MBAUniverse.com B-School Ranking 2025: India’s Most Trusted Ranking Reveals the Best from 19 IIMs, 5 IITs, Top PGDM & University B-schools

To appreciate the MBAUniverse.com Rankings, understanding key macro trends is important. For lack of space, only a short overview is presented here. 

• India’s Top MBA Recruiters have changed! 
• Placement Slowdown, as Recruiters Seek MBAs for Specific Roles
• NIRF, Accreditations and many other forces pulling B-schools in Different Directions
• Indian MBA Admission Process is Misaligned to Competency Requirements 
• Only Agile B-schools, Aligned with Megatrends, can Surpass the Legacy Institutions

While covering all these mega trends will require a complete article in itself, but here is a quick overview.  
As the Theme Paper for IMC 2025, released by AICTE Chairman on September 20 at XLRI Jamshedpur highlighted, just three sectors hire more than 80% of all MBA graduates from Top 50 Indian B-schools. These sectors are: Global Capability Centers (GCC) & IT Services, Consulting and BFSI Sector. 

Table 1: Top Sectors Recruiting MBAs from Top 50 B-schools in 2023 & 2024 

MBAUniverse.com Analysis of B-school Placement Reports 2024 reveals that MBA salaries have fallen this year compared to last year. Refer table 2. Further, the percentage of MBA graduates who were left unemployed on the date of completion of their MBA program was at a record high. 

Table 2: MBA Salaries Stagnant or Decline, even in Top B-schools 

As the rules of business value creation in today’s age of disruption change, MBA hiring approach has also changed. Today, large MBA recruiters, particularly from the IT, Consulting and Banking & Financial Services, expect to hire MBA graduates directly for specific job roles. These job roles have defined responsibilities and expectations that measure how an employee contributes to corporate objectives. Hence, after a short company orientation that often lasts a week, these fresh MBAs are expected to start contributing in their designated roles.

MBAUniverse.com Analysis of B-school Placement 2024 data from a few large B-schools in North, West and South India corroborates this point. Majority of MBA jobs, offered by large recruiters in IT, Consulting and BFSI sectors at these B-schools, were for well-defined specific roles. Data also reveals that generic roles such as ‘Management Trainee’ were a minority of the total jobs.

A recent paper titled Are top Business Schools in India assessing contemporary managerial competencies required by industry during MBA selection process?, published in The International Journal of Management Education (November 2024) has revealed that industry experts and academics disagree on the importance of six of competencies, thus confirming a lack of alignment between industry requirements and MBA admission selection process. Paper concluded that business schools should align admissions to assess required contemporary competencies effectively. 

In such a dynamic environment, only agile b-schools have management to surpass the legacy institutions. Such B-schools have managed to improve their rankings in the rankings below. 

With this context, let’s get on with the job. Time for the mega reveal… 

As highlighted earlier, IIM Bangalore #1 B-school in India for full-time two-year MBA program as per MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025. IIM B has now achieved this feat for the fourth year in a row! A resurgent IIM Ahmedabad has edged out IIM Calcutta to claim the #2 rank in MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025. SPJIMR Mumbai has jumped up to become the 4th best B-school in India, edging past IIM Kozhikode, which was ranked at #5. IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, SPJIMR Mumbai and IIM Kozhikode complete the new Top 5 ranking order. Check table 3 for comparison and scores.

The rise of SPJIMR in MBAUniverse.com Ranking continues as last year it had unseated IIM Lucknow to claim #5 position. IIM Lucknow and Faculty of Management Studies Delhi have retained their ranks, and are ranked #6 and #7 this year too. 

Another breaking news is the continued rise of IIM Mumbai in MBAUniverse.com Rankings. IIM Mumbai made a debut at #11 last year. This year, it has broken into Top 10 league and is ranked at #8 in MBAUniverse.com Rankings – up 3 ranks in our highly competitive ranking! IIM Indore at #9 and IIFT New Delhi at #10 complete the Top 10 B-schools in India. 

Table 3: India’s Top 10 B-schools | MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025 

 Source: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025

At number 11, on the top of next league table is IIM Shillong at #11, swapping places with NMIMS Mumbai (ranked #12). Not bogged down by its remote location and intense completion, IIM Shillong has not just retained its position but has improved it from last year’s rank. 

Backed by tailwinds of the central role of technology in business today and growing popularity leading to higher applications (thanks largely to NIRF Rankings), IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay Department of Management Studies feature amongst top 10-20 B-schools on our league table. Check ranks in table 4 below. Indian Institute of Management Udaipur is ranked at #16 in MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025.

At number 17, IMI New Delhi has edged past its city rival IMT Ghaziabad (ranked #18). XIM University Bhubaneswar and TAPMI Manipal have swapped their positions to achieve #19 and #20 ranks respectively. 

