Archive

All 12 pieces

Everything published so far, newest first. All dated 4 August 2026 — this is a new publication and we have not backdated anything.

Money

The ₹2 lakh online MBA is selling you the same degree as the ₹38,000 one

Below a certain price the differences are real. Above it, you are buying teaching and a cohort — not recognition. Almost nobody says which one they are selling you.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Recognition

“UGC approved” is the most misleading phrase in Indian education marketing

It is not technically false. It is just answering a different question from the one you asked.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Products

The mini MBA is not an MBA, and everyone selling one knows it

A twelve-week course borrowing the name of a two-year degree. Sometimes genuinely useful. Never the thing its name implies.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Decisions

Almost nobody needs a second master’s degree

If you already hold one, the MBA is usually solving a problem you do not have — at four times the price of the thing that would.

4 August 2026·2 min read
History

What the IIM Act of 2017 actually changed — and why it matters to you

For decades India’s most selective management institutes awarded a diploma, not a degree. That single fact should end the argument about which is better.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Money

Placement claims on online MBAs are almost entirely unverifiable

The number in the brochure is the highest package, from an unstated cohort, over an unstated period. Ask for the median and watch what happens.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Money

The real cost of an online MBA is not the fee

Two years of evenings is the same for everyone, whatever they paid. That is what makes the cheap programme such good value and the abandoned one so expensive.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Recognition

Distance education’s reputation in India is about twenty years out of date

The stigma is real and it is also largely inherited from a period that has ended. Knowing which parts still apply is the useful skill.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Recognition

The one document nobody tells you to ask for

Almost every avoidable problem in Indian distance education traces back to a letter that was never requested at enrolment.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Admissions

An entrance exam has nothing to do with quality

CAT rations scarce seats. It does not measure teaching. Confusing the two is why people overpay.

4 August 2026·2 min read
This site

Why we grade programme types and not individual colleges

There are nearly three thousand institutions on the register. We can defend a judgement about routes. We cannot defend three thousand judgements about names.

4 August 2026·2 min read
Money

Three fee tiers, and what each one actually buys

Under ₹1 lakh, ₹1–2 lakh, above ₹2 lakh. The differences within a band are far smaller than the marketing suggests.

4 August 2026·2 min read
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