Amar Nandu: Best 50 | India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2025 | IIM Shillong Amar Nandu is a Chartered Accountant who has also cleared CFA Level II. Before joining the PGP programme at IIM Shillong, he gained 29 months of experience as an Assistant Manager at a CA firm and as a Research Analyst at a stockbroking company. He is also a FIDE-rated chess player and enjoys reading religious books.
Akshat Jain: Best 50 | India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2025 | XLRI Delhi Akshat Jain is a B.Com. (Hons) graduate from Ramjas College, University of Delhi. A consistent academic achiever, he topped his school in both Class 10 and Class 12. During college, he served as Senior Coordinator of the Placement Cell, where he interacted with companies, managed placement drives, and supported students through recruitment. He was also an active member of the Entrepreneurship Cell, which developed his creative thinking and problem-solving skills. To gain hands-on exposure, Akshat interned with the Business Controls team at Airtel Payments Bank, contributing to vendor reviews and third-party risk management. He also volunteered with Shiksha Bank, an NGO focused on child literacy and environmental causes, and joined Toastmasters International to build confidence in public speaking and leadership.
Aayush Shukla: Best 50 | India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2025 | Xavier School of Management (XLRI) , Jamshedpur Aayush Shukla is a Business Management student at XLRI Jamshedpur with a background in AI and Machine Learning. Before pursuing his MBA, he published three international research papers on topics as varied as space debris removal and interplanetary communication. Alongside academics, he has always enjoyed leading from the front, whether it was raising sponsorships worth over a lakh for TEDxMSRIT, building communities through Google Developer Student Clubs, or captaining cricket teams on campus. What excites him is the chance to work where technology, business, and people intersect. He is curious by nature, enjoys taking on challenges that don't have a clear playbook, and believes his journey has been defined less by grades and more by how he has adapted, learned, and grown through diverse experiences.
Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2026: Top 100 Business Schools Worldwide, Indian Institutes and Key Parameters The Financial Times (FT) Executive MBA Ranking 2026 was published on October 12, 2026, and features 100 business schools from across the world. The annual ranking offers prospective executive MBA candidates a way to compare programmes based on career outcomes, salary growth, international exposure, alumni experiences and other indicators of programme quality.
Aayush Jha: Best 50 | India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2025 | IIM Sambalpur Aayush Jha is a Computer Science graduate (Hons) from XIM University and an MBA student at IIM Sambalpur. As a Digital and IT Executive at XLRI Delhi-NCR, he worked to strengthen the campus's digital presence. He led a website redesign, achieved a 192% increase in LinkedIn engagement, and launched and edited a campus-tour video that received more than 20,000 views. His research paper on machine-learning medical imaging was published by Springer and has been cited more than 45 times. He also won the International English Olympiad and enjoys hyper-realistic sketching.
India’s incoming MBA batch is preparing to enter business schools with more than academic credentials. These students bring experiences, perspectives and ambitions that could shape the way they lead in the years ahead.
In a two-part InsideIIM interview, Pratik Ranjan—Principal at Boston Consulting Group and IIM Lucknow alumnus—breaks down exactly what makes recruiters stop and say, “Let’s interview this candidate.”
A McKinsey report stated that product management is emerging as the new training ground for future CEOs. The buzz has been around for a long time — To become a great CEO, be a great Product Manager first! It has become ingrained in our thinking and how we talk about product management. For newcomers, it is an exciting concept. Make decisions, Create the vision, and Command respect! Everyone wants to be a CEO. However, is it true? Can Product Managers Become CEOs? Does a Product Manager qualify to become a CEO? Let us find out.
