IIM Ahmedabad has been the torchbearer of quality management education in India, thanks to the exceptional education, brand value and outstanding placements that students get here.

In addition to providing students with top-class education and careers, the institute is also ahead of the curve when it comes to moving with the times. IIMA strives to make well- rounded managers out of its students. A key input towards being able to do this is, not surprisingly, students themselves.The reason being that learning at a B-school happens not only from faculty members but from the fellow classmates as well. "Diversity" in an MBA batch has hence become one of the key parameters of judging the quality of education at a Business school. Therefore nowadays all the premier B-schools are trying to increase diversity in their classroom. IIMA is, once again, becoming the torch bearer, of this phenomenon.

Although engineering students still dominate the top B-school seats, there is a steady increase in the number of professionals from varied backgrounds who try to secure an IIM degree for having a successful career in the management arena. IIMA is giving a lot of hope for such aspirants to “make it” into the premier b-school.

This year IIM Ahmedabad's PGP 2017-19 batch displays extraordinary diversity. Apart from IT/Electronic/Electrical/Mecha

The 2017-19 PGP batch at IIM Ahmedabad comprises students like Gurdatar Ryait, a Ludhiana-based stand-up comedian, Rashmi Teltumbde, who is a tennis player who has represented the country in three junior Grand Slams,Umang Agarwal who has a PHD in animal sciences and Akanksha Choudhary who is a model who won the Miss India Elite 2016 crown.This kind of diversity will surely help this great institution in growing from strength to strength.

The other IIMs  are also trying to do the same. For instance, at IIM Kozhikode, Lucknow and Indore, non-engineers account for close to 20% of the class strength. Other premier non-IIM B-schools are also trying to have more diversity in their batches, at SPJIMR Mumbai almost 25 percent PGDM ( 2017-19) batch comprises non engineers.

Efforts of this kind go a long way in improving the learning environment in a classroom,which in turn will help further improve the brand value and placements at these premier B-schools.  We hope that many other B-schools take the lead shown by these premier B-schools and work towards increasing the diversity of their batches.