New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has been ranked as the best business school in India, and among the list of 27 global business schools identified by Eduniversal, a unit of the French consulting firm SMBG.

The award, presented at the Eduniversal World Convention at La Sorbonne, Paris, on November 4, 2008, recognized the 3 best institutions within each of the 9 Eduniversal geographical zones: Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Northern America, Central Asia, Far Eastern Asia and Oceania.

Notably, the deans of the 1000 business schools from 153 countries elected IIM Bangalore among the Best Business Schools in the Central Asia zone, with a recommendation rate of 398 per thousand, followed by IIM Ahmedabad (379) and IIM Calcutta (321), classified under "internationally known".

"We are delighted to receive this recognition as India's top business school. Eduniversal has developed a unique evaluation methodology; the acknowledgement from an independent international firm is significant for us," said Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM Bangalore.

"We have made several new initiatives, while continuing to strengthen our existing programmes, so that IIM Bangalore remains the preferred business school for students with global aspirations", he said.

The process of the official selection involved a global mapping system meeting the criteria of universality and the international reputation of each academic institution. Its aim was not necessarily to include the 1,000 best schools, but the most important 1,000 schools based on a method of quotas, offering business schools the opportunity to measure their performance, evolution and durability both in their zone of influence and internationally.

First of all, the selection was made by the Eduniversal International Scientific Committee constituted by 9 experts, each recognized both in their academic zone of influence and internationally; 1 representative of the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS) and 2 executive members of the consulting firm SMBG.

All countries in the world were concerned by this selection: the number of schools per country was weighted by quantitative and qualitative criteria. The first step led to a selection of 1000 Institutions taken out from more than 10 000 Business Schools in the World.

The second step was the classification by Palms, ranked from 1 to 5, awarded on two essential criteria:

- Evaluation of the International Dimension of the schools: their level of state recognition, their international accreditations, presence in most renowned rankings and memberships in international academic associations.

- The Deans' vote: each Dean from the universities and schools on the list of 1000 had to vote to recommend the other academic institutions.