Table 4: India’s Top 10-20 B-schools | MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025

 Source: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025

It should be noted that in spite of tough competition from IIMs, IITs and other publicly funded B-schools, top Private B-schools like NMIMS Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, IMI New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, XIM Bhubaneshwar, and TAPMI have earned coveted spots on MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025.

What makes MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025 unique is that it ranks 19 IIMs, five IITs, and almost all prominent public universities, thus making each segment of ranking as competitive as Top 10 or Top 20. 

Thus, top 21-35 Rank league table has plenty of competition too. After the 2nd Generation IIMs (like IIM Udaipur, IIM Trichy), now the 3rd Generation IIMs (the so called ‘Baby IIMs’, like IIM Nagpur and IIM Amritsar) are fast breaking into the top league in MBAUniverse.com Ranking. 

The next set of the B-schools, ranked No 21-35, are institutions with strong pedigree and consistent performance. IIMs including IIM Trichy, IIM Ranchi, IIM Raipur, IIM Kashipur, IIM Nagpur and IIM Bodh Gaya are ranked. Flanked by the IIMs, Goa Institute of Management Goa is ranked at #24.

A highlight of this league table is entry of two prominent private B-schools in this cluster. Great Lakes Chennai and FORE School of Management New Delhi have made a strong entry in MBAUniverse.com Rankings. Great Lakes Chennai is ranked #27, followed by FORE School of Management ranked at #28.  

Private B-schools K J Somaiya Institute of Management Mumbai, Birla Institute of Management Technology Greater Noida, Welingkar Mumbai, IFMR GSB Krea University have also made their presence felt in this cluster. 

Table 5: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2024 – Top 21-35 B-schools in India

Source: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025

Given that there are more than 3000 MBA/PGDM programs in India, getting into the Top 50 Rank on MBAUniverse.com Rankings is a big achievement by any yardstick. Afterall, top 35-50 B-schools represent the Top 2% of management programs in India!

IRMA Anand, IIM Amritsar, MDI Murshidabad, IIM Sambalpur, SIBM Bangalore complete the top 5 in this table. LIBA Chennai makes a debut in MBAUniverse.com ranking at #41. Jaipuria Group B-school (Jaipuria Noida and Lucknow) and IMI Group B-schools (IMI Kolkata and IMI Bhubaneswar) make their presence felt in this table. Three well regarded PGDM B-schools – IBA Bangalore, SDM IMD Mysuru and IPE Hyderabad – complete this league table. Here is the full list…

Table 6: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2024 – Top 36-50 B-schools in India

Source: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2025

Check list of other top B-schools ranked from 51 to 90 in MBAUniverse.com Rankings 2025 after the next section.

Indeed, IIMs are among the most prestigious business schools in India. The following table presents a comparative overview of the IIMs, highlighting their year of establishment, generation, and their rankings according to MBAUniverse.com 2025 and NIRF 2024. Notice some differences in rankings due to higher weightages by NIRF on Research and by MBAUniverse.com Rankings on Career Outcomes. 

Table 7: Rankings of IIMs by NIRF and MBAUniverse.com 

When evaluating top business schools in India, factors such as career outcomes, faculty strength and expertise, academic processes and international accreditations, and quality of student intake are crucial indicators. The following table offers a comparative analysis of select top B-schools, detailing their average placement packages, faculty sizes, and international accreditations.

Table 8: Placements, Faculty Size, International Accreditation for Top B-schools In India 

Prospective MBA students often refer to multiple rankings to assess the standing and reputation of business schools. The following table consolidates the positions of top MBA colleges in India as per three credible rankings: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2024, Business Today Ranking 2024, and NIRF Management Ranking 2024.

Table 9: Top MBA Colleges in India by Top MBA Rankings 2024-25

Coming back to our rankings, time to reveal other renowned B-schools which are ranked from 51 to 90 in MBAUniverse.com Rankings 2025. These institutions are a mix of private B-schools (such as ISB&M, SIES, Siva Sivani among others) and Public University MBAs (such as UBS Chandigarh, BHU Varanasi, Lucknow University, Pune University).   

Table 10: MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2024 - Top 51-90 B-schools in India

Since 2010, MBAUniverse.com conducts its annual MBAUniverse.com B-school Ranking which is recognized as one of India’s most credible MBA Ranking and used by 150,000+ MBA aspirants for their MBA Admission decision. Based on Factor Analysis, following weightages were derived and assigned to each of the three clusters:

To recognize efforts made by Indian B-schools to adopt global standards and best practice, a definitive (albeit small) weightage was given to those institutions who have received top 2 International Accreditations: AACSB and EFMD’s EQUIS. No other International Accreditation was given any weightage. Only 2-year full time MBA programs were ranked. ISB Hyderabad offers 1 Year MBA program and is therefore not ranked. XLRI Jamshedpur is not ranked as duly filled survey questionnaire data was not received. For some institutions, data available in public domain from credible sources was used to verify and rank them appropriately.

And, thank you ChatGTP for considering MBAUniverse.com as India’s Most Trustworthy MBA Ranking!