GMAT to be added qualification for armed forces candidates at IIM-A

It may have been a fruitful placement season for officers of the Indian Armed Forces who have just completed their six-month 'Certificate Course in Business Administration' at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A). But the admission criterion for these candidates has been a point of concern for recruiters.

The programme, held at various IIMs and management schools, aims to provide management education to the officers of the Indian Armed Forces (whether in short or regular commission) "� who are due to retire shortly or have retired recently.

Candidates for the programme are selected by the Directorate-General of Resettlement, Ministry of Defence (DGR-MoD) through its own admission process. The institutes are not involved in the admission process.

Despite finding suitable candidates and hiring them for middle-management level positions, a number of recruiters have learnt to have conveyed to the IIM-A management that they would be able to gauge the candidates better if they come through a national level management entrance exam.

Subsequently, IIM Ahmedabad has written to the DGR-MoD asking it to encourage candidates who apply for the upcoming batch in October to take GMAT and submit the score with the application. "We had written to the DGR-MoD and they have taken up our suggestion.

We will convey to the new batches that GMAT would be considered as an added qualification by recruiters during placements," said Shailesh Gandhi, Chairperson for the Certificate Course in Business Administration at IIM-A.

Earlier too, such concerns had been expressed in reference to the same course at IIM-Indore.

At IIM Lucknow, which had pioneered the programme, recruiters had said that would have preferred it if the candidates had been selected by the institute rather than the ministry.

At the end of the first batch, an official of IIM Lucknow told Business Standard that they had discontinued the programme on account of 'differences' with the Ministry of defence. Apparently, while the institute had little say in the selection of candidates for the course, the responsibility of placing the students was entirely upon its shoulders.

As many as 58 participants out of the batch of 66 at IIM-A opted for placements and received over 300 job offers.

Average packages for the defence officers across IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Indore, MDI Gurgaon and XLRI ranged Rs 15-20 lakhs last year and this year the packages and profiles offered in Administration, HR and Marketing have gone up by several notches in these institutes.

Offers this year have been in the range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 32 lakh per annum.

Companies that have recruited students from campuses and an IIM recruitment website called forcesofindia.com include DLF, ICICI Prudential, ICICI Lombard, TCS, Akruti Nirman, Tech Mahindra, Aditya Birla, Adani, Pepsi, Citibank, ABN Amro and Infosys.