TAPMI School of Business (TSB) Jaipur, affiliated to Manipal University Jaipur is only six years old, but its MBA programme attracts students from all over the country and more and more companies are visiting the TSB Jaipur campus for summer and final placements every year. TSB Jaipur is established to offer quality MBA education on the lines with legacy of TAPMI Manipal in North India. Accordingly, TAPMI Jaipur is under the mentorship of TAPMI, Manipal.
TSB Jaipur offers 2 year full time residential Post–Graduate Pprogramme in Management. In a short span of its establishment, the highest salary in MBA Placement at TAPMI Jaipur has gone upto Rs.10 Lakhs while the average salary is up at Rs.5.5 lakhs. MBA Admission at TAPMI Jaipur is open till July 15, 2018. TAPMI Jaipur will accept CAT, MAT, C-MAT, GMAT, NMAT, XAT scores for admission.
Led by Dr Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, Dean, Faculty of Management & Commerce at Manipal University Jaipur, TAPMI School of Business has achieved many firsts. Dr Nilanjan is a PhD in Management and a PGDBA Graduate in Systems & Finance from ICFAI Business School. He is also a Cost and Works Accountant (ICWA) from Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India – ICWAI. Prior to this assignment he was with Manipal University, Dubai as Dean, School of Business and Corporate Executive Education.
To know about the key factors that make TAPMI Jaipur a preferred B-school for MBA students from all over India within 6 years of its establishment; about the USPs that attract the recruiters visiting the campus for placement and offer higher salary in every placement season at TSB Jaipur and about the future vision of the TSB Jaipur, MBAUniverse.com has interviewed Dr Nilanjan Chattopadhyay whose subtle responses are shared below:
MBAUniverse: TAPMI School of Business at Manipal University Jaipur was set up a few years back. How has the journey been? What are key milestones?
Dr Nilanjan: TAPMI Jaipur is in existence for only about six years now and it gets students and recruiters from all over the country. That shows the acceptance of the quality mission this institution has among its main stakeholders. The institute is already ranked within top 30 by Business India, the pioneer in B’School ratings in India.
MBAUniverse: How the TAPMI Jaipur is different from other MBA colleges?
Dr Nilanjan: The core differentiator of TAPMI Jaipur lies in its small batch of students. Each student is handpicked and then groomed as per his/her individual need. Every student is monitored closely for all round development. Recruiters recognise that and come back to the institution every year to participate in campus placements. We have been getting more than 95% placements from year one and the salary packages are growing year on year.
MBAUniverse: On your website you mention that TAPMI Manipal is mentoring TSB Jaipur. What are some specific areas of this association which can benefit the student community in North India?
Dr Nilanjan: Both TAPMI Manipal and TSB Jaipur belong to the same Manipal group, with more than 60 years legacy in higher education in India and abroad. Primary objective of setting up TSB was to bring the best practices of management education of TAPMI to other parts of the country. Director of TAPMI is member of the advisory board in TSB. TAPMI faculty members come and teach TSB students apart from training and handholding junior members of TSB faculty. TSB students visit TAPMI to study a few courses there.
Very recently, TSB has got its Finance Lab with Reuters Terminals, as is there in TAPMI. The lab is a unique addition to the teaching and learning infrastructure, by way of bringing the tools to the classroom as used in hi-level financial companies.
MBAUniverse.com: So what are the uniqueness and USPs of TSB Jaipur?
Dr Nilanjan: TSB is unique in its batch size. In today’s scenario, MBA batch of 60 is very rare, but we maintain that very carefully. This results in a concentrated effort to groom the next generation of managers and the students get the luxury of individual attention.
TSB has introduced an innovation in pedagogy that every student is exposed to real life projects in organisations in different domains, including NGOs at one end of spectrum to multinational at the other end.
TSB teaches many of the courses using web based simulations, procured from Harvard Business School and others. That makes a course stand out of the books to real life scenario in an attractive activity based gamified environment.
The Reuters Terminal Finance Lab is unique in the entire region. TSB is one of the few Business Schools in India to have this, and the first among the new age institutions. The Eikon terminals are used all over the world for financial & risk solutions to deliver critical news, information and analytics – enabling transactions and connecting communities of trading, investing, financial and corporate professionals. These high end terminals are brought to the students to teach courses related to Financial Markets and Investment Analysis so that they get the same environment as they will on job while they are still studying.
MBAUniverse: You and your faculty members have rich academic experience. How many faculty members are there presently teaching at your B-school? What is their profile?
