Total Intake of Top 10 B-Schools in India

I did a quick study of flagship programs at top 10 B schools in India to find out the total student intake and the data is as below.  Please note that the number quoted here may slightly vary from the actual, as the intake varies every year. I have considered 2 year and 1 year full time programs for computation.

1. IIM A - 468
2. IIM B - 458
3. IIM C - 320
4. XLRI - 360
5. ISB - 776
6. IIM Lucknow - 400
7. FMS - 226
8. IIM Indore - 300
9. SP Jain IMR - 225
10. MDI Gurgoan - 300

The total number of students from top 10-B schools per year turns out to be 3,833  .
If we consider top 25 institutes in India then the data might turn out to be around 8,000 .

We might  have at least 22,000 management gurus passed out from top 10 B schools  and around 50,000 students passed out from top 25 B schools between 2013 - 2018.

The question is would we have sufficient number of quality jobs to  quench the thirst of  all these bright graduates and my GUT feeling is YEP ......

Smart Phone Market in India

A quick note on how Smart phone market dynamics in India.  I have referred IDC report for the stats.

Total number of mobile phones shipped in India during 2012 is 21,80,00,000 , roughly  around 22 Crore.

The market in India grew around 16 % in 2012 . World  wide Mobile phone market grew around 2-3 %  and the growth in India is at least 5 times faster, so India is and will be one of the prime markets for mobile vendors.


Total number of smartphones shipped in India in 2012 was  1,63,00,000 , around 1.5 core.
Growth in India  was 48% and smart phone market around the world grew around 36% .

Expected growth of smart phone market in India for 2013 is around 70% , this is twice as faster as compared to rest of the world, so  smart phone makers need to be in India and sell well in India, else they will loose one of the fastest emerging markets.

Interesting point to be noted is smart phones contribute to around 45% of total number mobile phones shipped in USA where as the smart phones contribute just to 9% of total number mobile phones shipped in India. There are two important things here

• Company such as Nokia which is too big in feature phones , needs to stick to India for survival.
• The growth potential for smart phones in India too huge, so its high time Apple starts considering Indian Smart phone market  seriously.

Most popular smart phones in India are in the ranges of 100 - 300$ , so to be success full in India the vendor needs to be price conscious and provide value for money. People are buying high end Galaxy and i Phones but 100 - 300 $ smart phone market seems to be  very strong .

Top five smart phone vendors in India , by the number of units shipped is as below

1. Samsung
2. Micromax
3. Sony
4. Nokia
5. Karbonn

Its a pleasant to see Indian makers Micromax and Karbon being able to compete with Samsung, Sony , Nokia, LG, HTC ... 

My two cents:

• Smart phone market in India will grow very fast in 2013 , this year might be the best year for smart phone vendors in India. 
• 100-300 $ space  will grow fastest and mobile vendors need to cater to this space.

One Year Full Time MBA in India at Reputed B Schools

Its long time since I jotted down. Its  pretty sad that 2012 year passed away without even one article. I intended to write about so many things but then the laziness overpowered :) . 

In India one year full time MBA is a recent phenomena, may be they surfaced around 10 years ago. I would say this form of MBA suits for folks with at least 3 year work Ex with an aspiration to move into management roles in their existing industry. Drastic career change is not impossible though.

Please refer the link below for detailed description on 1 year Full time MBA programs in India.

Let me quickly give list of reputed colleges in India that offer 1 year Full Time MBA along with average exp required for admission .

All colleges below are very reputed and definitely they are good , I am listing down the colleges based on my knowledge and  in the order of my personal preference. All of them admit students through GMAT and a  few give additional options of CAT and XAT.

1. ISB - Indian School of Business -  Average Work Ex 5 years.
2. IIM Ahemdabad - Average Work Ex 10 years .
3. IIM Calcutta - Average Work Ex 8.8 years .
4. XLRI Jameshedpur - Average Work Ex 7 years .
5. IIM Bangalore  - Average Work Ex  9.6 Years .
6. IIM Lucknow -  Average Work Ex 7 years .
7. IIM Indore -  Average Work Ex 7 years .
8. SP Jain Global MBA-  Average Work Ex 4 Years .
9. Great Lakes Institute of Management  - Average Work Ex  4 Years .
10. SP Jain IMR -Average Work Ex  7 Years .
11. IMT Ghazibad -Average Work Ex  7.5 Years
12. Agesis - Average Work Ex  - Not Very Sure
13. Myra School of Business Average Work Ex 5 Years.

