More Women Set to Storm Into IIMs
No.
of female candidates jumps for ’13-15 batch
Companies looking to muster their gender diversity scores are likely to find
happy hunting when they walk into IIM campuses in placement season 2015.
Early data trickling in from IIMs, the fountainhead of Indian managerial talent, shows the institutes are in an overdrive to admit more female students in the current 2013-15 batch.
The top three IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata have together shortlisted 989 women candidates for a total of 1,272 seats. The shortlist is for personal interviews, the last stage of the admission process. Last year, the institutes had picked 646 women for interviews to fill 1,222 seats. Put another way, the percentage of women shortlisted at the top three IIMs has increased from 15.96% to 23.3%.
“This is very welcome,” says Vinita Bali, managing director, Britannia Industries. “Corporate India can only feed on the talent that is available, and if IIMs create that (female) talent pool, then we have more to choose from.”
The IIM admissions season, which picked up steam after CAT results were announced in January, will come to an end in the third week of June. Classes begin in the last week of June.
The number of women appearing for CAT has been climbing gradually — from 53,732 in 2010 to 56,050 in 2011, and to 60,876 in 2012. But the real inflexion point, in terms of gender diversity improving in the very well of Indian MBA talent, is likely to happen only this year. In all, 255 girls (and 1,640 boys) scored more than 99 percentile this year. Percentile is a statistical term — a candidate in the 99th percentile has scored higher than 98% of other scores. At IIM-Calcutta, for instance, the number of women shortlisted has more than doubled from 170 to 395. The institute is awarding three points (out of 100) to female candidates for the first time this year.
Early data trickling in from IIMs, the fountainhead of Indian managerial talent, shows the institutes are in an overdrive to admit more female students in the current 2013-15 batch.
The top three IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata have together shortlisted 989 women candidates for a total of 1,272 seats. The shortlist is for personal interviews, the last stage of the admission process. Last year, the institutes had picked 646 women for interviews to fill 1,222 seats. Put another way, the percentage of women shortlisted at the top three IIMs has increased from 15.96% to 23.3%.
“This is very welcome,” says Vinita Bali, managing director, Britannia Industries. “Corporate India can only feed on the talent that is available, and if IIMs create that (female) talent pool, then we have more to choose from.”
The IIM admissions season, which picked up steam after CAT results were announced in January, will come to an end in the third week of June. Classes begin in the last week of June.
The number of women appearing for CAT has been climbing gradually — from 53,732 in 2010 to 56,050 in 2011, and to 60,876 in 2012. But the real inflexion point, in terms of gender diversity improving in the very well of Indian MBA talent, is likely to happen only this year. In all, 255 girls (and 1,640 boys) scored more than 99 percentile this year. Percentile is a statistical term — a candidate in the 99th percentile has scored higher than 98% of other scores. At IIM-Calcutta, for instance, the number of women shortlisted has more than doubled from 170 to 395. The institute is awarding three points (out of 100) to female candidates for the first time this year.
New
Institutes have Put in Place Extra Efforts
IIM-Calcutta is awarding extra points to women candidates in an attempt to improve diversity.
IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Ahmedabad have not increased the points awarded to female aspirants but have still seen women in the shortlist rise from 200 to 230 and 276 to 364, respectively.
New IIMs such as IIM-Rohtak, Kashipur and Udaipur have put in place concerted efforts to draw talented young women into the final talent pool by adding weightage to diversity. IIM-Rohtak gives 30 additional marks to a girl student while Udaipur gives 15 marks and Kashipur 3 points.
“Women are moving beyond traditional domains such as academics and media as they see opportunities emerging even in sectors that are male-dominated,” says Jayadev M, chairperson, admissions, at IIM-B. “It has to do with the demand for women professionals from companies.”
Industry leaders feel the change has been triggered by a shared understanding across all sectors of academia and industry that a fair gender representation is a prerequisite for balanced business growth and long-term success.
“All sectors in the industry are embracing gender diversity, not as a ‘good-to-do’ but as a catalyst for sound business performance,” says Vikram Tandon, head of HR at HSBC India, a regular recruiter at the IIMs. HSBC will hire 25-30 students from top business schools this year and wants to have a 50:50 representation. “In 2012, 54% of the students hired into the bank’s campus recruitment programme as resident management trainees were women, which is a trend we would like to continue,” adds Tandon.Economic power of women has been growing and more and more products are targeted towards them.
“The kind of economic independence women have today was missing even 10-15 years ago,” explains A Sudhakar, senior executive director-HR, Dabur India.
“Firms understand women are an important part of their target consumers. Who better than women to help them in that?”
SHREYA BISWAS KOLKATA (Additional reporting by Sreeradha D BasuET130131
IIM-Calcutta is awarding extra points to women candidates in an attempt to improve diversity.
IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Ahmedabad have not increased the points awarded to female aspirants but have still seen women in the shortlist rise from 200 to 230 and 276 to 364, respectively.
New IIMs such as IIM-Rohtak, Kashipur and Udaipur have put in place concerted efforts to draw talented young women into the final talent pool by adding weightage to diversity. IIM-Rohtak gives 30 additional marks to a girl student while Udaipur gives 15 marks and Kashipur 3 points.
“Women are moving beyond traditional domains such as academics and media as they see opportunities emerging even in sectors that are male-dominated,” says Jayadev M, chairperson, admissions, at IIM-B. “It has to do with the demand for women professionals from companies.”
Industry leaders feel the change has been triggered by a shared understanding across all sectors of academia and industry that a fair gender representation is a prerequisite for balanced business growth and long-term success.
“All sectors in the industry are embracing gender diversity, not as a ‘good-to-do’ but as a catalyst for sound business performance,” says Vikram Tandon, head of HR at HSBC India, a regular recruiter at the IIMs. HSBC will hire 25-30 students from top business schools this year and wants to have a 50:50 representation. “In 2012, 54% of the students hired into the bank’s campus recruitment programme as resident management trainees were women, which is a trend we would like to continue,” adds Tandon.Economic power of women has been growing and more and more products are targeted towards them.
“The kind of economic independence women have today was missing even 10-15 years ago,” explains A Sudhakar, senior executive director-HR, Dabur India.
“Firms understand women are an important part of their target consumers. Who better than women to help them in that?”
SHREYA BISWAS KOLKATA (Additional reporting by Sreeradha D BasuET130131
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