The institute is now offering the domain subjects as electives in the second year of the MBA
program.

Dr Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor a NMIMS University
told PaGaLGuY.com, aSchools will have challenges in offering these
specializations as stand-alone programs. We will see more integration
of programs with specialization offered in the second year of the MBA
program.a

aIn general, some colleges are considering the option of
closing sector specific MBA programs because of lack of job
opportunities,a added Prasanna Venkatesh, Assistant Professor, Indian
Business Academy – Bangalore which also offers a retail management
course.

The Retailers Association of India (RAI) which
represents the interests of organized retailers in India has announced
that organized retail in India will grow by 15 percent in the fiscal
year ending March 2009, down from the 30 percent growth seen in recent
years. “The growth in India’s organised retailing will be hit due to
weak consumer sentiments and the slowdown in fresh investment.
Retailers are quite cautious in opening new stores since property
prices are falling and are waiting for more viable deals,” said Kumar
Rajagopalan, RAI Chief Executive in a recent statement to Economic
Times.

Industry sources confirmed the retail sectoras somber
mood. Reliance Retail, which operates close to 1,000 stores, has not
visited any MBA college this year for recruitments and has in fact laid
off large numbers in select divisions. aWe had hired 21 MBAs as interns
about five months back and have absorbed eight of them as full time
employees. This year we do not plan on recruiting from any Indian
b-school,a said BVM Rao, HR Head, Shopperas Stop. Sanjay Jog, head of
Future Group’s HR, declined to comment on the issue. It is well known
that Subhiksha Trading Services has over 1,600 outlets and the majority
of these have currently shut down. Further, this one time poster boy of
the retail revolution in India has been unable to pay salaries and
statutory dues for the past few months.

Interestingly enough,
the NMIMS official websiteas programs webpage (link:
http://nmims.edu/programmes/sbm_ft.htm) still displays information
about all the sector specific MBA programs in their entirety and also
includes these programs in the list of full time MBA programs present
at NMIMS. A visitor to the webpage might well miss a statement written
in small sized font present below the list of full time MBA programs:
aThe MBA Focus Programmes in Actuarial Science, Banking, Capital
Markets, Global Business, Retail Management and Services Management are
being restructured and merged with the Flagship MBA Programme from
2009-11. All students joining the MBA Programme in 2009 will have the
option to take functional specialization elective courses and at the
same time have option of domain focus in areas of such as actuarial
science, banking, capital markets, global business, retail and services
in the second year of the MBA Programme.a

Dr Rajan Saxena said
that the primary reason for integration was “general management
specialization in functional areas becoming critical for domain
specific specialization.”

He added, aGiven industry changes and
challenges, MBA programs will continue to provide general management
inputs with focused specializations in various domains. The difference
is only in terms of whether institutes offer each focused
specialization as a stand-alone program or integrate these
specializations with the flagship MBA program.a

NMIMS chose to
not issue admission notifications for sector specific or MBA programs
for the 2009-11 admissions and after merging these programs with the
flagship MBA program has increased student intake for the MBA program
from 240 seats to 360 seats and the annual tuition fee from Rs 1.15 lakh
to Rs 2.35 lakh.

Mumbai based business schools such as KJ
Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research and Welingkar
Institute of Management Development and Research run retail management
programs in association with Pantaloon Retail while Bangalore located
b-schools such as Indian Business Academy and Bangalore Management
Academy operate such courses as academic partners of the RAI. Prof.
Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, Welingkar Institute of Management
said, aThe association with Pantaloons is not purely from a placement
angle but for providing live learning experiences to students and
involving industry professionals in shaping future talent.a

aThe
RAI is a certificate partner for the retail management course and
provides assistance in placements and summer internships in exchange
for fee on a per student basis. An institute operating a retail
management course may do so without partnering the RAI or a corporate
such as Pantaloons but its success would hinge on industry linkages,a
said Prasanna Venkatesh, assistant professor at Indian Business
Academy, Bangalore.

The retail management program at NMIMS,
Mumbai was in partnership with Pantaloons Retail (India) Ltd from 2005
to 2007 but since then the partnership has been terminated. The
institute had not associated the retail MBA course with the RAI at any
level.