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Friday, May 30, 2008

Where the mind is without fear...

Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high
Into that heaven of freedom,my father
Let my country awake ...
---Rabindranath Tagore

Why Trek?

The word seemed nothing more than just walking up a narrow lane with huge bags on one’s shoulders and sturdy sport shoes buckled up one’s feet.

I always wondered what really fascinates the so called trekkers,for it looked like an voyage that has no real destination.What exactly are the trekkers craving for?why do they do this?what motivates them to slog along the footpath which looked so narrow and long with the course extended beyond horizons?

These were a few but musings of mine that kept developing as and when I heard about or looked at the very activity of trekking.One other important revelation I have made is that th trekkers are by large the “GO GETTERS”.They appreciate hard work and have this attitude of “NEVER SAY DIE”.

Having made such observations,it triggered a pampering kid in me,i became more curious as to whether there is really something to it or what!

And thus started my expeditions...




Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The subprime crises and India

The hot topic as it may rightly be called. Economists world over are busy number crunching the illusion fall( or may be coming down to ground reality) of banks under the term,"Sub Prime Crisis". Well for my dear readers who are like me ( need things to be simple to get striaght in head :)), the crisis relates to increasing number of defaulters and foreclosures of home loans in US. The sudden increase of defaulters has led to an increase in availablity of houses and hence the lowering of property values. The general life style of US is based on hypes and valuations, so as they say, take risks, you will spur and you will fall down equally well, but you will enjoy both.
The idea here is high risk loans which fell on the wrong side. Stocks, securities and properties work on valuation mechanism. The fall of value is directly related to demand and supply. There were too many MBAs diversifying the portfolio of credit lending to make the share of sub prime lending in home loans reach to a proportion of one fifth and all calculations failed when risk anticipated turned into reality. This was just to give a brief context on the problem at large.

The question is, how does it impact India and other Asian developing countries, considering that this is an era of globalization and US' Godliness has been diversified, however, it still remains to rule because of its high risk taking appetite.
Things which are bound to be impacted-
Impact on IT? Oh yes. I have been involved in this industry for sometime now and i can say that around 60% of revenue for most of the big IT companies comes from US clients and Banks INVEST on quality and technology in quest to go global. While sectors like energy and utlity and retail are picking up, banks still remain to be the big HUB of investments in IT. To add to it, banks outsourced a lot of processing to India, so BPO busines is BADLY hit. So, a) reduction in customers ( to an extent). Falling value of US dollar would mean reduction in profit margins for IT service companies. So, b) Reduction in profit earned and that drives stock values in simple terms. Suddenly, the organizations are crying for improving productivity, reason, bottom line is what can be impacted, they really dont have control on top line. I dont count it as negative though, its a balancing act. Anything that grows leaps and bounds has to come back to ground reality and normalize. So, probably we are maturing and we will do balancing act to diversify our client portfolio to diverse geographies and most importantly understand the value of domestic business and drive demand from local industrialists. IT impacts a major part of middle class population, their purchasing power and hence the domestic needs. IT is one of the best pay master for youngsters, so yes middle class will be impacted, they might not come on ground, but the luxuries will reduce.

Things which are bound to balance-
Well, i do want to thank Tatas and Birlas and Reliance. We will survive and will be impacted mildly( if the assumptions go right) in the game because they have invested in food, shelter and clothing business. We as a nation invest in steel, we manufacture cars, we build infrastructure raw materials, and we export clothes. And here, we dont look at margins only, we look at volumes and geographies. We trade with Sri Lanka, singapore etc etc( which IT is waking up to do now). They have made right use of globalization by diversifying their organizational business portfolio to keep IT a part and reinvest its earnings in expanding the busiess on basics which can not be ruled out for life. So, we come in business which trades in salt, grains, clothes, wire, phones, steel and since we are a poor uneducated nation, the economy at lower end does not know what US mortgage is, they never even had a bank account. How does it matter if US falls or awakes, we will still live. May be we will reduce our two cell phones to one because banks dont give us loan anymore, but then what the heck, we never had a phone to start with.

