Which is the number one IIM in India?

It has been IIM Ahmedabad for years running on NIRF, with IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode following in 2025. IIM Calcutta fell from third to seventh that year, a reminder that one year of ranking movement tells you less than three years of placement reports.

Why is ISB Hyderabad not on this list?

Because it does not take part in NIRF, the ranking this table is built on, so there is no rank to place it at. ISB places first in India on the Financial Times global MBA table and admits on the GMAT or the GRE.

Top 100 MBA Colleges in India (You Shouldn’t Miss)

Arun Jagannathan · Founder & GMAT Expert

· Updated Sep 2026

01 · All 100 colleges

Top 100 MBA Colleges in India With Fees and Average Salaries

Search by name or city, filter by type, sort by fee or by salary, and tick Compare on any two or three rows to put them side by side with the lower fee and the stronger salary marked.

The fee column is the whole programme rather than one year of it, and the salary next to it is the average CTC a school reported, which is a larger number than what actually reaches your account.

Rank	College	City	Type	Programme	Fee	Avg salary
#1	IIM Ahmedabad	Ahmedabad	Public	PGP / PGPX	₹27.5L / 35–37L	₹35.22L / 35.68L
#2	IIM Bangalore	Bengaluru	Public	PGP / EPGP	₹26L / 33.71L	₹34.88L / 35.5L
#3	IIM Kozhikode	Kozhikode	Public	PGP	₹26.17L	₹28.18L
#4	IIT Delhi (DMS)	New Delhi	Public	MBA	₹12.4L	₹24.45L
#5	IIM Lucknow	Lucknow	Public	PGP	₹22L	₹32.3L
#6	IIM Mumbai	Mumbai	Public	MBA	₹25L	₹29.44L
#7	IIM Calcutta	Kolkata	Public	PGP / PGPEx	₹27L / 42L	₹34.23L / 32.68L
#8	IIM Indore	Indore	Public	PGP	₹20.11L	₹29.57L
#9	MDI Gurgaon	Gurugram	Private	PGPM	₹18.5L	₹25.6L
#10	XLRI Jamshedpur	Jamshedpur	Private	PGDM	₹28.6L	₹31.08L
#11	Symbiosis Institute of Business Management	Pune	Private	MBA	₹24.2L	₹26–28L
#12	IIT Kharagpur	Kharagpur	Public	MBA	₹11.6L	₹17.21L
#13	IIT Madras	Chennai	Public	MBA	₹8L	₹12.44L
#14	IIT Bombay	Mumbai	Public	MBA	₹10.08L	₹20.8L
#15	IIM Raipur	Raipur	Public	PGP	₹14.2L	₹15.2L
#16	IIM Tiruchirappalli	Tiruchirappalli	Public	PGPM	₹16.5L	₹12L
#17	IIFT New Delhi	New Delhi	Public	MBA	₹15.2L	₹20.48L
#18	IIM Ranchi	Ranchi	Public	PGDM	₹15L	₹15.11L
#19	IIM Rohtak	Rohtak	Public	PGP	₹15.2L	₹11.85L
#20	SP Jain Institute of Management	Mumbai	Private	PGDM	₹15.74L	₹26.36L
#21	IIM Udaipur	Udaipur	Public	MBA	₹5.35L	₹13.2L
#22	IIT Roorkee	Roorkee	Public	MBA	₹5.06L	₹10.12L
#23	IIM Kashipur	Kashipur	Public	MBA	₹14.75L	₹12.19L
