This write-up is based on my experience at the institute from 2010 to 2019. I joined the FPM programme in 2010 and graduated in 2019. The other regular information is available in the institute website. The views expressed in this page are personal and do not reflect the views of the institute or my colleagues. The content here is based on the situation during my stint. There have been major changes to the program structure for the later batches.

Note: I have received comments from my colleagues that, my website is not updated, the content is dated, etc. In one way, they are right. I have stopped updating about what happens in the selection process each year, content of RAT each year, etc. I found this to be extremely boring. Also, I have realized that much better information on this can be obtained by talking to the existing 1st year, 2nd year FPM students (their profiles are available in the institute website).

Admission process

a) You can apply with/without any standard test scores. You will be called for the Research Aptitude Test (RAT), if short-listed. From 2016 onwards, RAT is not mandatory for all. If you have high GRE, GMAT scores you would be exempted from taking RAT. What is the basis for short-listing? I do not know. Even if you have high CAT/GRE/GMAT scores you may or may not get short-listed. Professors responsible for short-listing candidates may look for a variety of dimensions like qualification and marks, experience, SOP, prior research experience, etc. I have not observed any strong patterns in short-listing. RAT was introduced at IIMB from 2009 batch onwards. See this news article. In fact, the FPM curriculum at IIMB was majorly modified in the year 2009.

b) What is the pattern of RAT? Generally it has verbal, data interpretation, logical ability, etc. The toughness is less than or equal to CAT. The 2010 RAT, had an additional section on research aptitude. A scenario/situation was given and we were asked to come up with questions/hypotheses that are researchable. In 2011, 2012, and 2013 this section was not present in RAT.

When I wrote RAT in 2010, I did prepare for it as I had no background of writing CAT type exams. I studied the Quantitative Aptitude book by Arun Sharma. It was useful for me to write RAT in 2010. Some of my colleagues had used the basic aptitude book by R.S.Agarwal for RAT preparation. If you already have experience preparing for CAT/GMAT/GRE, you need not require extra preparation for RAT.

Some areas have subject specific tests also. In 2010, Public Policy area had subject specific test. In 2011, OB area and Public Policy area had subject specific tests. In 2012- OB, Public Policy, Economics areas had subject specific tests. In 2013- OB, Public Policy, Economics, POM areas had subject specific tests. In 2016, Finance and Economics areas conducted subject specific tests. Economics area asks economics related questions in the test. Public Policy test asks you to write an essay on some contemporary policy related issues. POM test included three simple math questions (not multiple choice). I do not think you need to have extra level of serious preparation for these subject specific tests (except Economics Area). As a preparation for Public Policy tests, you may read the recent editorials of The Hindu or Indian Express. The actual content of these subject specific tests can be obtained by talking to the current FPM students. Their contacts are available in the IIMB FPM students' webpage. The content of these tests sometimes varies yearly. The Pagalguy threads on FPM are a good source of information on these tests.

c) What after RAT? In 2009 and 2010, all candidates who were short-listed based on their application had RAT + interview. In 2011, there was another short-listing for the interview after RAT. In 2012, all candidates short-listed based on their application had RAT + interview (except for Marketing area). It is better not to get worried by these trends. In 2013, there was another short-listing for the interview after RAT for some areas. It keeps changing from year to year as the decision is taken by the respective areas/professors. A good idea would be to get in touch with the current 1st year, 2nd year students in the areas you have applied/planning to apply.

d) How is the interview?

To test your clarity of thought, motivation for PhD, what after PhD, area of interest for research, etc. Depending on your qualification/experience few questions regarding your chosen area might be asked. For example; if you are an M.Sc. in Statistics and applying for QM area, you might be asked some questions on statistics related concepts. One need not expect too focused area specific questions. But, do not worry...professors will not be looking for "the correct answers" for technical questions (if any). If you do not know the answer to a question, you can say that you do not know or you do not remember. Nothing wrong in doing it.

The doctoral students

The doctoral students at IIMB are friendly and supportive. When I was applying for the FPM programme, I had received considerable help from the then senior FPM students: Krishanu Rakshit, Papi Reddy, and Vinay Kalakbandi. Currently there are 100+ students pursuing FPM at IIMB. We are the most diverse among all the other programmes with respect to experience and educational background. There are fresh engineers, post-graduates in liberal arts, statistics, economics, mathematics, psychology; professionals from IT, sales, marketing, engineering; doctors, veterinary doctors, psychologists, IAS officers, teachers, directors and members of the senior cadre of public sector enterprises. The experience varies from 0 years to 25 years. More than 50% of us are married and stay outside the campus. Managing family and studies is tough, but overall great!

