Thanks to management schools in India, there has been a huge increase in students taking the GMAT test, and in institutions accepting the Graduate Management Aptitude Test as an admission criteria. This is being done in an effort to take schools to an international level and to make them on par with world-class business schools.

Part of the value proposition of GMAT is that it is an internationally recognised test. And as B-schools in India desire to be comparable to the best in the world, GMAT provides them with that opportunity. In India we are looking at doing things that we have done successfully across the globe. We do volumes of research on management education and related trends. We also do professional development programmes. So being a part of GMAC allows B-schools an opportunity to network, educate themselves and bring up to speed with other B-schools. We are looking at whether candidates who travel long distance would be better served if we were to put up centres in their locations. We would be looking at secondary market where significant volumes come from, says Ashok Sarathy, vice president of the GMAT programme.

The vice chancellor of the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Rajan Saxena, says that GMAT will help us improve our admission process and learn from the global best practices in the world. It will also help us accept international students in the future.