So, guys the answer is yes, we will be impacted. IT is not all that rich till US comes out and IT companies diversify their client profile by taking a hit on their profit margins. And sadly, these guys pay well, huh! BUT, i will love to call it a balancing act. This is about a bubble that bursts. We get slightly impacted, but our economy gets chance to diversify and decrese geographical dependency to make optimum usage of globalisation. Only sad part is, we react, we dont pro act. Never mind!! everything that happens over next two years will take us more and more towards sustainable growth and development, might be a bit slow but yes, steady. :)

Stock Markets and the US Economy

The sharp corrections in the capital markets world over during January 08 are attributed to the concerns over a possible US recession and its spill over to the global economies. By now there remains little doubt that US economy is headed for a steep decline. First it was the sub-prime mortgage crisis and credit card defaults, now huge losses by Citi group and Morgan Stanley. The signs are getting clearer as the days pass by. Few will argue that this seemingly imminent recession will have its implications on other economies, both developed and emerging. They will too bear the brunt of US slowdown, given the interconnectivity of global economies in this liberal era. But no one seems to be sure as to what extent a US recession will hit other economies. Particularly for India, analysts seem quite positive. Most of them believe India’s domestic consumption driven economy will sail through this turmoil. Some even thinks India will benefit from a US recession as more jobs will shift towards India. Here lies the contradiction as to then why India’s bourses took a greater plunge than Dow Jones on concerns of a US slowdown??
According to financial market data provided by S & P, India was the fourth worst hit market during Jan08 with a correction of 16%. The loss was 12.44 for the emerging markets against 7.83% for the developed markets. 16 of the 26 emerging markets posted a double digit loss. Whereas the Dow Jones corrected by only 6.07%. This clearly indicates there is more to it than what meets the eye. Asian markets, it seems, are being played into the hands of western FIIs. Otherwise why would all asian markets rise and fall in rhythm? If the FII flows to India are at an all time high, so would be the withdrawls. It’s a natural cycle. So whether a US slowdown or not, markets will correct sharply in between scaling new highs. The 'Monkey business in village' story relates to the asian markets more now than ever.

The Bear Sterns Bailout

To start with little history, Bear Sterns is a financial giant with 80 + years of experience in financial world. This company withstood The Great Depression, the stagflation of the 70s, the dot-com burst but succumbed to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Now what is subprime mortgage crisis?

Subprime mortgage crisis is sudden increase in foreclosures by home owners.

Now, who are “these” home owners and what is foreclosure?

These home owners are people with not so good (less than generally accepted) credit rating and ended up taking home loans with higher interest rate. Subprime loans provide an opportunity for borrowers with less than "not so good" credit rating to access loans at higher interest rates.

With the real estate prices’ increasing continuously, the lure of hedging on homes is too good to resist. Even if the lure is not good enough to entice people to buy homes at high prices, the fear that “if not today, I may never be able to buy a home in this ever rising real estate market” could also be a significant reason.

Let’s look at an example:

A person XYZ takes a loan at higher interest rate (subprime rate) when the real estate prices are sky high with the hope of refinancing at a low interest rates. If XYZ does not have good credit rating, he/she is not entitled to loans at attractive interest rates. However, XYZ can improve his/her credit rating by paying EMIs on time for one year. The problem arises when XYZ cannot pay as planned. The credit rating worsens and the chances of refinancing at lower interest rates are minimal. To add to the problems, if the real estate prices collapse in the midst of all this, XYZ is in real soup now. XYZ took a loan at higher interest rate when the home is valued at a higher price. Now, the home is not valued at the rates for which it was paid for. That means, XYZ is paying more than the current value of the property and he/she is not financially sound enough to manage this. So, XYZ chooses to foreclose the property. When this happens on a bigger scale, boooom, crisis starts.

So, how did a company which was awarded “Most Admired” securities firm in Fortune’s "America's Most Admired Companies" survey get involved in all this? Bear Sterns invested heavily in hedge funds that lost almost all of its value because of subprime mortgage crisis. One thing led to the other and finally, the share which was valued at 87 USD during the last week of February 08 is offered 2 USD on 14/15th of March 08 by JP Morgan Chase. The firm whose net income during the previous year was 2.1 billion USD (source: http://www.businessweek.com/bw50/2007/74.htm) was purchased 236.2 million USD. That’s how quick fortune changes.