Students after completing their FPM, have joined academics, R&D/Consulting divisions of MNCs, policy think-tanks, etc. In academics: IIMB FPM alumni can be found teaching in other IIMs; some have joined IIMB, department of management studies at IITs, IISc, NITs, and other private business schools; some have opted for post-doc positions in universities abroad; few are teaching in institutes abroad.

In a lighter vein, FPMs are also called Fervent Ponderous Monks (Thanks to a Professor for introducing these words to me. He does not wish to be cited.)

Course work & research

Doctoral students have separate course work. The duration of course work is two years. Duration of one term is 10 weeks. Totally we have 6 terms. We need to complete 24 courses. Number of courses per term depends on you and your area chair (one professor from your area). Out of 24 courses, 20 are doctoral courses and 4 are MBA courses (these are called as breadth courses). If you only want to take doctoral courses, you can...provided your area chair agrees. Normally professors ask students to take some basic finance, OB, operations, marketing, strategy courses that is offered in other programmes like PGP. Please note that this (what I have described) is based on the 2009 scheme. When I joined the institute, I followed this scheme. The institute has revamped its course-work structure in 2015. Now, the course-work is different and the student needs to do less than 24 courses. The details are available in the institute website or can be obtained by talking to the current first year/second year students.

A quick glance at how the course-work structure has evolved: Before 2009, students did 36 courses with the first year common with MBA students. During 2009-2015, students did 24 courses. Now, it has reduced to 18 courses.

1 course will have 20 sessions of 1.5 hours each, 2 sessions every week. Most courses require preparation before each class. As doctoral students, we need to attend every class. We are supposed to be academically serious and responsible students. Also, many professors consider us as colleagues.

The course work is intensive. The focus is on individual assignments, presentations, writing papers, etc. The course work is intended to give a breadth of understanding and not depth. It often happens like this: once we start to get a working knowledge of a course, that term would have got over and another term would have started! And this continues across terms...the course work is intended to enable us to get a grip/base/foundation when we actually use it for our research. We may not use all these courses for our research. These courses would help us in the long-run, when we start teaching/continue doing research after completing the FPM programme.

If you have a topic of interest, you can explore that topic during the course work through the term papers. In this way you also start thinking about your topic, reading literature, etc. The nice aspect is, depending on your course you can view the topic of your interest from various angles. For example: if your interest is in waste recycling and you are doing a course in sociology, you can view your topic from a sociology point of view, like how did social movements impact the formation of for-profit recyclers, etc. If your course is operations management, you can look at it from this angle like capacity planning for recycling plants, how to improve the efficiency, etc. You can speak to a professor working in your area of interest and start working right from the first term. However, it would be a good idea to just get "settled down" with the environment during first term.

The information on life after course work: you can get this after joining...I do not feel it is important to mention it here.

However, one point is to be noted: The title awarded to you, after completing the programme is Fellow in Management (PhD in Management), with concentration or specialization in a particular discipline. For example, if you are in Quantitative Methods, the title awarded to you is Fellow in Management with specialization in Quantitative Methods. What does it mean? Does it mean you have got a doctorate in quantitative methods? NO! As a student of quantitative methods, you also have an appreciation towards management and its functional disciplines. You ought to know the basics of Finance, OB, Marketing, Strategy, etc. even if these are not going to be useful in your dissertation document. This is the idea behind Fellow in Management. In fact, this is how FPM programme is significantly different from other PhD programmes that offer only specialization.

Others...

As a doctoral student in India, we need to have courage and patience. Over the last 9 years (2010-2019) I have heard the following comments from the institute faculty*:

a) "You should have gone to US universities...why did you come here?"

b) "You cannot compete with our MBA students...PhD students at MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, etc. are far better than you in terms of basic grounding"

c) "You are getting paid...so no summer holidays, no weekends for you"

d) "You are getting paid from our salaries. We are doing a charity by teaching doctoral students"

e) "I have the full power to throw doctoral students out of this institute...do not question me"

f) "FPM students get monthly stipends from the fees paid by PGP students...FPM students spend their time lavishly, get paid, get all facilities" (this was also said by the post-graduate/MBA students)

g) "FPM students are being paid salaries...they are expected to perform duties like Teaching Assistants as and when asked by the institute...FPM is a full-time programme, you are expected to study and involve yourself full-time" - This was said during the recent FPM Open House in 2018.

Based on my discussion with FPM candidates from other IIMs, this is not an isolated case!

* I can exactly tell 'which' professor said 'what' and 'when' he/she said. Here, I decided not to disclose their names for sake of discussing important and relevant content.

