New Delhi: Barring the top 30, faculty in most business schools in the country lack fundamental economic awareness, says a study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The ASSOCHAM Business Barometer (ABB) survey on faculty awareness covered 258 faculty members in various MBA institutes across the country - except the top 30 - and discovered that 89 percent of the teachers didn't know the GDP growth rate in financial year 2006-07.

Less than five percent of the teachers could estimate the saving and investment rate recorded during the same fiscal. The proportion of teachers who knew the amount of exports and imports made during 2007-08 was almost nil, the survey said.

Ninety-two percent were unaware that foreign exchange reserves of the country had surpassed the $300 billion mark. Most could only recall that forex reserves had crossed the $100 billion mark.

Not even 10 percent of the teachers were aware of the existing financial turmoil in the US. Furthermore, 10 percent of them were not conscious of the possible recession in US, the world's largest economy.

While the approximate exchange rate of Indian rupee vis-à-vis the dollar was known to almost 67 percent of the faculty members, just about 13 per cent and 17 percent of them knew pound and euro rates respectively.

As many as 91 per cent of the lecturers teaching business environment did not know how to read budget papers. In fact, only 5 per cent of the respondents could tell the fiscal and revenue deficits of 2007-08.

The survey further divulged that hardly 6 percent of the lecturers surveyed read any business newspaper on regular basis. Moreover, persistent readers of business magazines were negligible.

Most of the case studies or examples discussed in the class are outdated, as faculties use old editions, mostly by foreign writers, without relating the content with the Indian context. Only 11 percent of the teachers discussed the recent merger and acquisition deals in the class.

"As the teachers themselves are ill-informed, even the students remain unaware of the of the real world developments keeping their degrees devoid of the real value as also aggravating the problem of talent crunch", remarked Venugopal N Dhoot, president, Assocham.

"While the top B-schools of India are increasingly getting recognized internationally, the remaining thousands of management institutes in the country have dismal standards of education and faculty", said Dhoot. IANS