If there are any queries let me know I will try my best to answer. The best place to get detailed info regarding one year full time MBA program is  the respective colleges website.

Aarakshan - Reservation

After Rajneethi, Prakash Jha as tried to direct another catchy, fast paced, political, dialogue centered, and character oriented movie. The first half of the movie is great, the dialogues are superb, particularly the dialogues delivered by Saif Ali Khan. I should say Saif has acted brilliantly; it seems that he is made for the role he plays.

The movie revolves around two important concepts, reservation in education system and money minting tuition business. First half of the movie talks about reservation and second half concentrates on tuition. This is one of the weak points of the movie, it would be better if the director had to concentrate only on the first concept of reservation. The main character of the movie is played by Amitabh Bachan, who has given a solid performance. He is the principal of one of the leading institutes of the city and he is poor pro, who believes in inclusive growth of the society. Saif, who is from the backward community is one of Amitabh’s favorite student and is also the topper of the university. Some of the scenes and songs in which Saif’s and Deepika’s affection is shown are brilliantly shot, so is the friendship between Saif, Deepika and Prateek shown.

The film takes turn when reservation system is introduced, due to Manadal commission report and Supreme courts approval for the same. There starts the rift between Saif, Amitabh and Prateek. Circumstances force Amitabh to resign from the college he built, and Manoj Bajpai who is full time into tuition business becomes the principal. Manoj Bajpai has the support of some of the dishonest members in the College Board as well as some culprit ministers. Due to unforeseen circumstances Amitabh is forced to stay out of his own house, which will be in procession of Manaoj Bajpai. To get back the house as well as to teach the tuition mafia a lesson Amitabh starts a free tuition class in a cow shed just opposite to Bajpai’s class. Here starts the showdown between Amitabh and Bajpyee. The film gets little boring here, may be for another half an hour. Finally the film ends happily, with Amitabh’s tuition class surpassing the results of Bajpai’s expensive tuition class and he is made the principal of the college again.

After seeing the movie, I felt the reservation system for economically backward people is required. May be I had this thought earlier itself but I never bothered to ponder about it. It is definitely not easy for a student from poor family background to match the scores of students who come from sound families. They have so many issues to face and problems to sort out rather than just studying. They do not have anyone to look up-to for guidance. The reservation system if utilized properly for bringing up social justice is one of the best things that can happen. After all our country cannot become developed nation because of only rich people, it will happen only if inclusive growth takes place , and for this to happen we need to give special support for students who come from difficult backgrounds and have an urge to do something in life.

In one liner this movie is definitely one time watchable, but may not be as good as Rajneethi. For me the movie gave a concept to think about and made my thoughts a bit clear on reservation system.

ICFAI - Part Time MBA



This Picture is taken from ICFAI webpage



ICFAI University Tripura is one of the universities in India that provides Distance/Part-Time MBA.  Large numbers of students from all over India enroll to this part time MBA program. I seriously doubt if at-least 50% of the students enrolled clear the first phase of the MBA (Diploma in Business in Management, now this is second stage I guess first stage being Certificate in Business Management). And I do not think even 25% students enrolled complete their MBA.

I joined the ICFAI part time MBA course in January 2008 and I completed my PG Diploma in Business Management recently in July 2011. I could not take some quarterly exams due to my onsite trips and due to office commitments. The ICFAI university guys advertise saying one can complete the MBA in 2 or 2.5 years, according to me this is not at all possible. One requires atleast 3 years to 4 years to complete this MBA. The subjects are really vast, and all papers till PG diploma in business management are objective and most of the answers look very similar. Most the subjects in MBA are theoretical, and this makes life more difficult as we need to remember many things to answer objective questions correctly.

If one is ready to spend somewhere around 15 hours per week then he/she will be able to clear all the papers with good marks and some understanding of management subjects. But I am very sure if one goes to exams without any preparation then he will flunk, particularly in the objective papers.

ICFAI University is very regular in sending of the text books, study guides and work books. Each subject will have a text book, a study guide and work book. If one revises the study guide or text book once or twice and is confident about the questions in work book then, he can be sure of clearing the papers. Only thing I want to say is "one cannot take the exams of ICFAI very lightly".