I advise you to just leave it through the other ear! You are not alone :) The reason why I mentioned this here, is because you should be prepared. You would be a serious passionate candidate who have joined this programme by quitting a high-profile corporate job. It is natural for you to feel hurt, angry (or anguish) when you hear such immature comments from the faculty whom you have respected the most (outside the four walls of the institute). Please do not try to change the mindset of the faculty by voicing your opinion. It will do you no good. One of my colleague and good friend once gave this analogy: "Authorities are tyrannical, by design. Fighting with them is like fighting with a pig in mud. The more you fight, the dirtier you get. And then you realize that the pig is enjoying it".

I have come to realize that we need to learn to ignore many such things and focus on what we joined the programme for (our single most purpose is to seek knowledge, learn to do research, and get out of the place). You can plan to bring changes once you join an academic institute as faculty.

The constant comparison with MBA students will always be there anywhere you go in India (I do not know about foreign countries). This was also acknowledged by Ramachandra Guha, an FPM alumnus from IIMC. Please go through the link Indian & Foreign PhDs for some interesting discussion on this issue.

As any other autonomous institute, this institute also has drawbacks. But, the resources and intellectual freedom available to a PhD student is good. If you are a person who likes the idea of doing serious research, and has an interest in teaching, this is one of the decent places to be in.

PhD research, mentorship, training in 'this part of the world', is not even comparable with the best institutions in the world. The ecosystem and academic culture that exists in good institutions outside the country is not available in 'this part of the world'. Please keep this in mind, while deciding to apply or do a PhD program here.

It is easy for newly joined students to loose their motivation/drive/focus during the initial terms. But, do not worry. Most of the senior students have gone through these emotional lows during the first year. It is better to talk to colleagues/take a short break/talk to a faculty to regain the lost motivation. As it is a long duration programme, there are ups and downs for everybody. We get over it by talking to each other or taking short breaks or seeking help from a professional counselor/psycho therapist.

There is a common saying in academia that academic world is small and we should behave well and respect our professors (whatever they do!). But, there is a more rigorous argument. Once upon a time, a senior faculty told the junior faculty: "...you should be more respectful to your elders, because it is we who will determine your promotion," and he replied: "Yes, but it is we who will write your obituaries". Interested to know who this junior faculty was? Please refer the wiki page of Prof. Gunnar Myrdal (I thank my colleague Anand, for introducing me to the works of Prof. Gunnar Myrdal).

The proportion/pool of good quality faculty (who does excellent mentoring of PhD students) are very low (less than 20%). The advisory committee chosen by the student and loads of luck plays a very important role in the successful completion of the programme within a reasonable time frame. If you happen to work with the 10% good quality guys and if you are lucky, you will complete the programme in less than 5 years. Else, you are doomed. Please talk to the respective area students to get a better understanding of the faculty and programme. Please do not jump into the programme thinking this way: "Wow! There is XYZ faculty who works in the topic of my interest. If I can get admission, I will choose him/her as the advisor." This is a precisely wrong way to approach your FPM admission. There are so many A's & J's around. The following books can be of great help to survive during the programme:

- A Theory of Jerks by Eric Schwitzgebel [this is not a book]

- Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James

- The Asshole Survival Guide by Robert Sutton

Staying outside the campus for married students & bachelors

IIMB has a unique distinction (when compared to other IIMs) of not providing married housing accommodation to FPM students. For students who have settled down in Bangalore with family and own house, this is not much of a problem. For students who are shifting to Bangalore for FPM or who get married in between the program, finding a house and staying outside is challenging. Finding a house near the campus within the budget we have is time-consuming. The minimum rents near to campus are around Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 15,000 (for a 2BHK with some reasonable floor area). This is excluding electricity, water, internet, and maintenance charges! There is an apartment just opposite to the campus where some FPM students (with family) stay. The rent there is Rs. 16,000 including maintenance. There are apartments/homes with monthly rent around Rs. 9,000...but, these are more than 5 km from the campus and main road. If you are lucky, you might get some place near the campus for this rent. But, chances are very low. Daily commuting to the campus from home is another challenging task. Very often, you might want to stay in the campus during late night for studying. But, it is not advisable to stay beyond a certain time. Travelling to your home during late night outside the campus is not safe (if you have a car, it is still ok). The streets are often not well lit, violent stray dogs, power-cuts, etc. are some issues you will have to face when you stay outside campus.

I personally know many FPM aspirants who have declined FPM offer from IIMB and have joined other IIMs only due to the married accommodation issue. I also know many FPM aspirants who do not apply to IIMB due to the married accommodation issue.

