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here are only a handful of educational institutions in the world that have been classified as truly ‘world-class’—defined simply as ‘being of the highest calibre in the world’. With the stiff and fierce competition that exists among the best of the best, it is no wonder that only a small percentage of these schools make it to the elite ranks of the chosen few.

Though we live in an information age, this is also an age of hype on many fronts, including ‘academic hype’. Many institutions claim to be world-class, but have little or no justification to do so. More importantly, they don’t know, or even want to know, what makes a world-class institution. But it’s the ultimate goal of most schools. So far, no Indian B-school has ranked among the top 100 in the world. The only place an India B-school figures in the top 100 is among a list of ‘most difficult schools to get into’, which is expressed as a ratio of admitted to applied...