If you have just hit a 99-plus CAT percentile and are staring at the IIM Bangalore admit list wondering what two years inside IIMB will actually look like, this is the IIM Bangalore MBA syllabus for 2026, laid out term by term. No marketing copy. Just the 16 cores, the second-year electives by area, the credit math, and where Indian applicants from engineering, CA, and non-finance backgrounds should pay closest attention.
The shape of the IIMB PGP: six trimesters, 49.5 core credits, 45 to 51 elective credits
The IIM Bangalore Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) is a two-year, six-trimester MBA leading to a Master of Business Administration degree. The first year is locked. A PGP student takes 16 core courses plus two electives totalling 49.5 credits across Terms 1, 2, and 3, per the official IIMB programme structure page. A summer internship sits between Year 1 and Year 2. The second year is almost entirely elective: a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 51 elective credits across Terms 4, 5, and 6.
That structure matters for two reasons. First, you cannot dodge a single core in Year 1, no matter your background. Second, Year 2 is where IIMB earns its reputation for the largest elective basket among Indian B-schools. The school itself confirms this on its PGP elective page.
Year 1: the 16 core courses and how they split across Terms 1, 2, and 3
The first year exposes you to the seven foundational areas IIMB has built its faculty around: Marketing, Accounting and Control, Finance, Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources, Quantitative Methods and Information Systems, Strategy, and Production and Operations Management. The 16 cores are distributed across the three trimesters so that, by the end of Term 3, you have touched every functional area at least once.
A representative mapping based on the IIMB programme structure and the Shiksha course breakdown looks like this:
Term 1 (roughly six courses):
- Accounting for Financial Decisions
- Advances in Business Communication
- Marketing Management I
- Managerial Economics
- Statistics for Management or Data Analysis I
- Organisational Behaviour I
Term 2 (roughly five to six courses):
- Corporate Finance I
- Communication in the Digital Age
- Marketing Management II
- Operations Management
- Decision Sciences or Optimisation
- Macroeconomics
Term 3 (roughly four to five courses, plus internship prep):
- Competition and Strategy
- Business, Government and Society: Ethics and Responsible Business
- Cost and Management Accounting
- Information Systems for Managers
- Human Resource Management
Course names rotate slightly each year as faculty refresh content, so treat the labels as directional. The credit weight is the more stable number: most cores are 3 credits, communication courses sit at 1.5 credits, and quantitative cores sometimes split into half-courses with a lab component. Total: 49.5 credits across the three terms.
Year 2: how the electives split across areas, and what 45 to 51 credits actually buy
The IIMB second-year elective list runs into the hundreds and, per the school, is "the largest number of elective courses among B-schools in India." The bulk of it is grouped under area heads. A current snapshot of the elective basket, again drawing from the official PGP elective list, looks roughly like this:
- Finance and Accounting: Corporate Valuation, Global Securities Markets, Mergers and Acquisitions, Fixed Income Securities, Behavioural Finance, Financial Statement Analysis.
- Marketing: Digital Marketing, Brand Management, Research for Marketing Decisions, Sales and Distribution, Pricing, Services Marketing.
- Strategy: Strategic Thinking and Decision Making, Strategy in Emerging Markets, Game Theory and Business Strategy, Corporate Strategy.
- Operations and Supply Chain: Supply Chain Management, Technology and Operations Strategy, Service Operations, Project Management.
- Decision Sciences and Analytics: Business Analytics and Intelligence, Spreadsheet Modelling for Business Decisions, Machine Learning for Business.
- Economics and Public Policy: Current Economic Scenario, Infrastructure Development PPPs and Regulation, Environment and Sustainability.
- Organisational Behaviour and HR: Creating High Performance Organisations, Personal Values Goals and Career Options, Negotiations.
- Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Entrepreneurship in Action, Social Entrepreneurship, New Product Development.
- Information Systems: Digital Transformation, IT Strategy, Platform Businesses.
You need 45 to 51 credits over Terms 4, 5, and 6. With most electives at 1.5 to 3 credits, that translates to about 16 to 20 electives across the year, plus the option to take cross-area courses or the IIMB international exchange. Most students target a primary area (say Finance, eight to ten courses) plus a secondary area (say Strategy, four to six courses).