Dr Nilanjan: A good Business School is run by an effective and efficient combination of core and visiting faculty members. While the 11 member core team has combined experience of more than 150 years both in academics and industry, almost all of them hold doctoral degrees and are active in research in their own domains. They travel all across the country and abroad to speak in national and international conferences. For example, last year I spent one month in New Zealand and Cook Islands o invitation by University of South Pacific, one of the highest rated universities in the Pacific region of world to teach a full course at their campus. Another colleague of mine went to Hungary for similar purpose. We all carry in our rich experience to classroom to develop our students.
MBAUniverse: Do you have visiting faculty from corporate sector? If yes, can you share a few prominent names?
Dr Nilanjan: Yes, apart from the regular guest lecture sessions, a few of the courses are taught entirely by corporate leaders. For example, a course like Digital Marketing is taught by CEO of a digital marketing agency based in Gurgaon or the course on Brand is taught by Vice President of a national FM radio channel. Even a fundamental course like Legal aspects of business is taught by a practicing CA, CS.
All courses in the MBA program have at least 4 sessions delivered by corporate persons either exclusively or jointly with our core faculty members. Apart from all these regular courses, workshops and seminars are held at least three times in a year with galaxy of corporate leaders coming to interact with students.
MBAUniverse: What are some of your corporate engagement initiatives? How are you working with the industry to enrich your MBA?
Dr Nilanjan: All our courses are revised regularly and each revision is vetted by the recruiters. Even some of the curriculum rejigs have taken place only after being suggested by our recruiters.
Last year we started a new initiative to enrich the student experience further. Every student was connected with organisation of his/her choice to do a 2 months long live project. Students went to the offices and market for multiple days to work on their projects, came back and presented before the organisation and to their faculty mentors. Some of these projects were highly appreciated by the company mentors and rewarded for the same.
MBAUniverse: How have been the Placements 2018? What are some of the highlights?
Dr Nilanjan: TSB enjoys an excellent placement track record for the last few years. Companies like ITC, ICICI Bank, Airtel are regular recruiters with us. 2018 saw a few new companies joining in like Axis Bank, Decathlon, Byju’s, GoDoctor to name a few. Some of the students bagged more than two offers before they settled for one. Average salary package grabbed on campus was Rs 5.5 lakhs per annum and the highest offer was 10 lakhs p.a.
MBAUniverse: Coming to your MBA Program, you offer specialization in Marketing and Finance. How is your program unique in these areas?
Dr Nilanjan: The MBA program is so flexible here that a student can effectively shape his/her own curriculum. A student can choose any elective course that he/she wants to study in the second year. Depending on the credits earned, the student will earn specialisation in Marketing, Finance or HR.
The elective basket has courses from all the three streams and also from operations management and general management areas. Thus the specialisation does not matter much for a student. MBA is all about broadening the horizons of one’s mind, TSB does that to a large extent.
There are very important innovations being done on delivery of these electives. For example, many of the marketing courses are taught on Simulation procured from Harvard Business School. These simulations put the student right in middle of real life market scenario and simulates the real environment. The learning no longer remains theoretical, but it comes live. Similarly, for a difficult course like Technical Analysis in the domain of Finance, the delivery is done in Finance Lab, equipped with Thomson Reuters Eikon Terminals, which are being used by large brokerage houses and banks. So the student gets to the real life as close as possible before even joining a company.
MBAUniverse: Regarding MBA Admissions 2018, are you offering any scholarship? Till when can students apply? Are you accepting MAT score?
Dr Nilanjan: TSB does offer scholarships to the meritorious and needy students. 10 scholarships ranging from 10% to 50% fee waivers are available to the merit holders. There are additional scholarships for local and Rajasthan students.
TSB accepts any National level entrance test score as a qualifier. This includes CAT, MAT, C-MAT, GMAT, NMAT, XAT. The test score is only a qualifier, does not carry any weight on selection process. Selection is dependent on multiple factors that include academic background, oral and written communication and of course performance in personal interview.
We are open for admission till 15th of July. Classes start on 1st week of August.
MBAUniverse.com: What is your message to students community who are looking for MBA admissions?
Dr Nilanjan: I suggest the aspirants to be very clear on what they want from their MBA. One needs to be very clear that MBA is not like any other Masters level degree program. MBA is to prepare for the real and brutal world of business. Therefore, clarity in mind and clarity of expectations are necessary before getting into a MBA program. Large brands are not synonymous to quality and campus placement is not the final judgement criteria.
The location of the institution does not matter, as is perceived by many. As the students are from all over, the recruiters are also from all over the country. What matters is the quality of interaction. If an institution can provide individual care to groom, that is the best. MBA is all about grooming oneself and therefore, it is very important to be under close mentoring and monitoring.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on TAPMI School of Business, Jaipur