However, If one looks at the bigger picture, I think this is all part of economical cycle. Not everybody would get rich all the time. Few get rich, few get richer and this might mean few getting poorer. It’s all in the game. Mankind has seen many financial collapses like this in the past for different reasons though; many of which we don’t even remember vividly (For those who forgot, remember, there was a much bigger financial collapse just few years back. Does ENRON sound familiar?). The collapse of ENRON had far reaching consequences than the collapse of Bear Sterns. A typical investor in Bear Sterns is much richer than a typical investor in ENRON. Also, it is not as difficult to find another job for employees of Bear Sterns as it was for employees (most of them not highly skilled) of ENRON.

My point here is: We should all look at the bigger picture and not panic when a blip takes place in the economy. An economy is not bound to grow unprecedented. It is bound to have recessions. We should not loose confidence and rather work towards a better tomorrow and a brighter future.




Monday, May 19, 2008

Linux over Windows? Anyday - Anytime

Lots of people argue why I should use Linux (any distro, I prefer Ubuntu) when I am currently using Windows or Mac. Given a chance to select your choice of operating system (OS), people may prefer to use Linux than anything else. The other thing which prevents users using Linux is the hardware support which is not that good currently for Linux. But that is because we have been living in a world where Windows is being forced to everyone when they buy PC. That’s why hardware manufacturers are also forced to support Windows first than any other thing. But this support has increased tremendously over last couple of years. At the same time Linux community has developed itself in making Linux (Ubuntu in particular) more user friendly.
Anyways that is an ongoing debate whether you should use Linux or Windows or Mac. And at some point it is a personal choice as well.
I thought of collating some reasons which might make you think twice while buying another Windows PC. And if you currently use Linux, then please add a comment to this post, why you use Linux and which distro you use so that others can get more information about it:
  1. Ubuntu is Free and so any other Linux distro.
  2. You don’t have to buy Office (Word, Power-point, Excel etc.) separately. It comes with OpenOffice preinstalled.
  3. You don’t have to buy costly hardwares for the basic need. (RAM. Processor, HDD etc.)
  4. Ubuntu is more stable.
  5. You are free from Viruses so you don’t have to buy another upgrade of Norton or any other Antivirus software.
  6. When you have installed Ubuntu, you don’t have to install anything else to get you started with your productivity.
  7. You don’t have to wait for years for the bugs to get fixed. You can track them down in Ubuntu.
  8. You can update everything on your system with just one update manager. No need to run separate Update manger for all the softwares you installed. (Saves your system resources.)
  9. Don’t get tired restarting your computer all the time. You do it almost never with Ubuntu.
  10. You are free from Pirated softwares. With Ubuntu you can share it with as many people as you want and it is LEGAL.
  11. Don’t have to bother searching the web for new softwares. Ubuntu gets a whole lot of software free of cost to you.
  12. Play hundreds of games for Free.
  13. Your PC won’t get slower day by day. It happens in Windows only.
  14. Use MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, Gtalk, Yahoo and many more with a single program. No need to install separate software for the same thing.
  15. Tired of managing multiple windows on your screen. You can use workspaces to manage your work.
  16. You old computer will get a second life. Because Ubuntu does not need those high resources as Windows.
  17. Jump into the next generation of desktop themes with Compiz fusion and all with lot less resources than Windows Vista.
  18. With Ubuntu, you are always free. Free as in Freedom and in Free Beer. Ubuntu is free and will always remain free.
  19. All future upgrades of Ubuntu are provided free of cost. Upgrades are released every 6 months.
  20. Upgrades are installed automatically. You don’t have to bother about losing your data and redoing lots of personalization. The updates are installed with your permission and only if you want them…not in the background without you knowing it.
  21. You can tweak your desktop wallpaper or any other setting the way you want it. You can make it look like Windows or Mac (if you want.). You can even get the sidebar you were fascinated in Vista.
  22. You don’t have to defrag your hard disk every now and then to boost the performance. Ubuntu does it for you automatically.
  23. You don’t have to go to a shop to buy operating system. You can download it anytime you want it and burn it on a CD. You can even burn it on a re-writable CD to save some CDs.
  24. Thousand of user are there to help you with when you are stuck. Become a part of Ubuntuforums.
  25. You will get free and Long Term Support (LTS) for Ubuntu. Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop version also has a LTS.

I think these many reason are enough to get you started with Ubuntu or any other Linux flavor. Keep visiting this blog for more information on Linux, Ubuntu in particular. If you want to try it now you can download Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.

Who is the best server in Tennis

As the first shot of every point, the serve has always been the key stroke in tennis. Without a good serve players will invariably struggle to make the highest level and while you do not have to be the tallest on tour to serve well the extra inches certainly help.