#24	NMIMS Mumbai	Mumbai	Private	MBA	₹14.5L	₹17.79L
#25	IIM Nagpur	Nagpur	Public	PGP	₹11.5L	₹13.21L
#26	Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham	Coimbatore	Private	MBA	₹12–13.6L	₹7–9L
#27	IIT Kanpur	Kanpur	Public	MBA	₹9L	₹12.77L
#28	Jamia Millia Islamia	New Delhi	Public	Exec. MBA	₹47K	₹6L
#29	IIM Visakhapatnam	Visakhapatnam	Public	PGP	₹10.5L	₹13.08L
#30	IMT Ghaziabad	Ghaziabad	Private	PGDM	₹17.5L	₹13.7L
#31	IIM Bodh Gaya	Gaya	Public	PGP	₹11L	₹11.02L
#32	Chandigarh University	Mohali	Private	MBA	₹5–8L	₹8–12L
#33	MICA Ahmedabad	Ahmedabad	Private	PGDM	₹26–28L	₹19–20L
#34	IIM Sambalpur	Sambalpur	Public	PGP	₹13.03L	₹10.87L
#35	IIM Jammu	Jammu	Public	MBA	₹14.82L	₹10.8L
#36	UPES Dehradun	Dehradun	Private	MBA	₹14.2L	₹5.02L
#37	Great Lakes Institute of Management	Chennai	Private	PGPM	₹17.15L	₹12.1L
#38	IIM Shillong	Shillong	Public	PGP	₹14.6L	₹18.76L
#39	T.A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI)	Manipal	Private	PGDM	₹15.1L	₹11.1L
#40	IMI Delhi	New Delhi	Private	PGDM	₹18.35L	₹13.11L
#41	Jaipuria Institute of Management (Noida)	Noida	Private	PGDM	₹10.45L	₹6.49L
#42	IMI Kolkata	Kolkata	Private	PGDM	₹12.4L	₹7.1L
#43	Goa Institute of Management (GIM)	Goa	Private	PGDM	₹14.98L	₹11.3L
#44	Lovely Professional University	Phagwara	Private	MBA	₹2.8L	₹7L
#45	XIM University Bhubaneswar	Bhubaneswar	Private	Exec. MBA	₹19.7L	₹14.6L
#46	Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology	Patiala	Private	MBA	₹8.28L	₹6.5L
#47	ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education	Hyderabad	Private	Exec. MBA	₹7.02L	₹7.32L
#48	IIT (ISM) Dhanbad	Dhanbad	Public	MBA	₹3.45L	₹10L
#49	Amity University	Gautam Budh Nagar	Private	MBA	₹8.8L	₹4.5L
#50	Great Lakes Institute of Management (Gurgaon)	Gurgaon	Private	PGPM	₹18.81L	₹15–22L
#51	IIM Sirmaur	Sirmaur	Public	MBA	₹11.75L	₹11.28L
#52	Graphic Era University	Dehradun	Private	MBA	₹9–12.9L	₹6–8L
#53	Nirma University	Ahmedabad	Private	MBA	₹9.52L	₹8.7L
#54	IRMA Anand	Anand	Private	MBA / PGDM	₹10.1L	₹10.04L
#55	Loyola Institute of Business Administration	Chennai	Private	PGDM	₹2.2L	₹10L
#56	SRM Institute of Science and Technology	Chennai	Private	MBA	₹7.5L	₹4–7L
#57	NIT Tiruchirappalli	Tiruchirappalli	Public	MBA	₹1.9L	₹6.9L
#58	Christ University	Bengaluru	Private	MBA	₹11.4L	₹8–10L
#59	FORE School of Management	New Delhi	Private	PGDM	₹15.98L	₹10.6L
#60	Banaras Hindu University	Varanasi	Public	MBA	₹98.8K	₹7.5L
#61	BIMTECH Greater Noida	Greater Noida	Private	PGDM	₹9L	₹8.24L
#62	Malaviya NIT Jaipur	Jaipur	Public	MBA	₹3.17L	₹4.8L
