The Higher Education Review

Management education in India has evolved considerably over last couple of decades. The post 90s rapid economic liberalization created substantial demand for MBA education. And a large number of public and private institutions across the country came into the picture to offer MBA programs. While MBA emerged as a “glamorous” qualification and was perceived as a panacea to address all business challenges, the mushrooming growth of B-schools in India has failed to serve the expectations of industry because of their own structural weaknesses. One critical pain point that has been plaguing the Indian management education space is the industry academia disconnect.

Program curriculum are often not updated and aligned with rapidly evolving industry requirements including the key skills in emerging technologies. Students are not taught with the right behavioral approaches needed for corporate and therefore, business graduates are not ‘battle-ready’ when they intend to commence their career. Acknowledging this scenario, GLF Business School (GLFBS), Kolkata was incepted with an objective to integrate knowledge, research, industry experience, and international exposure to offer comprehensive management programs to the learners.

Consistent improvement to tackle age-old challenges
GLFBS is a premier Management Institute affiliated to West Bengal State University and it was founded by Dr Lopamudra Bhattacharyya, the first Woman to establish a B-School in India. GLFBS is a frontrunner in India that integrated Business Analytics into their curriculum and offered specialization in highly sophisticated areas of Data Science & AI, and Biotech Management to cope up with the technology driven changes in the industry. They are also the first B-School in India that offered specialization in Valuation Studies for all three classes of assets. And owing to their commitment to never compromise on the quality of their education, GLFBS has been the recipient of the prestigious

ASSOCHAM Best B-School Award in three consecutive years.

Adding more about the challenges Indian management education faces at present and how GLFBS is tackling this issue, Prof Avijit Banerjee, Director & Professor, GLFBS says “The root cause for the issues faced by management education in India are three folded – lack of commitments from the managements of B-Schools, shortage of high-quality and energetic faculty members, and enrollment of poor quality students who are not ready to take challenges. Talented professionals prefer to join industry rather than select teaching as their career. As a result, many management institutions prefer to invite guest faculty from industry to take the regular classes. However, the guest faculty members from industry are already overburdened in their workplace.


Prof Lopamudra Bhattacharyya, Founder, GLFBS

As a result their delivery of knowledge seems to be with less commitment. To overcome this issue, our Board of Studies updates our curriculum in consultation with subject experts at regular intervals making it multidisciplinary as far as practicable, and the syllabus is designed to be pragmatic and practical oriented. This allows us to equip our students with the needed skills required to thrive in the modern corporate world”.

Industry-centric collaborative learning
GLFBS acknowledges the fact that, apart from a strong theoretical knowledge, management being a professional course, demands imparting all essential skills required to work in the business world as an employee or an entrepreneur. And in order to provide diverse options to the learners, they offer a wide range of specialization subjects which can be classified under two broad heads viz. ‘Function Specific’ and ‘Industry Specific’.

There are compulsory internship project so as to make the students more conversant with the industry practices. And apart from the practical learning in the industry, the focus of study at

GLFBS are on experiential learning, peer learning, team work, lab-based learning, analytical diagnostic problem-solving, decision making abilities etc which involves the latest pedagogies of management education.

The revision of syllabus focuses on the recent industry trends, digital economy, and market requirements as well. Based on the collective inputs from the key stakeholders of management education, benchmarking with the Indian and foreign institutions of high repute, and considering the basic requirements of the employers; the syllabus is modified at par. Owing to all this, GLFBS has been able to develop into a premium management education provider and become the first B-School in India recognized by the Ministry of MSME, Govt of India as Host Institute / Business Incubator for entrepreneurship development and to promote Startups.

The technology-based labs run by GLFBS not only promote emerging businesses but they also provide new technology platforms and disruptive technologies which are positively impacting the current management education landscape. The labs provide facilities aligned with emerging technology areas such as 3D Printing, Robotics and Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML), Block chain, Biotechnology, and Internet of Things (IoT) to name a few.

GLFBS believes in the power of learning/growing together and they have collaborations with national and international organizations of high repute including the FIIT – IIT Delhi, CSIR CEERI, CII SNCEL, and TDC Ministry of MSME among many others. Combining these collaborations with their innate passion for constant innovation, GLFBS has been able to come up with market disruptive innovations consistently. And evolving with the changing times, they are aiming to be the epitome of world-class management education in India.

Prof Avijit Banerjee, Director & Professor, GLFBS
Prof Avijit aspires to create an inclusive learning environment to ensure the holistic development of their learners. And for students who are looking for a top-notch B-school, Prof Avijit says “The secret of freedom is courage. GLFBS is a place to grow that courage to face new challenges. Follow your own passion, nurture it, and always stay hungry for life”.