Jet airways to SA in April '08? Not Anymore!

Jet Airways has scrapped its plans to launch a Mumbai-Johannesburg flight from April in favour of more lucrative destinations.

Provisional schedules had indicated Jet Airways would launch direct flights between Johannesburg (O.R. Tambo Intl Airport) to Mumbai from April this year on a 3x weekly service however the airline has now postponed its planned operations to South Africa indefinitely in favour of more profitable routes to destinations such as the US and China.

Global MBA rankings

The 2008 Financial times rankings of global MBA institutions is out.

The top 5 institutions don't raise any eyebrows, ranked as follows:

1> University of Pennsylvania: Wharton - USA
2> London Business School - UK
3> Columbia Business School - USA
4> Stanford University GSB - USA
5> Harvard Business School - USA

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Other noteworthy institutions were:

20> Indian School of Business - India
71> University of Cape Town GSB - South Africa

The only representative from Africa is the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business - South Africa which is ranked 71st (lower than the rank they obtained last year around the 57 mark), a credible achievement nonetheless. UCT GSB is also rated 2nd best in terms of value for money of the course, now thats definitely a major draw card.

The sole Indian institution in the top 100 is the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad) coming in at a very praiseworthy rank of number 20, but for me the most astonishing thing about the results is that the weighted salary (average alumni salary today) which is topped by the Indian School of Business!!! I was expecting the exact opposite. However it appears that ISB is quite expensive and is comparable to the US institutions (which are undoubtedly the most expensive) in terms of value for money rank.

UCT GSB also beats many top rated business schools in the weighted salary category, their graduates are paid 11th best according to the findings! Indeed, go have a look for yourself, go to the FT page and sort by the weighted salary column (click on the column heading to sort by that respective category).

Well well well... Some things aren't the way they seem after all... I attribute this to the higher demand for graduates from these institutions as they are so much better than their peers from the local region (India and South Africa only have one institution ranked in the top 100 as opposed to countries like USA with many more).

Its all about the Money !

The number of announcements of retirees from international cricket has be baffling of late. Big names Shaun Pollock, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Tait, Boeta Dippenaar... and i'm thinking theres more to come in the next couple of months...


True some of the guys have past their peak and are now going down hill, but personally I think the fact that there is sound (very sound) source of income in store from the IPL (Indian Premier League) tournament that has been announced recently has made the decision to call it quits much easier to bare. Not only do will they get a much more relaxed schedule (IPL is a Pro20 match format) but the pressure of playing at international level will be another weight lifted off their shoulders.

So, for the more mature players and those who have never been assured a place in their national side the IPL may prove to be a new gold mine, indeed players will probably earn more playing in the IPL than from their international contracts... Hence the drop out... Shane Bond and others banded following their participation in the ICL rebel league also don't seem too perturbed.

Other stars who openly say their least favourite stadiums to play at are in India (eg Jacque Kallis) are all part of the IPL setup! The reason is simple... Its all about the money!