MBAUniverse.com Exclusive: MBA destinations - Kolkata

MBAUniverse.com Exclusive: MBA destinations - Kolkata


Kolkata is amongst the major education hubs in India. Kolkata offers many benefits to MBA aspirants who wish to study in the B-schools in and around the city

Kolkata is counted amongst the major education hubs in India. Kolkata houses 12 Universities and numerous colleges affiliated to them or to other universities located outside. The main universities of Kolkata are University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University and Vishvabharati University.

In terms of management education, Kolkata can be considered as the pioneer as the first institute in India to offer an MBA degree of any Indian university was set up here. The Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management (IISWBM) was established in 1953.

Also, the first IIM of the country was established in this city. IIM Calcutta has produced leading business minds in the nation like Indra Nooyi, Chairman, PepsiCo.

If you want to pursue MBA from Kolkata, some of the best options available here are as follows:

IIM-C- The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) was established as the first national institute for Post-Graduate studies and Research in Management by the Government of India in November 1961 in collaboration with Alfred P. Sloan School of Management (MIT), the Government of West Bengal, The Ford Foundation and Indian industry.

IISWBM- The Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management (IISWBM) was the first institute in India to offer an MBA degree of any Indian university (XLRI, the oldest management institute in India, did not offer MBA degrees ever since its inception). It was established in 1953. IISWBM was set up in collaboration with the Government of West Bengal, the University of Calcutta and the business community of West Bengal to promote management education.

IIFT, Kolkata- The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) was set up in 1963 by the Government of India as an autonomous organization to help professionalize the country's foreign trade management and increase exports by developing human resources; generating, analyzing and disseminating data; and conducting research. Today it is one of India's most prestigious business schools.

Apart from these, the other notable MBA institutes in Kolkata are ISB Kolkata, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, IBK Kolkata, Heritage Institute of Technology, IILM Business School, Institute of Business Management & Research, Institute of Management Study, Institute of Engineering and Management, Future Innoversity, to name a few.

Kolkata offers many benefits to the MBA aspirants who wish to study in the B-schools in and around the city. Among all the metropolitan cities, Kolkata has the lowest cost of living which attracts people from other states to settle in the city. This has made Kolkata a true cosmopolitan city.

Other advantages are: Kolkata is the main business, commercial and financial hub of eastern India and the north eastern states. Kolkata also has Calcutta Stock Exchange, India’s second largest stock exchange.

The major industries in Kolkata include IT, Infrastructure, FMCG etc. Kolkata is home to many industrial units operated by large Indian corporations with products ranging from electronics to jute.

Some notable companies headquartered in Kolkata include ITC Limited, India Government Mint, Haldia Petrochemicals, Exide Industries, Hindustan Motors, Britannia Industries, Bata India, Birla Corporation, CESC Limited, RPG Group, Bengal Ambuja, Philips India, Eveready Battery, Coal India Limited, Damodar Valley Corporation, PwC India, Peerless Group, United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank.

IT Sector: As in many other Indian cities, information technology became a major growing sector in Kolkata since late 1990s, with the IT sector growing at 70 per cent yearly — twice that of the national average. The major players of the IT Sector in Kolkata are Infosys Technologies Limited, Satyam Computer Services Limited, HCL Technologies Limited, L&T Infotech Limited, NIIT Technologies Limited, i-Gate Global Solutions Limited, etc. Salt Lake Sector V is the hub of the IT sector in Kolkata.

Infrastructure: In recent years, huge investments are made in the housing infrastructure sector with several new projects coming up led by companies like DLF Limited and Unitech Group.

FMCG - Hindustan Unilever LTD, Nestle India LTD, ITC India, Reckitt Benckiser India LTD, Agro Tech Foods LTD, Tata Chemicals LTD, Dabur India LTD Factory and many more.

Consulting firms: Aon Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, Ernst & Young, Frost & Sullivan, Hewitt Associates, SAP Consulting, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro Technologies, to name a few.

Telecom: Vodafone, Airtel, Reliance Communications, Uninor, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Virgin Mobile and MTS India.

Health Sector: Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals Ltd, Dum Dum Medical Centre, The Calcutta Medical Research Institute, Renaissance Hospital Private Limited, etc.

Media: The Economic Times, The Financial Express, Times of India, The Telegraph, Business Line and Business Standard are the English Dailies which have their publications from Kolkata.

Bengali 24-hour television news channels include STAR Ananda, Tara Newz, Kolkata TV, 24 Ghanta, Ne Bangla, News Time and Channel 10.

Bengali newspapers like Anandabazar Patrika, Bartaman, Sangbad Pratidin, Jago Bangla, Aajkaal, Dainik Statesman and Ganashakti are widely circulated.

Kolkata also hosts Tollywood, the Bengali film industry, which is the biggest in Eastern India and also contributes in the Indian Film Industry through several national award winning movies.

Transport: The Kolkata Metro, run by the Indian Railways, is the oldest underground system in India since 1984. Buses are the preferred mode of transport and are run by both government agencies and private operators. Kolkata is India's only city to have a tram network, operated by Calcutta Tramways Company.

Kolkata will never cease to entertain the people over there. The city has also been nicknamed as the City of Palaces. This comes from the numerous palatial mansions built all over the city. One can move around and relax as there are a number of tourist spots and beautiful monuments situated in Kolkata.

Some of the beautiful sight seeing places are the Victoria Memorial, The Indian Museum, Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Science City , Marble Palace, Netaji Bhawan, The National Library of India to name a few.

Kolkata also exhibits the element of art and culture through numerous Theatres, Art galleries like Nandan, Shishir Mancha, Star Theatre to name a few.