The economic slump seems to have dampened the entrepreneurship sprits of the B-schools students. Placement reports of the B-schools such as IIMs and others who have completed their placements exhibit students choose to go the "herd way" rather than pursuing their passion by becoming entrepreneurs.
Let us have a look at the statistics of students going the entrepreneurial way in 2011 vs. 2012:
Students donning the entrepreneur cap:
| Institutes | 2011 | 2012 |
| IIM-B | 16 | 8 |
| IIM-A | 7 | 6 |
| IIM-C | 5 | 1 |
| XIM-B | 2 | 0 |
| SPJIMR | 1 | 1 |
| XLRI | 1 | 1 |
This year from IIM-Bangalore, only 8 students decided to pursue their passion whereas last year 16 students decided to become budding entrepreneurs. Sources from IIM-B reveal that since market is a bit slow students find it safer to find a job on campus rather than looking for it after graduating from the campus.
In IIM-A, this year 6 students went the entrepreneurship way and started their own ventures, whereas last year the number was 7. The start-ups this year included a social venture for making elderly people self sufficient financially, a home service to provide medicine and doctors and an information security consulting firm.
Seeing very little entrepreneurship spark in the students and for encouraging students to pursue their passion, B-Schools such as IIM - Calcutta, Bangalore and Ahemdabad as well as XLRI Jamshedpur, XIM – Bhubaneswar and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad have started offering a deferred placement or placement holiday option for next 2-3 years wherein a full fall back option is given to students in case in next 2-3 years the venture does not work.
In IIM-Calcutta, last year 5 students chose to become budding entrepreneurs whereas this year only 1 student, Pooja Mishra has signed up for the same. She'll be joining her own full time firm and expand her established venture in to the field of education. She is planning to promote rural education and has already launched one college in Rae Bareli. Out of 356 students who SAT for placements this year in IIM Calcutta she was the only to don the entrepreneurship cap.
As per the sources, no student at XIM-B wanted to take chance this year by opting for entrepreneurship. Not even a single student opted out of the placement process in this atmosphere of uncertainty.
In S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research and XLRI Jamshedpur only 1 student opted out of the placement process. Sources from the placement cells of these colleges reveal that the students are not opting out due to the excellent job opportunities available to them on campus.
B-schools who once claimed to hone the skills of budding entrepreneurs are now witnessing students scampering only to join the rat race of bagging a job offer with maximum package. The whole spirit of entrepreneurship among students is certainly lost this year.
Source: Business Standard