GOVERNMENT-RUN B-SCHOOLS COMPARED TO 0.87X FOR PRIVATE INSTITUTES IN THE TOP 100 LIST For the ranking of the BT-MDRA India’s Best B-schools Survey 2023, turn to page 126…

ALPO ALPO MEGH theke halka bristi hoy / Chhotto chhotto golpo theke bhalobasa sristi hoy (Fluffy clouds lead to gentle rains/Love blossoms from tiny tales) reads one of the several pages of handwritten Bengali poems by an unknown passenger, discovered amid the mangled train coaches at the accident site in Balasore district. And like the gathering clouds that lead to a storm, it is the neglect of safety protocols that, bit by bit, culminate in a tragedy like the triple-train accident of June 2. The incident at Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha involving three trains—the Coromandel Express, SMVT Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, and a freight train—left 288 passengers dead and over 1,000 injured. The initial assessment of an alleged criminal neglect of standard operating procedures (SOPs) was corroborated at the highest levels…

⏩ LEVEL 1 Design-stage check by the contractor ⏩ LEVEL 2 Provision for independent checking by a competent person ⏩ LEVEL 3 Integration check of systems like signalling, telecom, track, power, etc., by all personnel/contractors ⏩ LEVEL 4 Client (Indian Railways) check by a senior engineer ⏩ LEVEL 5 Installation check must be done by a different firm or set of people to ensure work has been done as per the approved design ⏩ LEVEL 6 Final testing to be done by an independent agency The above must be carried out by staff who are checked for their competency at least once yearly and issued requisite licence Source: Industry, BT Research…

AN INTENSE BATTLE raged at the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). In the one corner were Subhash Chandra, promoter of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), and his son Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of ZEEL, and on the other, the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). At issue was Sebi’s interim order barring Goenka and Chandra from holding directorships in any listed entity for allegedly abusing their positions in the company and siphoning off funds for their own benefit. A lengthy hearing took place on June 19, but at the day’s end there was no respite for the father-son duo as SAT decided to post the matter for further hearing on June 26 and refused to provide them interim relief. Sebi’s interim order barring the duo was…