At 6 foot 10 inches Ivo Karlovic of Croatia (currently trading at 48 to take this week's title in Basel) is not only the tallest man ever to compete on the ATP Tour but also an outstanding server who leads most of the service category statistics recorded throughout the season.

Because Karlovic strikes the ball from a greater height than anyone else his angle of delivery over the net means he not only has a greater margin for error than anyone else but also can make the ball lift off the court service higher than anyone else and harder to return.

Not surprisingly Karlovic is the only man prior to this week who has already served more than 1,000 aces in 2007 with 1,194! His compatriot Ivan Ljubicic is second on the list with 859, while Andy Roddick of the United States third with 708.

If you then average out the number of aces served by each of them per match played this season Karlovic again tops the pile with 20.59, compared to Ljubicic's 14.08 and Roddick's 12.00. But it is no coincidence that the second tallest player on tour - the 6ft 9in American John Isner - has the second highest average of aces per match at 19.62.

Roddick's 155mph serve three years ago in the Davis Cup remains the quickest on record and he continues to fire fastest more regularly than anyone else having done so at this year's Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open (Ljubicic was quicker at the French Open).

Karlovic was never far off the pace and when it comes to the percentage of first serve points won the giant Croat is the best again with 84%, Roddick second with 81% and Ljubicic third with 79%. Karlovic and Roddick are also the top two in service games won with a staggering 95% and 92% respectively.

But it is worth noting that the world No.1 Roger Federer who is a mere 6ft1in tall, features highly in all the above categories: 4th for total number of aces with 516 (at an average per match of 8.19), 6th in first serve points won with 77% and third in service games won with 89%. He also leads the tour in second serve points won with 58% because he places it so well and does more with the ball than most.

In addition, how players deal with pressure on big points when they are serving invariably sorts out the men from the boys. So often Federer, or in the past Pete Sampras, has produced great serves when break, set or match points down - the mark of true champions.

Yet with such a phenomenal serve Karlovic clearly leads the list when it comes to break points saved this season with 75%. Interestingly world No.2 Rafael Nadal is second with 69% while world No.3 Novak Djokovic, Roddick, Federer and Ljubicic are all up there in the top 10.

But as Karlovic and his like will be well aware, there is thankfully still so much more to tennis than just holding your serve. What you lack in height and service power you can make up for with great returns and ground strokes, speed and court craft - just look at David Ferrer of Spain who although over a foot shorter than Karlovic, heads the category of return games won with 37% and is ranked 19 places higher than the Croat at No.6.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Will Federer add the missing feather in his cap?

While there is now denying that Roger Federer is one of the greatest player in the history of tennis, everybody knows that clay has been is Achilles' heel and Rafael Nadal is nemesis. Its the time of the year where everyone is waiting for the "Federer vs Nadal" in the French Open 08, kick starting next week. I also hope that Novak Djokovic doesnot spoil the much anticipated showdown in the history of tennis.

After 4 years of failing to come up with a way to beat Rafael Nadal consistently on clay (we all know about Hamburg last year), Roger Federer recently hired Jose Higueras as his new coach.

The real question is what can Higueras, or any coach really, bring to the Federer game?

I don't think that there's much technically that Higueras can change in the Federer game. Federer has a fairly conservative grip for his backhand topspin which tends to be his main liability against Nadal. Fed doesn't have the more extreme backhand grip of a Gustavo Kuerton or a Richard Gasquet -- grips that would probably make it a little easier to handle Nadal's high topspin shots.

So, we're left with tactical changes.

I the final in which Federer blew a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Here's what I saw.

I think Higueras is trying to get Federer to open up the court more against Nadal so as to create better opportunities to attack.

Higueras correctly recognizes that Federer cannot rally with Nadal and expect to win a long match.

The first thing I noticed was a greater tendency on Federer's part to run around the Nadal second serve and rip a forehand. We saw some of this at Wimbledon and I think it's a very effective technique.

The next thing I saw was that it looked like that Federer was trying to hit his crosscourt forehand shorter and wider. Instead of playing power tennis and ripping crosscourt forehands deep into the corner, it looked like Federer was taking some pace off and trying to hit a sharper angle so that the ball would land a few feet up the sideline and pull Nadal further wide.

And, one more thing I noticed, was a tactic of hitting a drop shot off of a backhand.

