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Corporate sponsors select Hyderabad for setting up coveted business school

Rediff Business Bureau

Hyderabad has been chosen as the location for the Indian School of Business, a corporate-sponsored institution to be established by the Indian business leadership. The proposed school will be affiliated to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the J L Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

The affiliations will facilitate curriculum development, student and faculty interchange and research.

The school is scheduled to open in the year 2000 and will be an autonomous, non-profit, self-funding and financially secure institution.

According to a statement released in Bombay by the ISB, the school will be located on a 250-acre campus adjoining the Indian Institute of Information Technology campus at Manikonda village, 15 km from Hyderabad. The school will have world class academic and residential facilities for students and faculty. The ambience of the campus will truly reflect the premier status and global positioning of the institute.

Media reports quoted business bigwigs who piloted the project as saying that they were impressed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu's drive to make Hyderabad a world class technology hub. That, apparently, swung the decision in Hyderabad's favour, though several other states were vying to get prestigious venture located in their respective cities.

Among those closely involved with the project are Anil Ambani, joint managing director, Reliance, Yogi C Deveshwar, ITC's chairman, Keki Dadiseth, Hindustan Lever's chairman, Adi Godrej, Godrej Soaps chairman, Anand Mahindra, Mahindra and Mahindra managing director, K V Kamath, ICICI CEO, Rajat Gupta, McKinsey chief, Deepak Parekh, HDFC managing director, and Anil Kumar and Purnendu Chatterjee of the Soros Group.