About ASB

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has striven to develop and maintain a multi-disciplinary flavor in its academic offerings, which range from Management to Biotechnology, Engineering to Medicine to Journalism, from its inception. ASB which was started in 1996, is ranked 13th among the top private B-Schools in India (Open-Cfore Survey, Sep 2009). Amrita School of Business expanded its campuses from Coimbatore to three new locations at Amritapuri, Bengaluru and Kochi in 2009.

ASB Faculty

The ASB faculty comprising 33 full-time faculty members and 14 visiting faculty bring with them world class credentials. The full-time faculty members have degrees from Berkeley, Cornell, University of Texas-Austin, Kellogg, IITs, IIMs, IRMA, JNU and other top schools. These impeccable credentials are supplemented by their work experience a faculty have worked in organizations such as BHEL, ICICI, Philips, Ponds, Price Waterhouse, SAIL, Assam Oil, UNDP, and WWF. ASB visiting faculty also possesses top corporate and academic credentials and international exposure. For example, Prof. Jay Mishra, who teaches Entrepreneurship and Marketing Implementation in the fourth semester has an MBA from Harvard and has taught at Stanford. Prof. Antti-Juhani Wihuri who teaches Teams, Coaching and Leadership is one of the top organizational development consultants in Finland. Other faculty in the 2008-09 academic year included the Executive Director and Head HR-UBS, Founder Director of Rural Track, the CEO, Telematics- Ashok Leyland and a VP from Thomas Cook.

Learning at ASB

The curriculum of the MBA programme has several unique features. ASB is one of the few b-schools with core courses in Environmental Management and in Managerial Values and Business Ethics. Another distinctive core course is Self Awareness and Personal Growth which runs through all four semesters. The B-school offers an impressive array of elective courses to its 2nd year students, in 2008-09, students had a choice of 55 electives. These electives are offered in all the five areas of specialization, namely, Finance, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Operations and Systems. Many of the electives offered reflect the concern of the school with values and ethics and also equip students to deal with the globalized business world. These electives include Innovation, Introduction to Mathematical Finance, Management Beyond Profit, Microfinance, Management of Self for Success and Happiness and courses in Business Across Cultures, International Finance and International Human Resource Management. An eight-week summer internship is a compulsory part of the curriculum. The quality of the curriculum and its delivery is ensured by student feedback, faculty and expert inputs and constant upgradation to meet the needs of todays marketplace.

The library at ASB

An important part of student learning is contributed by industry interface through workshops and colloquia – both regular features at ASB. Students have had the opportunity to interact with distinguished luminaries belonging to the corporate, government and NGO world including Dr. Kasturirangan, former Chairman ISRO, Ms. Hema Hattangady, CEO Conzerv, India, Mr. Arun Kumar, CEO, Strides Arcolab, Ms. Hema Ravichander, Ex-VP and Group Head, HR Infosys, Dr. Jairam, MD ELGI, Mr. Krishan Dhawan, MD Oracle India, Mr. Siva Kumar, CEO, ITC Agribusiness and Dr. Yoshiro Ito, ED, Morgan Stanley, Japan among others.

ASB has exceptional infrastructure. ASB students have a dedicated business library with an extensive collection of books (over 23,000) and journals. Databases such as EBSCO, Capitaline, IBID, are easily accessible to all students. While each student has his or her laptop, ASB also has two IT hubs with high speed internet facilities. Vidya: the Amrita E-learning Digital Library is a rich resource with over 1.5 Terabytes of learning material in the Business/Management studies section. The campus has many facilities for physical fitness including yoga and sports. The Olympic size swimming pool is source of pride for all Amrita residents. Students also have access to tennis courts, an indoor gym, and an outdoor track.

The student body is nationally representative and around forty percent of the students come from outside the four southern states. ASB students elect a student council each year. This council organizes events and helps to run the different student forums in systems, marketing, finance, HR and operations. Student committees play an active role in admissions and placements. ASB has achieved 100% placement the last many years. Student organize both intra-college competitions each year and an intercollegiate national B-fest Pragati each year. ASB students have participated and won several prizes in B-school competitions across India.

ASB is characterized by a feature very rare in B-schools – faculty-student mentoring. Since most faculty live on campus, students have easy access to faculty if they need any help. ASB must be one of the rare schools where students have the opportunity to go hiking with their own Dean who leads walks in the Annamalai hills.

International Collaborations

ASB has been on the forefront of international collaborations to keep up with the rapidly globalizing world. Some of these initiatives include:

• SUNY-Buffalo: ASB & SUNY-Buffalo have tied up for a new post-graduate program an MBA with an IT-Services sectoral focus at our Bangalore Campus. The teaching is being jointly shared by SUNY faculty and faculty from ASB.
• EURECA: Recently Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has been identified as one of the seven Indian universities to be a part of an EU funded program EURECA. This program allows mobility of faculty, post-docs, Ph.D. students, Masters students, and undergraduate students between Asia and partner universities in Europe. ASB students and faculty are availing this opportunity from Spring 2009.
• SAP University Alliance Program: ASB is the university alliance partner of SAP the global major in the ERP domain. Students at ASB get the opportunity of hands-on experience on the latest (ECC 6.0) version of SAP.

Admissions

ASB is now admitting its 15th batch of MBA students (2009-2011). The admissions process is rigorous and is based on the CAT , personal interview, oral presentations, a written skills test and work experience with interviews held at eight locations across India Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Candidates who are short-listed based on their CAT scores will be called for a personal interview at the various selection centers specified in the application form. Interviews are likely to be held in the third week of March and results would be posted on the website soon afterwards.

The number of seats available for the fully residential 2-year MBA Program starting on June 2009 is as follows:

Coimbatore MBA, Flagship Campus : 120 seats

Bangalore MBA, IT Services Focus: 60 seats

Amritapuri MBA, Social Enterprise Focus: 60 seats

Kochi MBA, Health Sector Focus: 60 seats

For more information on ASB and admissions, please log on our website: http://www.amrita.edu/asb

(This is a sponsored article intended from an informational perspective only. It is the readers’ prerogative to research and verify the content before taking a decision)