Let's look at this last pattern in more detail.

Over the past few years, Federer has tried various patterns to counter the Nadal forehand to the Federer backhand. He has tried ripping crosscourt topspin back -- to no avail --, he has tried slicing crosscourt --to no avail, he has tried hitting up the line --with limited success.

So, in an effort to try a new pattern, Fed looks like he's trying to hit the drop shot up the line. Since Nadal is cheating to his (Nadal's) forehand corner, Nadal has a long way to go to get the Federer drop shot. And, Federer has a chance to attack the net behind the drop shot.

So, as always, tennis remains a beautiful chess match.

Can't wait for the French Open.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Leader is the face of the team!!























There is praise for Warne from all the quarters for the way in which he has led a very young side in the Indian Premier League. Everyone now things very high of the team and more importantly everyone in the team feels the same about himself. After each and every astounding win in the series, each of the player had the same to say "I knew what was my role in the team and I just struck to that"

















This is what Peter Roebuck, one of the most respected columinst had to say about Ricky Pointing's captaincy in the famous Perth match vs India in Jan08.
If Cricket Australia (CA) cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Ready to LEAD INDIA?



A very inspiring ad from the Lead India campaign

Diversity and B Schools

B-schools have constantly been focusing on “diversity” to build their batch of students. In almost every B-school, one of the essays do require details on how a candidate can add to the diversity or probably what is the one thing which would be unique to the candidate’s profile. All they are asking for diversity.

Admission committees focus on building a class of interested people from varied backgrounds. Their purpose is only to build a group where learning is not only a classroom focussed learning but also to learn from the varied experiences the students might have had.

According to Chicago GSB:

“The conviction that diversity enhances learning is a fundamental tenet of the Chicago MBA. We are strongly committed to fostering an environment where different perspectives are encouraged and embraced.”

MBA is only about how you handle business situations and how to apply one’s business learning into practice. One reason because of which most of the schools focus on case-based learning.

As Harvard puts it:

“Diversity among the student body is a foundation for the HBS experience—both inside and outside of the classroom. Indeed, these differences are critical to the HBS learning model, which thrives on the many perspectives and life experiences our students bring to the classroom from around the world.”

Keeping this in mind, we can think of how to add value to a class in a field in which, in the best case, you are the best, or unique. Just think of something which can be unique. It can be:

  • A hobby
  • Family background
  • Academic background
  • Ethnicity
  • Nationality
  • Extra-curricular activities, viz, a state/national football player, community service

How can you build diversity?

I am not going to talk about creating stuff for your application. Though that is possible, but the admission committees have been reviewing application for years and it would be too difficult to fake. So the point lies in introspection.

Build on your hobby

Here comes a problem for candidates who think they have a common profile and they are no different than the others. That’s not true. Everyone’s different. You just need to identify that one thing in which you are, or you were good at. Build on that.

Maybe you used to paint when you were in school. Work on that. Take it to the next level. Participate in some exhibitions. Or publish your art on the net.

Pick up a new language

You can go for a foreign language course. And don’t just stop at the basics. Learn it to a level where you can converse in the language comfortably. Okay, this might take time; probably 6-7 months, at least. But just an idea.

Some general guidelines

  1. Say something extra. For the uniqueness factors mentioned above, ethnicity, background, etc., do not mention them just for the sake of it. Discuss how that factor has helped you shape your personality, your career. What have you learnt from a particular life experience you might have. You can also discuss on the effect it has had on your decision to go for an MBA.
  2. When discussing your hobbies, talk about at what level you used to participate. It could be sports, art, photography, writing, anything. Discuss what your contributions were, what motivates you. Discuss if you are going to continue it after your MBA program begins. If the school provides a platform for that, mention it as your advantage.
  3. Soft skills cannot make you unique. For a B-school, leadership, communication skills, etc are required. So this is expected of all candidates. You might be good at it, but you are not unique. Emphasise on these points in another essay which talk about your qualities, but do not mention it as your uniqueness factor.
  4. Join some clubs. It could be a non profit organisation or a theme club. As an example, you can join Mensa, if you feel you have above par IQ. You can join Toastmasters club, if you are good at public speaking.
Just be to the point and make sure to cite examples. You can always talk about your experiences in diverse situations, but be sure to be to the point and mention your contribution to the class.