ICFAI MBA is suited for people looking for extra MBA degree with some understanding of management topics. The ICFAI MBA degree is not so easy to obtain so it has some value in industry, particularly it is useful if one wants to move up the ladder in one existing organization. It is definitely of no use if a person wishes to make a career change from one domain to another. Also MBA is all about study of case studies and class room discussions; definitely ICFAI part time MBA lacks all of these.

According to me there are several other good certifications that one can take up to get some basic understanding of management topics like CBM , ABM from APBM organization or PMP, CAPM from PMI institute, then we have Management Development Programs which run from 3-4 days at reputed B schools like IIM's, ISB and XLRI . Even IISC and IIT's have some very good training programs for Project management in IT industry.

Also there are part time MBA programs offered by IIM-B, IIM-K, IIM-C which are definitely more worth also more helpful to understand the intricacy of management topics.

I d'nt think ICFAI part time MBA is a bad option but I would definitely say there are many other good options to get sound knowledge of management topics. One needs to analyze all options available and get to know their pros and cons before joining any part time MBA program. Also we should join part time MBA programs only if we are serious about it and we are sure of devoting at-least 15-20 hours every week, else it would be very difficult to complete the course also it will be mere waste of valuable money.

List of Best B Schools Providing Full Time Executive MBA in India

One year Full time Executive MBA caught my attention some time back and I conducted an extensive research on them. Executive MBA is generally for professionals with prior work experience, there are two types in this, part time executive MBA’s and Full time 1 year MBA’s. Full time Executive MBA’s will help to bring considerable change in one’s career like change in roles, responsibilities, and in some cases change his domain itself like software development to finance, where as part time MBA’s will mostly help to move up the ladder in one’s organization however they may not help to give a break as full time MBA’s can provide.

I personally prefer Executive MBA provided by best B schools in India rather than International B schools, because of the reasons given below

• In India one can get very good Management education (from B schools like IIM, ISB, Great Lakes, XLRI, and SP Jain) in par with very good international institutes at very affordable prices (compared to MBA cost in UK and USA). In India one year full time MBA may cost 20 lakhs INR where as one has shell out 35-40 lakhs INR to do MBA in reputed B school in Europe or USA.
• If one would like to work in India after MBA then the top B schools in India are the best bets to get challenging and quality roles and responsibilities in very good companies in India rather than International B schools which can provide very good opportunity in their respective nations.
• The Business education provided by Indian schools will be more relevant to Indian business scenario than International B schools.
• Also to get into best Indian B School one has to put huge amount of efforts which will definitely boost one’s confidence.

I will give the list of colleges which provide 1 year full time MBA in India along with some relevant information like Fees, prior work experience required, specialization and placement. All schools look for the good GMAT scores and most of them expect GMAT scores to be 700 or above. I will list the colleges, in the order of Best to Better (in my opinion), remember all these B schools are really good and definitely worth pursuing. One has to take up these programmes for the career change they offer rather than taking it up only for the sake of fat salary package.

1. ISB Hyderabad provides one year full time Post Graduate Programme in Management. ISB has been ranked 12^th in the world by financial times and this is huge achievement for any Indian B school. This programme requires minimum of 2 years of work experience average work experience being 5 years. The average GMAT score is above 700 and the fees for the programme is around 22 Lakhs INR including accommodation, tuition fees, books etc. The average salary offered is 16 lakhs.

2. IIM-A and IIM-B are next two B schools which provide 1 year Executive MBA’s at a cost of around 20 lakhs INR. Their average GMAT score is also almost 700. This programme is only for people with 7+ years of work experience and average work experience of the class is above 10 years. The average salary offered is 20 LPA INR in case of IIM- A.

3. IIM-C also offers 1 year Executive MBA’s at a cost of around 14 lakhs INR. They need an average GMAT score of 700 and above with at least 5 years of work experience. They offer very good career change and average salary is 18 Lakhs INR. The average work experience of class is 8.9 years.

4. XLRI provides General Management programme for people with 5 years of work exp. The average work exp of class is above 6 years and the cost of programme is 14 Lakhs INR. The average GMAT score of the class is 700 and average salary offered is 15 LPA INR.

5. IIM Indore provides 1 year Executive MBA’s at a cost of around 18 lakhs INR and work exp required is 5 years. The average work exp is around 6 years. The average salary offered should be decent but as of now it is not updated on their web page. The average GMAT score requires is 700 +.

