“Bright Times Ahead For Management Education In India”

Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore discusses the importance of having the right combination of qualified faculty, keeping up with the latest technology and blending both these aspects into teaching for managerial education.

- Vasudha Mukherjee

Now with Omicron creating concerns across several cities, how are you looking at the return to normalcy post the pandemic?

We thought we were finally coming out of the pandemic but that does not appear to be the case anymore. There was much optimism, but now there’s certainly some caution and hesitation with the news about the Omicron virus. Hospitality was badly affected when the sector was showing signs of revival. This too appears to have dampened now. The supply chains were adversely impacted. They have not recovered fully as yet and all signs show that will take some time. Overall, only the completely digital companies have been sailing through but everyone else is just trying to figure out which way things will go. It’s still too early to talk about any specific pattern.

Does this raise concern for you, in context to the business education sector?

Business education, not surprisingly, is largely driven by economic fundamentals. As long as the industry and the economy are growing fast, the prospects for business education also remain right because essentially it’s economic growth, which drives many management jobs. The long-term view of management education continues to be quite bright. You can look at any of the current goals that India has, all of these are going to require significant managerial input. Therefore, the long-term prospects for managers and management education remain good. The short-term blips and ups and downs you can expect and things like the pandemic don’t help obviously. However, I am quite optimistic about the long run of management education particularly in India.