4 Things IT guys should do to be a strong MBA Candidate

I'm not sure how many of us have gone through the LBS Blog Post where the current student Manish explains his experience of recruitment at LBS explaining in detail the recruiters' perspective of an Indian IT guy. Although we might be familiar with some of the tips he has provided but when put into words, these become hard rules. We are all aware of the fact that since there are too many of us (Indian IT males I mean), the things we do daily are somewhat achievements for us. For example, designing a web page for the team where individual status is tracked is quite an accomplishment. But think of a person who does not understand the "impact". For him, it was just another techie thing and the resume is tagged as "programmer profile".

We have be different from the herd and thus take each step carefully so as not to be tagged as "just another programmer". There is nothing wrong in being a programmer. The difficulty arises when we do not show the impact of our actions through our profiles.

Manish quite beautifully explains the steps that should be taken to avoid being termed as a geek. He says, "the moment the recruiters see 2 high tech companies on your CV, it is thrown into a pile with other geek CVs".

Although I did mention some points to differentiate in my article for diversity, here are his tips to help cross the line, in his own words:

1) A solid CV with almost no technical buzz words (I would say any thing more technical than hardware, software, database would be red flagged). Your future employers do not care that you used multithreading and ajax for developing something cool. They want to know how much money your company saved/made from your work. They want to know the business impact, not the technical impact. Secondly you will see all your peers have achievements in each bullet while you as a technologist do certain things everyday because that's what you do at your job. I had this problem but you need to make every bullet in your CV speak of an achievement.

2) A solid internship in your area of interest: This is the biggest hurdle but one you mustn't compromise on. If you do an internship in your area of interest, you can build a convincing story about your aspirations.

3) Serious Involvement in clubs: To show your commitment to the area you are gunning for.

4) Something extra: Language skills, passion for things outside school etc. When 300 of your peers are all overachievers, often recruitment decisions boil down to marginal things and this is where your "other" skills come very handy.

Why is ISB ranked at 20 in FT Global MBA

The recent news that ISB is ranked 20th worldwide in the FT Global MBA rankings has invited a lot of opinions, objections and praises. Although I personally feel that getting this ranking is definitely good for ISB as the first thing ISB needs to be acknowledged in the global arena is exposure, and rankings is a definite way to achieve it. I do have some points to talk in favour of and discussions on some of the doubts that people might have.

Understanding the criteria
Every ranking institution follow a different criteria to compile the rankings, a fact every individual must understand before deciding whether a B-school deserved the particular ranking or not. I am not concluding anything here, but merely going over the facts. By going through the FT methodology, we see that “Weighted salary (US$)” and “Salary percentage increase” contribute 40 per cent of the rank for each school. This data is collected for the last three years beginning with the batch of 2004.

ISB has beaten the league US-Schools
Well, it comes as a big surprise that ISB is ranked above league schools, he likes of Kellogg, Duke, Anderson, Darden. Again, if you consider the salary percentage increase, it is understandable since the salaries of the above schools are more or less constant over the years and since ISB is gaining more corporate exposure with each coming year, the salaries have been rising at a fast pace. To add to that, the dollar has fallen considerable last year and if you adjust the salaries to PPP, the increase would be a lot.

I am not undermining the potential that ISB has, but I am just stating my personal analysis to acknowledge the position ISB has achieved.

ISB still needs to catch up on student diversity in nationality. Then why?
I agree to the fact that as compared to all other schools, ISB scores the lowest in terms of diversity. International students form only 5% of the batch as per the data, which is too low. But come to think of it, how will international students get to know that a school called ISB exist if it is not in the rankings. You ask yourself, will you apply to a US school which is not even there in the rankings? I won't, even if I have heard a lot of good things through word of mouth. I would like to know where it stands as compared to other schools. So exposure is the first thing required by ISB to attract foreign students, and the first way to get exposure is the rankings.

Why not IIMs?
Again, I do not want to undermine the fact that on some parameters, the IIMs score much above ISB, like Alumni base to talk about. But here we are comparing apples and oranges. IIMs cater to a different set of candidates. It is a totally different debate and I plan to write a new article on this argument. Promise.

Consequences
There certainly will be increase in the number of applications in the coming years, as if the current competition was not enough. :) No seriously, the rankings will attract more students and definitely more from foreign shores. Apart from that, I think this ranking is a major global reputation booster for ISB and would impact its placements in a positive manner