Shiksha Opinion: CAT 2015 registrations reflect diversity, economic growth and hope for future

CAT application numbers are out! According to IIM Ahmedabad, CAT 2015 conducting institute, 218664 candidates have registered for the exam. When compared to 2014 figures, CAT 2015 registration has gone up by 11%.

And that’s not all. The number of women applicants stands at 69176, which accounts for 31 per cent of total registrations – up from about 27% last year.

Out of the 218664, 149408 are male candidates while 80 are transgender.

 CAT 2015 results have been declared. Candidates can get details here.

CAT Registration Numbers

 

Gender	No.
Male	149408
Female	69176
Trans-G	80
Total	218664

 

 

 

Upbeat Economy

 

Till last year, we would hear statements like So many MBA students, so few jobs. Many business schools were closed down in 2014. It was said that just 10% of the MBA graduates are employable.

But things started changing with the election of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.

 

An MBA degree has often been considered the benchmark of a growing economy. An increase in CAT 2015 applications reflect the upbeat mood of the nation. In other words, it seems many candidates are in sync with NaMo’s Ache Din, Skill India and Digital India plans.

 

Also, the Indian economy is witnessing a surge of new-age entrepreneurs. According to a NASSCOM 2015 report, India is a home to almost 3100 startups. And the number is expected to grow. By 2017, India will have more than 10,000 startups.

Startups are also expected to employ more than two lakh employees in the next five years. Naturally, there’s going be a need for higher number of managers.

 

Let’s take a look at the total number of CAT registrations over the last few years:

CAT Year	Total number of registrations (approx. figures)
2008	2.76 lakhs
2009	2.42 lakhs
2010	2.04 lakhs
2011	2.05 lakhs
2012	2.14 lakhs
2013	1.95 lakhs
2014	1.97 lakhs
2015	2.18 lakhs

 

According to the figures, CAT exam was quite popular among MBA test takers back in 2008 and 2009. But later, the number of registrations started going down. The lowest figures were recorded in 2013. However, the numbers started displaying a reverse trend, with CAT 2015 recording the highest number of applicants in the last five years. 

 

Overall, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other business schools have some valid reasons to smile. The increase in MBA applications show that the MBA is still a sought after course.

Moreover, higher number of women applicants reflect that MBA test takers are finally getting the message of academic and gender diversity.

 

 

Diversity Factor

 

In an interview with Business Standard, IIM Ahmedabad director Ashish Nanda had said, “One of the biggest differences between IIM-A and US schools like Harvard is diversity. Recently when I visited an IIM-A class, I asked how may of the students were from engineering background and 95% of them raised their hands. In Harvard one can find people from various backgrounds; someone may be a historian, someone from computer background, someone would be an arts graduate…. IIM-A is limited mostly to Indian students and some from other emerging economies. I want to see more diversity in the IIM-A campus. But I don’t want to compromise on quality to achieve this.”

 

The IIMs have long been targeting an academic and gender diverse batch. While some top B-Schools, offer no relaxation to women during admission process, others are giving extra points during admission process.

 

To address the issues of academic diversity and gender diversity, IIM Ahmedabad announced some major changes in CAT 2015 exam. The test has introduced direct answer questions, in which candidates need to type directly on screen. Candidates can also use on-screen calculators this year onwards, which is being a considered a good move for candidates from non-mathematics background.

 

While answering to Shiksha.com’s queries on CAT 2015 in June this year, CAT convenor Professor Tathagata Bandyopadhyay said, “Regarding the content part, one of our concerns is, score in Quant dominates the percentile rank in CAT. As a consequence it brings in skewness to the selection process towards a particular set of candidates from a particular background. This year we intend to address it by making some changes in the test content and also by rationalizing weights assigned to different components of the test. This we hope will create a level-playing field for all candidates, no matter what educational background they come from, and will remove skewness to a large extent that we referred to above. We believe such a move will help us identify candidates from varied backgrounds who will become future leaders in their chosen profession. Such a move will also help IIMs bring in greater diversity in the classrooms and will go a long way in enriching the learning experience."

 

With the number of women registering for CAT 2015 reaching 69,176, it seems the applicants are getting the message of IIMs loud and clear. In future, we can hope to have a diverse batch at every B-School in the country.

 

 

Conclusion

Increase in CAT 2015 numbers definitely reflects that MBA is still a sought-after course. And with the IIMs working towards diversity, we can expect candidates from various backgrounds becoming future managers.

 

However, aspirants need to remember that 2,18,664 candidates will fight for just 3695 IIM seats. The competition is going to heat up and one needs to be armed well for that. Candidates will have to focus on scoring well both in CAT 2015 and GD-PI rounds.

Because soon, IIMs will create a level-playing field for candidates from all backgrounds. And only the best (wo)man will win!

 

This year, Shiksha has launched IIM Call predictor tool, which will help aspirants find out their chances of receiving a GD-PI call from the 19 Indian Institutes of Management.   To find out your chances, click on the image beside. Please note, the IIM Predictor tool is currently available only on mobile.