Karuna Jain - First woman to head B-School in India

Karuna Jain is the first woman to head a B-school in India. Head of the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management at IIT-Bombay, she is excited about the growing number of women at the helm of banks and financial institutions.

"It is so good to see women establish themselves. When I took over, there were many who were sceptical about how I would handle things. But I am glad I proved them wrong," says an optimistic Karuna Jain.

"Women by nature are careful, meticulous and well prepared. This is what helps women to rise high in financial services as due diligence is vital in financial services," says Jain.

India is competitive in terms of imparting quality education, she believes. "Our primary and higher secondary education is far superior, our IQ level is very high too. Our average student outperforms the brilliant American," she claims.

She questions the rationale of creating new IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) when they are already faced with a faculty and fund shortage. The biggest challenge she faces is getting good faculty. She points out that nobody wants to take up the teaching profession.

"Students in the B-school earn three times more than me on the first day. What I earn in a year, they earn in a month," she says.

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