Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship: No quotas, Only Merit
For a B-school that does not host any annual management festival, 
Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME) has a lot of awards to boast of.
This year, its students have won management competitions in 33 prestigious festivals in top institutes across the country, including IIM-Ahmedabad. "We sometimes feel sad that we don't have our own festival, though it is being worked out. But we have competed across the country and won awards," said Dakshina Moorthy, a second-year post graduate diploma in management (PGDM) student, who won a gold medal at a competition at IIM-A.
Founded by a group of academicians in 1991 with meagre financial backing, XIME evolved into a B-school with a difference, where there is no reservation in admissions and merit alone counts.
"The festivals provide us the exposure to understand the competitive world around, giving us a wider knowledge base," said XIME alumnus and HR manager with HCL Nitish Tom Anthony.
Self-discipline is the first lesson that students are taught after joining the institute located in Electronics City on the outskirts of Bangalore. Surrounded by IT giants such as Infosys Technologies, the location of the institute provides students the opportunity to get hands-on experience at top companies.
XIME president J. Philip said the institute is the first B-school in the country to be part of the Association of BRICS Business Schools (ABBS), the world's first initiative among BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to facilitate joint management programmes and research projects in 2009.
"We believe in networking and providing opportunities to students to understand global management practices," said Philip.
And students appreciate these opportunities to interact with foreign students. "It opens our minds. We come to know more about how management is practised in various corners of the world," said second-year PGDM student Anuradha Mukherjee.
Since its first batch graduated in 1995, XIME has boasted of 100 per cent placement except for 2009 when the global economic crisis hit recruitments.
