When the going gets tough, the tough get going. This seems to be the key message of the 2006 business school ratings of the All India Management Association.

In the past year, even as B-schools were hemmed in by a host of issues, including quotas, fee hikes, government intervention, faculty shortage and infrastructure bottlenecks, many of them did not become diffident.

Instead, not only has there been a significant improvement in the quality of B-schools across the spectrum, many of them have also planned big moves like new campuses in the country and overseas, revamping curricula and courses, gearing up for global competition and implementation of quotas and upgrading infrastructure.

In all, 214 B-schools from across the country have been rated in the AIMA survey this year. AIMA seeks to grade B-schools into three broad categories -- A, B and C -- with two sub-categories each, the upper sub-categories being identified with a plus sign.

This makes six narrower sub-grades, ranging from A+ and A to C+ and C. While the top category -- the 10 super league schools in the A+ category -- contain some new faces, (largely because many of the IIMs chose to participate this year), what is important in the other categories is the distribution of schools.

This year, the super league (the exclusive club of B-schools that are a class apart) comprises the IIMs of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Lucknow; the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi; the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad; the Institute of Rural Management Anand, the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon; the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai; and the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur.

Just one rung below the super league is the A+ category with eight schools. While five institutes from last year have retained their positions, there are two new entrants and one school that was in the Super League last year has dropped to A+ this year.

The A+ institutes include 18 institutes and form about 8 per cent of the total, while the plain As account for 17 per cent, the Bs (B+ and B) another 36 per cent and Cs (C+ and C) for 39 per cent.

So, while the B-schools in the top 8 per cent provide good education, another 17 per cent have the ability to scale up with some investments in infrastructure and faculty and the rest will have to shape up or ship out.

A significant trend this year is that more and more institutions are improving their infrastructure and adding facilities.

This is seen not only from the increased movement from the C+ and C categories to the B+ and B categories but also from the fact that a number of institutes that participated in the survey for the first time have made it straight to the B+ category.

The AIMA ratings focus on five core parameters: intellectual capital, admissions and placements, infrastructure, interface with industry and governance.

Major General (Retd) G K Nischol, director-general, All India Management Association sums up: "The big trend of 2006 is the increase in the number of B-schools moving up in quality. I am sure this survey will go a long way in furthering the cause of management education in the country."