6. SP Jain provides three different programmes for people with 3 and more years of experience. One of them is Global MBA; other one is Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) and the third programme is Post Graduate Certificate in International Management (PGCIM). All have varied GMAT requirements and different fees. All three are good depending upon the student’s interests. The Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) is offered at the SPJIMR itself where as SP Jain Global MBA is provided at their global campus and Post Graduate Certificate in International Management (PGCIM) which is the latest programme is provided with some part in India and rest of the part in Germany.

7. Great Lakes Institute of Management the brain child of Prof. Bala V. Balachandran is one of the very good institutes with less branding. Great Lakes Institute of Management offers Post Graduate Program in Management for people with at least two years of work experience. The average GMAT score of the class is 690 and average work exp of the batch is 46 months. The programme fees is 13 Lakhs INR and the average salary offered is 8.7 LPA INR.

Maruti Suzuki Joins the Elite Club

Maruti Suzuki rolled out its 10th millionth car (1 Crore Cars) on March 15th 2011 and joined the select club of automobile manufacturers like Toyota , Honda, GM , Suzuki , Ford, Renault and Volkswagen . Maruti is the first Indian company to achieve this feat.

Maruti which started its operations in 1983 with Maruti 800 and rolled out Wagon R Vxi as its 10th million car. May be 90% of these 10 million cars are below the range of 5 lakhs , Maruti may be the first car manufacturer in the world to sell this large quantity of small cars which made made cars very affordable to we Indians.

Maruti sold its 1 millionth car in 1994 and 5 millionth car in 1997. So it took 24 years to sell million cars where as next 5 million cars were sold in just 13 years. This ca be one of the indicators of India's economic growth story.

The reference for this article is Economic Times and Times Auto.

Bryan Adams Concert @ Bangalore - A Superb Performance by the Legend

I was planning for our Valentine’s Day celebrations, it was then I came to know about Bryan’s show at Palace grounds Bangalore. Bryan Adams was coming back to Bangalore after a gap of 4 years. Honestly I was not a great fan of Bryan but he is one of Shweta’s all time favorite singer, so I thought the Bryan’s live performance will be the best way to start Valentine’s day as the show was on Feb 13th night.

The tickets were quiet expensive, the silver class was 1500 per ticket and Gold class was 3500 INR and VIP Lounge was 8000 bugs. I managed to get two tickets in Silver class. The show was supposed to start at 7PM. I and Shweta were in the Palace grounds at 3.30 PM itself, so that we can stand at the front row of silver class; but to our surprise almost 500 people were already present in the waiting line to get into the venue. It was too hot there was nothing much available other than water near the waiting line. The gates were opened at 5 PM, so we had to stand almost for 1 hour 30 minutes before entering the venue on a hot sunny day, and the worst thing was gals and boys were supposed to stand in separate queue. The best part is we managed to get second row in silver class after 90 minutes wait.

DJ Akbar played some music for next one and half hour, the music was not very good or great it was just average. Slowly people had started accumulating behind us, by 7 PM almost 5000 people were behind us, it was jam packed and there was no chances anyone going to drink water or even to rest room. Shiamak Davar and his troop gave 3-4 dance performances for may be 15-20 minutes, these performances were very boring. We had to wait for another 30 minutes before Bryan arrived.

Around 7.45PM Bryan arrived and from that moment to 11PM it was just awesome. Bryan stared with There will never be another tonight and played almost 20 plus songs. Three solo songs at the end were played by him using mouth organ and guitar. Bryan was singing nonstop almost taking no breaks in between. He belted out superb songs like Summer of 69, Run to you, There will never be another tonight, everyone needs somebody, let’s make this night to remember, Everything I do I do it for you, Back to U, Fastest Fingers, Please forgive me and The only thing that looks good on me is U. It was very nice of Bryan that he asked one of the gals from the audience to accompany him for one song. I and Shweta were dancing non-stop to all his songs, those 3 hours with Bryan were just superb and I felt the four hours of wait was worth it. I am now a huge fan of his husky yet mellow voice and I felt the lyrics of his songs are just incredible.

To summarize it was a very memorable and very enjoyable performance by Bryan Adams.

India Positive - Believe In India

I believe that India has a great future and I have lot of belief in its growth and its capability. I see every day how my fellow colleagues in IT industry put in lot of efforts to build a solid future to themselves and in turn make India successful as a whole. Yes I agree there are so many problems to be resolved yet,but these kind of initial hiccups are bound to exist in such a large nation with such a huge diversity in almost everything.