#63	Saveetha Institute	Chennai	Private	MBA	₹7L	₹4.5L
#64	IIM Amritsar	Amritsar	Public	MBA	₹12L	₹17.86L
#65	K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management	Mumbai	Private	MBA	₹16.29L	₹10.08L
#66	Siksha O Anusandhan	Bhubaneswar	Private	MBA	₹11L	₹6–8L
#67	Jaipuria Institute of Management Lucknow	Lucknow	Private	MBA / PGDM	₹10.45L	₹6.49L
#68	KIIT Bhubaneswar	Bhubaneswar	Private	MBA	₹13.6L	₹7.33L
#69	Aligarh Muslim University	Aligarh	Public	MBA	₹2.96L	₹4.5L
#70	KL University	Vaddeswaram	Private	MBA	₹5.2L	₹3.6L
#71	Alliance University	Bengaluru	Private	MBA	₹7.6L	₹13.5L
#72	IMT Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Private	PGDM	₹14L	₹7.64L
#73	Jain University	Bengaluru	Private	MBA	₹13.3L	₹10.8L
#74	Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur	Jaipur	Private	PGDM	₹15.25L	₹7–9L
#75	Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute	Mumbai	Private	PGDM	₹11.04L	₹8.79L
#76	GGSIPU New Delhi	New Delhi	Public	MBA	₹56K	₹4L
#77	BML Munjal University	Gurgaon	Private	Exec. MBA	₹14.5L	₹8.75L
#78	Chitkara University	Rajpura	Private	MBA	₹5.6L	₹8L
#79	Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University	Lucknow	Public	MBA	₹1.95L	₹6L
#80	Thiagarajar School of Management	Madurai	Private	MBA	₹8L	₹5.81L
#81	Manipal University Jaipur	Jaipur	Private	MBA	₹12L	₹8–10L
#82	Cochin University of Science and Technology	Cochin	Public	MBA	₹1.12–2.8L	₹4.7–9.1L
#83	MMMUT Gorakhpur	Gorakhpur	Public	MBA	₹2.4L	₹5–7L
#84	PSG College of Technology	Coimbatore	Private	MBA	₹1.04L	₹4L
#85	NIT Calicut	Kozhikode	Public	MBA	₹4.3L	₹7–9L
#86	New Delhi Institute of Management	New Delhi	Private	PGDM	₹9.7L	₹7.45–8.5L
#87	Jamia Hamdard	New Delhi	Public	MBA	₹3–5L	₹5.5L
#88	Anna University	Chennai	Public	MBA	₹82K	₹4.71L
#89	Pandit Deendayal Energy University	Gandhinagar	Private	MBA	₹8.23L	₹6.5L
#90	JIMS Delhi	Delhi	Private	PGDM	₹8L	₹6.5L
#91	Rajagiri Business School	Cochin	Private	MBA	₹6L	₹4.5L
#92	Panjab University	Chandigarh	Public	MBA	₹5L	₹9.44L
#93	ABV-IIITM Gwalior	Gwalior	Public	MBA	₹3.38L	₹8–8.25L
#94	IMI Bhubaneswar	Bhubaneswar	Private	PGDM	₹12.27L	₹8.43L
#95	NAARM Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Public	PGDM	₹6.05L	₹8.6L
#96	Bharathidasan Institute of Management	Tiruchirappalli	Private	PGP	₹14.48L	₹9.2L
#97	Birla Institute of Technology Ranchi	Ranchi	Private	MBA	₹5.85L	₹4.1L
#98	IIT Jodhpur	Jodhpur	Public	MBA	₹9.45L	₹12–15L
#99	IMT Nagpur	Nagpur	Private	PGDM	₹12.04L	₹7.94L
#100	University of Lucknow	Lucknow	Public	MBA	₹3.24L	₹7–7.5L

