The land of textiles, cricket and Bollywood meets the country of maple syrup, hockey and Hollywood North.

Swetha Dasari is an MBA student at the Richard Ivey School of Business. Photo: Geoff Robins for The Globe and Mail

Swetha Dasari is an MBA student at the Richard Ivey School of Business. Photo: Geoff Robins for The Globe and Mail

When talking India and Canada, these consumer and cultural staples easily come to mind. But some Canadian educators would love to get this on the tips of tongues: India's growing economy meets Canada's mighty MBA programs.

Economic reforms in 1991 have morphed the South Asian country into one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and Canadian MBA schools are tapping into the educational prospects to feed Indian students' hunger for programs with an international flavour.

According to India's Economic Advisory Council, the country's economy is expected to expand by 6.5 per cent this financial year, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world despite the global economic downturn. "Between 1991 and 2001, India was fairly quiet, but when the government deregulated some industries, India started moving, and the country has become more globally oriented.

"That is why we engaged in India — because the opportunities are endless," Dezso Horvath, dean of York University's Schulich School of Business, said from New Delhi, where he was in meetings for the 2010 launch in Mumbai of the Toronto school's new India MBA program.

A collaborative effort with India's S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), the Schulich India MBA is solely for students in India who take classes in Mumbai the first year, and in Toronto the second year. There are courses in 19 specializations, including finance, marketing, international business and entrepreneurships, real property and infrastructure, public-sector management and health-industry management.

"The expectation is that we're training global citizens," so they can take their business skills to any country in the world, Ashwin Joshi, director of the India MBA program who was in New Delhi with Mr. Horvath, said in a phone interview.

Ivey in India

Other Canadian MBA schools also have a strong Indian student focus.

The Montreal universities of McGill and Concordia, the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia are among the schools with large Indian student associations. The Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ont., is world renowned for its case-writing and case-teaching workshops in India. Ivey's dean Carol Stephenson was in India last week to sign a partnership deal with the Indian School of Business for a new Case Development Centre.

Aditya Saraogi, a Mumbai resident with four years of experience in banking, was attracted to the twin-country MBA concept by Schulich, which has been developing educational ties with India for 15 years.

After earning a bachelor's degree in computer applications and a postgraduate diploma in information technology in India, Mr. Saraogi joined Deutsche Bank, and is now manager for Internet banking in its retail division.

In an e-mail interview, Mr. Saraogi said from Mumbai that he was looking for a world-ranked MBA program to help him develop a strong foundation in business management and gain global insight into core issues.

Managers will be needed

So he'll be among the about 35 students in program beginning in January who are generally paying $10,000 to $13,000 for the first year alone, taking into account bursaries, scholarships and other awards. The courses will be taught by Schulich faculty, with some courses led by Indian practitioners and SPJIMR staff.

"It is very difficult to ignore India in today's fast-changing economic scenario," said Mr. Saraogi, 27. "While in the developed countries economic growth figures are in the range of one to two per cent, and even negative in some cases, countries in Southeast Asia have it in them to pull off double-digit growth rates. That is the part of the world where companies would continue to need efficient managers to manage their business for some time to come."

Swetha Dasari, on the other hand, decided on Ivey's one-year MBA program after meeting Ivey adjunct professor Charles Dhanaraj a couple of years ago at the Indian School of Business, where she is manager of strategic objectives.

A two-way street

With an undergraduate degree in math from St. Stephen's College at Delhi University, Ms. Dasari had teamed with Mr. Dhanaraj to develop a case study for an Indian business looking to acquire a German lighting and electrical products company — a paper that will soon be published.

"I had been thinking of pursuing my MBA for two years, and looked into getting it outside India because I wanted to study more diverse markets in an international environment to learn to appreciate businesses globally," Ms. Dasari, 28, said from the southwestern Ontario city.

Mr. Dhanaraj, also an associate professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, said the opportunities for Canada MBA schools are evident: While North American schools generate 150,000 MBA holders annually, India is lucky to graduate about 2,000.

But scholars such as Mr. Dhanaraj feel success is a two-way educational street.

In fact, he has been working with the Indian School of Business, two U.S. schools and England's London Business School to help Indian faculty advance their own case-teaching work, because "Indian scholars are not really grasping how to get involved in scholarly research or in advancing theory — many still see India as the land of elephants."

The group has already completed more than 50 case studies of Indian businesses and business situations, and expects to have at least 200 cases completed by the end of 2010.

"We are looking at creating the type of faculty needed for a top-notch institution in India," Mr. Dhanaraj said from Indianapolis. "In the process, we are also learning that for someone in business today, India cannot be a peripheral point — it has to be part and parcel in the business program. In a way, by developing faculty in India, we are also developing faculty here [in Canada]."

Still a long way from graduation, both Mr. Saraogi and Ms. Dasari didn't definitively say where they will end up taking their MBA skills. But they're sure to take a chunk of Canadiana with them.

Ms. Dasari sees "a lot of value utilizing my Ivey experience here in Canada," but says she realizes "India and the emerging markets is where the future is — I would like to see what value I can add as a businesswoman back in India."

Adds Mr. Saraogi: "I think it is immaterial where I work after my MBA, but I think during the course of the program, Toronto would be able to provide me with an excellent opportunity to understand and learn in a truly international work culture."

Special to The Globe and Mail