I am truly proud of India , its diversity , its life , its people and its energy. I see India as strong competitor at world level in years to come. I would love to see all the best talents produced in India to be in India and be part of its success story.

I read an interesting article in DNA's cover page on India positive and I am uploading the same article in this blog. I liked it a lot and I hope everyone else feels the same.

Chevrolet Spark is Value for Money

I had enough options to choose from (within 4.5 Lakh Rupees) like Alto , Wagon R, Santro, Palio , i10- Era and Spark.

I decided to buy Spark because I got fully loaded car with music system, four power windows, fog lamps , defogger , wind shields , seat covers, car cover,tubeless tyres and wireless locking system at a price of 4.20 Lakhs. I do not think any car with 1000CC engine comes with all these features at this price. Also Spark comes with three years free maintenance package. I have not spent a penny for my car services in last 15 months. I also liked the styling of the Car ,it has the look and the color of the car "misty lake blue" is very nice. I was very much impressed by the car's engine ,one can never make out if the engine is switched on or not it is that silent. The beige interiors of the car is of good attractive and has quality. I also liked the central cockpit control system which is very unique to Spark. The market rep of Sundram motors was very interested in selling unlike other leading car vendors where they act as if they are doing social service.

Now let me explain a few things about my experience , I have driven Spark for some where around 7500 KMs and till date I have never faced any major issues as such. I have taken car to my native Honnavar which is some where around 450 KM from Bangalore with four people and the journey was a smooth and comfortable one.I have driven car in heavy traffic of Bangalore , in highways and in ghat sections in all cases I am satisfied owner of Spark. The car service is pretty good in Bangalore , the service outside Bangalore may not be that great though. The showroom guys call regularly and take the customers feedback, remind us about the pending service , provide pick up and drop service at reasonable price of 250 rupees. I get a mileage around 13 to 15 which is not very bad in Bangalore traffic. The car is as much spacious as Santro and Wagon R, from outside one feels Spark is small but that is not the case, easily four people can travel in it. It is best car for small family within four members. Parking in city is not difficult with this car.

Some drawbacks with Spark are in the smoothness of the gear , it is pretty hard compared to i-10 , particularly the reverse gear. The central locking of the car does not include the dicky. One feels the car is underpowered if 5 people are in the car and the AC is switched on. The service outside Bangalore may not be that great as showrooms and service centers may be very less.

Spark is best option for people, who need smart looks, looking out for better mileage, who prefer smooth engine, frequent travelers within city , guys with small family, and who would like to get a fully loaded car with good interiors at best price.

Super Movie Not So Super After All.....

I am surprised because of the hype and good reviews Super movie has received. I have seen of many Upendra movies but this one let me down completely. This movie does not fit as an entertainer or as a serious genre movie. Super is boring particularly during first one hour. I went to this Upendra starer with lot of hopes, because of the good reviews it received in almost all articles, but for me personally this movie was not a good one.

Most of the scenes in the movie, like a person applying Indian soil to a wound and getting soothing effect where as when foreign soil is applied to same wound it causes burning is really very unrealistic, boring, very painful to watch. The concept of the movie that India will be become super power by 2030 is a good one but the way it happens in this movie is not at all near by to average movie standards also, I felt the approach presented for development was most unrealistic one.

I fail to understand how can a billionaire after returning back to his home country, start a company of goondas to develop the state? The movie tries to different aspects like corruption, Indian politics, love for a gal, love for nation, love for language etc etc but not even one aspect is portrayed properly, and everything together seems to be in mess in this movie.

Why should foreign nationals behave as uncivilized people if India or Karnataka develops? I do not understand why should only Kannada speaking person be considered as educated after India or Karnataka develops? I love Karnataka as well as Kannada but still I do not approve the concept in this movie that only Kannada speaking people are considered as educated where as all people who learn English are uneducated.

As a whole, this movie was complete let down for me. It has failed in all departments; it has a weak story, bad narration, no fun, does not have great music either. It looks like 30 minutes story has been dragged to make a 2 hour movie. Super was boring from start to end, I was just waiting for the movie to end. Only thing I liked in Super is about the chaddi brothers....

Almost 125 Days in a Year is Off

I was interested to find out the exact number working days generally present in an year.I collected the data from my attendance at office in 2010 and found out that I had almost 125 days Off during this fiscal.This is not at all a bad number in private software company,I feel the number of leaves given are as good as number of leaves given by any government organization. The number of working days in each month was as shown below.