02 · What the top five are actually like

The Five Programmes Everyone Shortlists First

What each one is known for, what it asks of you, and where the trade-off sits. They are in ranking order, which is not the same as the order of best value.

1. IIM Ahmedabad₹27.5L

The two-year PGP is the most selective general management programme in the country and the benchmark every other school gets measured against, placing at an average of ₹35.22L. The one-year PGPX at ₹35–37L is the executive route and the most competitive executive MBA in India. PGPX asks for a bachelor’s degree, a GMAT or GRE score valid within 36 months, and at least four years of work experience, with interviews before the final call.Institute placement report and admissions page, 2026 intake.

2. IIM Bangalore₹26L

Closest to Ahmedabad on placements at ₹34.88L, and sitting inside India’s technology capital, which shows up in where its graduates go. The one-year EPGP is known for operational rigour. It asks for a bachelor’s degree with 50 per cent, five to twelve years of experience, and a valid GMAT or GRE score. The decision weighs interview, experience and academics together rather than treating the test as the gate, which is worth knowing if your score is the weakest part of your profile.Institute placement report and EPGP admissions page, 2026 intake.

3. IIM Kozhikode₹26.17L

A two-year PGP placing at ₹28.18L, strong in consulting and finance, and up to third in NIRF 2025 on consistent gains in placements and research. The remote campus is a genuine trade-off rather than a detail: fewer weekend industry interactions than a metro campus offers, and a cohort that spends far more time together. Which of those matters more depends on what you want out of two years. GMAT scores are accepted from international candidates.NIRF Management 2025; institute placement report.

4. IIT Delhi (DMS)₹12.4L

A strongly quantitative MBA placing at ₹24.45L, at less than half the fee of the top three. On fee against outcome it is the strongest proposition in the entire hundred: graduates earn roughly twice the programme fee in their first year. If your profile is quantitative and your budget is a real constraint rather than a preference, this belongs above schools ranked near it on your list.Institute placement report, 2026 intake.

5. IIM Lucknow₹22L

The second-lowest fee of the top five behind IIT Delhi, and the third-highest average salary in it at ₹32.3L. Known for a large cohort and a broad recruiter base rather than a single specialisation. If your shortlist is driven by return rather than brand order, Lucknow usually sits higher on it than its rank suggests, though IIT Delhi returns more per rupee.Institute placement report, 2026 intake.

Before you shortlist

Everyone starts at the top five, and very few applications should end there

Whether these five are a realistic band or a stretch depends on your profile, not on the ranking. Thirty minutes with a mentor will tell you which band to apply into.

Talk to a Mentor →

03 · What each one pays back

What the Fee Buys You, If Money Is What You Are Optimising

For anyone weighing the loan, putting fee against salary reorders this list considerably. It is one lens on these schools rather than a verdict on them.

Two things stand out in the top 25, and a ranking shows you neither. IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIM Udaipur and IIT Roorkee all earn back at least twice their fee in the first year, Udaipur closer to two and a half times, at a fraction of what the schools above them charge. At the other end, IIM Rohtak, IIM Kashipur and IIM Tiruchirappalli each cost more in total fee than their average first-year salary, and all three are IIMs inside the top 25.

IIT Roorkee

₹5.06L fee, ₹10.12L average 2.0x

IIT Bombay

₹10.08L fee, ₹20.8L average 2.1x

IIT Delhi (DMS)

₹12.4L fee, ₹24.45L average 2.0x

IIM Udaipur

₹5.35L fee, ₹13.2L average 2.5x

A big multiple usually means a small fee

A ₹2L programme placing at ₹10L returns five times its fee and still leaves you on ₹10L, while IIM Ahmedabad returns 1.3 times and leaves you on ₹35L.

The ratio also cannot see a switch into a new function, the internship that makes that switch possible, the alumni network, which recruiters actually visit the campus, or whether the brand travels outside India. If any of those is your reason for doing an MBA, use this section to spot value you had missed rather than to reorder your shortlist.

04 · How to get to a shortlist

Four Trade-offs Behind Every MBA Shortlist

Nobody applies to a hundred schools, and very few people should apply to more than about six, so the work on a page like this one is deciding which six. Four things decide it, and it is worth making each of them deliberately rather than finding out later that your whole list was built on brand order.

Brand against fit

A higher-ranked school opens more doors on average. A lower-ranked school with a strong record in your target function opens the specific door you want. If you know the function, weight the record. If you do not, weight the brand, because it buys you time to decide. Our guide on strengthening your MBA profile covers how to make either case competitive.

One year against two

A one-year executive programme costs you less time out of the market and usually more fee. A two-year programme gives you a summer internship, which is the single most reliable way to switch industry. If you are changing sector and function at once, you want the internship, and you want the two years.

Metro against residential campus

Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi carry recruiter density, which matters most for a switch that needs conversations rather than a campus process. A residential campus outside a metro trades that access for lower living costs and a cohort you will know far better by the end. Neither of those is better in the abstract, so filter the table by city and see what your own list actually looks like once you rule out the places you cannot move to.

Fee against outcome

Compare total fee, not annual fee, against the average salary in the same row. A ₹10L difference in fee is roughly six months of post-MBA salary at the top of this list and closer to two years at the bottom of it. The same gap means very different things depending on where you are looking.