Recently, the hostel accommodation of bachelor students has also become a concern. There is considerable uncertainty in this. For example, the newly joined batch in 2016 have been told that they can expect to stay in hostel for only 3 years. Why am I saying all these? You should make an informed decision while applying for the doctoral programme...the purpose is to help you make an informed decision. If staying in campus is very important for you (and your family), then it is better to apply to other institutions that provides campus accommodation for the entire duration of FPM.

Good resources are a big plus point

The institute has excellent resources: (1) A decent space to store our books, read, and think peacefully (2) Reasonably friendly faculty with whom we can discuss about doing good academic research and teaching (3) Access to expensive databases and online journals (4) A good library with a great collection of reference books. The library is also a quite and cozy place to think and read a lot. (5) A good atmosphere (including the physical architecture) for learning, thinking, and discussing (6) Access to world-renowned faculty and thinkers who comes to campus for delivering talks and research seminars (7) Liberal stipends, book grants, international conference grants, free print-outs up to a liberal limit, laptop grants, grants for fieldwork, excellent internet connectivity (8) Highly flexible i.e. students are given complete freedom to choose their advisors, research topic, methodology (of course, this freedom comes at a cost!). Students can stretch their intellectual capacities to the maximum (of course, this stretching comes at a cost!).

A short history of FPM programmes in IIMs

I read about IIMA FPM history in Brick by Red Brick. Following are some short snippets from that book.

"The world tends to judge B-schools by placement salaries for MBAs, but that is not how B-schools judge each other, at least not in the US. There are two criteria:

1) how many 'top journal' (category A journals) publications does the school have?

2) where can the school place its doctoral candidates? can it place them in the top 10-15 schools? can it place them at schools whose ranking is higher than its own?" (Ram Mohan, 2011).

"It is only adding to the body of knowledge through research that an academic institution can make a significant impact on the world at large. Research feeds into and enriches teaching. Academic institutions need to produce teachers and future researchers through a doctoral programme as otherwise the education sector cannot be sustained." (Ram Mohan, 2011).

This is the rationale for the doctoral programmes at any academic institution including the IIMs. The doctoral programmes were launched in IIMA & IIMC in 1971. It was named the Fellow Programme in Management since IIMA & IIMC did not have degree granting status. The idea for creating 'Fellows' came from C Rangarajan (Ram Mohan, 2011). The IIMs can acquire degree granting status only if the Parliament passes an Act declaring them institutions of national importance. IITs have this Act passed. Sometime in 1971, the key people behind IIMA seem to have decided that "not much was to be gained from pursuing the degree granting status and it might involve some loss of autonomy....it was asked 'why can't the institute have enough confidence in its educational system that the products would be known for their quality rather than the degrees after their name?'....the decision not to bring IIMA under the purview of Parliament has always been hailed as an act of statesmanship on the part of Ravi Mathai and others at the helm of affairs at IIMA as it served to give the institute, and other IIMs that came up later, a greater measure of autonomy than is available to even the IITs" (Ram Mohan, 2011).

"Research at leading B-schools across the world is about publications in a defined set of peer-reviewed category A journals. At IIMA, the focus was on relevance of research, meaning knowledge produced must be applicable. Project research met this definition. This approach was a compromise between doing no research at all and producing only publishable research." (Ram Mohan, 2011).

Reference: T T Ram Mohan, Brick by Red Brick, Rupa Publications, 2011.

From what I have observed, situation has drastically changed across the IIMs. FPM students at IIMs are encouraged to publish their doctoral dissertation work in the top management journals...and many FPM students have achieved this!

It is to be noted that each IIM or any institution has its own philosophy of what a doctoral programme should be, how the doctoral students should be trained, what kind of candidates to recruit for the doctoral programme, what is research, etc. Some institutions have no philosophy at all...which can also be considered to be some kind of a philosophy. No philosophy is right or wrong. Institutions in India do no publicize their philosophies or PhD manifestos, for whatever reason. If they do that, aspiring candidates will be in a better position to choose institutions that fit their interests.

Please talk to candidates doing the FPM programme in your area of specialization, before taking up the offer. Each Area/Department in IIMs (including IIMB) have their philosophies, strengths, drawbacks, view of the world, etc. If your interests/outlook does not match with them, it is better not to join the programme. There are so many other good places in the world, where your unique views/outlook would be respected and encouraged. IIMB is not the place for pursuing PhD if you are an "outlier". If you are a deep, nuanced thinker with interests in off-beat, non-traditional research topics, you will not enjoy this place. This place does not have a research/academic culture i.e. a culture of intense intellectual debate/discussion/critique, asking big questions, discussions on classroom dynamics and effective teaching, etc.

Are the PhD stipends taxable?

No. They are not taxable. Section 10(16) of the IT Act exempts "scholarships granted to meet the cost of education" from tax.