Jan – 19 days
Feb – 19 days
March – 22 days
April – 21 days
May – 20 days
June – 22 days
July – 21 days
August – 21 days
September - 20 days
October – 20 days
November – 20 days
December – 22 days

This turns out to be 20.6 working days on an average every month, which means (12*20.6) 247 working days in an year. To be precise I got 118 days off in 2010, which is 33% of the time I had off. And 247 days in an year were working days, which is 67% of the total number of days were working days.

One aspect every person should consider is,the best way to employ this free time (off) effectively. The free time (120 days per year) can be used to for various interesting and development activities like to learn a new subject or to pursue hobby projects or to do social service or to pursue some new course or certification or for physical training. We need to utilize the free time to spend with family and our loved ones. We can go to watch some movies or to some adventure park or to some new place along with our family and spend quality time with them. We need to keep in mind that the free time ( off days ) are provided to us so that we can utilize these vacations for our personal use( for our personal development and for our family ). Hence there is no point in spending these special moments at office without any genuine reasons.

We should always try to put in our best efforts to contribute towards employers goals during 67% of working days and the remaining 33% of Off days should be used for one's personal development and to spend quality time with the family.Only then I feel a person can have balanced work life.

Pancharangi - One of the Best Kannada Movies

I went to watch Peepli Live on Wednesday , it was a good one . But I felt it could have been made still shorter. I felt that 1 hour 45 minutes is little more for this movie , some scenes seemed repetitive .

I was not planning to see any new movie on the week end , but Shweta made plans of watching Pancharangi as she thought it will be a good movie. To be truthful I was not very keen about watching Pancharangi , because the last Kannada movie I saw "Nooru Janmaku" disappointed me a lot. Somehow Shweta convinced me to watch the movie"Pancharangi" movie @ Mantri mall .

I am very thankful to Shweta that she took me to this movie, otherwise I would have missed one of the very good movies in Kannada in recent times. I should admit Pancharangi is complete entrainer . It keeps you engaged all through out the movie. The dialogs are awesome. The songs are creative, with humor as well as very meaningful. The movie is shot may be somewhere near Mangalore on the sea shore. It is not very high budget movie or something it is a very simple movie with, a very good story , lot of humor, lessons, superb dialogs , some outstanding performances by the cast.

The movie is about life in general . It is about interaction between two families, which meet for the engagement of Diganth's elder brother . The movie covers the 2-3 days spent at Mangalore by the Diganth's family at the prospective brides place. One should watch this movie to see the interactions between different personalities , which come in this movie (the dialogs are too good) . I could relate this movie very closely to what happens in real life. According to me this is the best movie among all movies Yograj Bhat directed. One has to watch this movie or else take my word you will be missing one the best Kannada movies in recent present .

I hope to see more of this kind of Kannada movies being produced in future .

Carz

The car market in India has considerably changed , its no more a Maruti world . There is no doubt that Maurti Suzuki, the largest passenger car company in India, is a very good car manufacturer, seller,marketeer and service provider. It has service stations all over India may be in every nook and corner. Maruti Suzuki rolls out successful models one after the other, Maruti 800 , Alto,Swift, Ritz ,A Star, and my favorite the Zen are some of the most successful.

However the road does not end at Maruti there are any other car manufacturers which are equally good. One can explore all different available options before taking the final decision. I will give a list of cars available within Rs.5 lakh. One can utilize this to explore and take their own decision.

We have cars from Hyundai, General Motors , Tata, Fiat and Maruti which come within 5 lakh rupee (on road price).

Hyundai gives the options of Santro and i10 , where as General Motors has Spark UVA and Beat to offer . Fiat has Palio in its kitty . Tata provides Indica and Indica Vista to choose from . Maruti has 800, Alto , A Star and Wagon R to compete. So altogether we have some where around 12 cars which are within 5 lakh rupees (On road price ) , so one can check all of them and then take his/her decision. I have at least checked out most of them in show room before taking my decision , all of them are good have their own advantages and disadvantages one can visit these links to get more detailed description and understanding.

http://hyundaii10.co.in/

http://santroxing.com/

http://www.chevrolet.co.in/content_data/AP/IN/en/GBPIN/001/index.html

http://www.chevyspark.in/

http://www.chevybeat.co.in/

http://www.fiat-india.com/

http://www.tatamotors.com/

and the number uno in India

http://www.marutisuzuki.com/