On the test you will need

Most two-year flagship programmes here admit through a national entrance test taken in India. The executive programmes, and every international option you might also be weighing, run on the GMAT or the GRE. If an application outside India is even a possibility, one round of GMAT preparation keeps both routes open, and our guide to Indian schools accepting GMAT scores shows which of these fifty publish a figure.

05 · Common questions

Still have questions?

Ranks are from NIRF Management 2025. Fees and average salaries come from each institute’s own placement report and fee page for the most recent published intake, which for most schools means the 2025 or 2026 cohort. A placement report always describes the batch that just graduated, so treat every salary here as a record of what happened rather than a forecast of what you will be offered.

Compare the rows rather than the reputations. Several private schools in the top 25, SP Jain and MDI Gurgaon among them, place well above IIMs ranked near them while charging less. The IIM name carries further in a general job market and in family conversations, and that is worth something real. But if you know the function you are targeting, the placement record in that function should decide it.

It has been IIM Ahmedabad for years running on NIRF, with IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode following in 2025. The notable movement that year was IIM Calcutta falling from third to seventh, which is a useful reminder that one year of ranking movement tells you less about a school than three years of placement reports do.

The honest answer is usually no. IIM Ahmedabad’s PGPX asks for four years minimum and IIM Bangalore’s EPGP for five, and those floors are applied rather than treated as guidance. With three years you have two realistic options: apply to the two-year programmes now, or spend a year building the profile and sit the executive round with a stronger application. The second is often the better trade if the year adds real responsibility.

Because it does not take part in NIRF, which is the ranking this table is built on, so there is no rank to place it at. It is not an omission on quality: ISB places first in India on the Financial Times global MBA table, and it admits on the GMAT or the GRE rather than through an Indian entrance test, which makes it a natural addition to a shortlist that already includes schools abroad.

An MBA is a degree awarded by a university or an institution with university status. A PGDM is a diploma awarded by an autonomous institution that is not a university, which is why the IIMs and schools such as XLRI and MDI historically awarded diplomas. PGP is simply what most IIMs call their flagship two-year programme. AICTE treats an approved PGDM as equivalent to an MBA for employment and recruiters do not distinguish between them. The difference only becomes real if you later apply for a doctorate, where a diploma may need an equivalence certificate.

Sources and review

Ranks from NIRF Management 2025, which covers only schools that take part, which is why ISB Hyderabad is absent despite placing first in India on the Financial Times global MBA table. Fees and average salaries from institute placement reports and official fee pages, cross-checked against each school’s admissions page where the two disagreed.

Last reviewed: 04 September 2026 · Next review: 28 February 2027 · Reviewed by: Shreekala Bhaskaran, Chief MBA Mentor

06 · The bottom line

What To Do With This List

Sort the table by the thing that actually constrains you, whether that is fee or city or programme length, filter it to the places you can live, compare the three you keep returning to, and then find out whether your profile is competitive at them. That last step is the one this page cannot do for you.

If your shortlist is turning international, start with our guide to Indian schools accepting GMAT scores, which covers the programmes that keep both routes open from one round of preparation.

Free profile evaluation

Working out which six of these hundred are worth an application

Thirty minutes with a mentor who has read a few thousand Indian applicant profiles, and you will know which band of this table to apply into and which three schools are worth the stretch.

Talk to a Mentor →

Written by

Arun Jagannathan

Founder & GMAT Expert · Crackverbal

Arun Jagannathan is the founder of Crackverbal and has spent nearly 20 years teaching GMAT strategy and mentoring test-takers. He focuses on turning complex GMAT concepts into practical frameworks that help students diagnose weaknesses, improve accuracy and prepare with a clear plan.

Your MBA journey starts with
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30-minute profile evaluation. We'll tell you which schools match your profile and your odds — with no hedging.

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20+ years of expertise 30,000+ students guided 675 avg GMAT score 320 avg GRE score

Top 100 MBA Colleges in India (You Shouldn’t Miss)

Top 100 MBA Colleges in India With Fees and Average Salaries

The Five Programmes Everyone Shortlists First

What the Fee Buys You, If Money Is What You Are Optimising

Four Trade-offs Behind Every MBA Shortlist

Still have questions?

What To Do With This List

Your MBA journey starts withone right call.

Your MBA journey starts with
one right call.