If you are an engineer worried the syllabus is too theory-heavy
You will not find an escape hatch in Year 1. Every IIM Bangalore PGP student takes Accounting for Financial Decisions and Corporate Finance I, regardless of whether their last brush with debits and credits was a Class 11 commerce elective. The realistic ask for an engineer entering IIMB is to invest the August to September window before joining in a pre-term refresh on accounting basics, basic statistics, and one of the standard finance primers.
The good news sits in Year 2. Engineers who want to stay technical can stack Business Analytics and Intelligence, Machine Learning for Business, Spreadsheet Modelling, and Technology and Operations Strategy into a coherent six-course analytics-and-operations track. Engineers pivoting to consulting tend to stack Strategy in Emerging Markets, Corporate Strategy, Pricing, and one of the case-method electives. If you are still mapping which Indian or global programme fits your background, the IIM vs foreign MBA comparison walks through the trade-offs in detail.
If you are a CA, CFA, or finance pro mapping the finance track
The Year 1 finance load (Corporate Finance I, Accounting for Financial Decisions, Cost and Management Accounting, Managerial Economics, Macroeconomics) is largely revision for you, but IIMB graders are unforgiving on case-based application, which is rarely the strong suit of someone trained through audit or article-ship.
For Year 2, the heavy-finance stack at IIMB is: Corporate Valuation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Securities Markets, Fixed Income Securities, Behavioural Finance, and Financial Statement Analysis. That is six electives, around 18 credits, which leaves you 27 to 33 credits to diversify into marketing, strategy, or analytics. Most IB-and-PE-track CAs at IIMB add three to four strategy electives and two analytics electives to round out the second-year load.
What this means for Indian applicants
The IIM Bangalore MBA syllabus is one of the most front-loaded among the top Indian programmes. You sign up for 49.5 mandatory credits in Year 1 with no waivers, and only after the summer internship does the curriculum bend to your interests. That is different from, say, an INSEAD or an LBS where electives start earlier, and different from ISB's compressed one-year where electives are squeezed into the back end.
Three practical takeaways for an Indian applicant in 2026 deciding whether to apply, accept, or compare:
- If you have not done basic accounting or statistics, do them now. The first eight weeks at IIMB will not wait.
- Map your Year 2 area choice before you join, then validate it during the summer internship. The students who walk out of IIMB with the cleanest CVs are usually the ones who used the internship to test, not explore, the track they will commit to in Terms 4 to 6.
- Use the syllabus to decide between IIM-B, ISB, and a global one-year. If you want a Year 1 that drills fundamentals and a Year 2 with the largest elective basket in India, IIM-B wins. If you want a one-year MBA with international classmates, ISB or INSEAD make more sense. The GMAT or GRE choice and the MBA application timeline for the 2027 intake become easier once you have decided the format.
If you are still narrowing the shortlist, our MBA and MIM advisory service and profile evaluation work with applicants to match the IIMB syllabus shape against profile, target role, and budget before submission.
Common questions applicants are asking
Is the IIM Bangalore MBA syllabus available as a PDF? IIMB does not release a single consolidated syllabus PDF for the PGP. The closest official sources are the programme structure page (term-wise core map) and the indicative elective list (area-wise Year 2 catalogue). Most aggregator sites that claim to host an "IIM Bangalore MBA syllabus PDF" are stitching these two together. Use the official pages as your source of truth.
How many electives can I take outside my primary area? There is no cap. As long as you meet the 45 to 51 credit window across Terms 4 to 6 and clear any pre-requisites a specific elective lists, you can build whatever combination you want. Students routinely mix finance, strategy, and analytics electives in a single term.
Does IIMB allow international exchange as part of the syllabus? Yes. The PGP has exchange agreements with a long list of global business schools, and an exchange term is treated as part of your Year 2 credit basket. You apply during Year 1 and travel during Term 4 or 5.
How is the IIMB PGP different from the IIMB Executive PGP (EPGP)? The PGP is the two-year, full-time MBA for younger applicants. The EPGP is a one-year, full-time programme for working professionals with significantly more work experience. They share faculty and electives but the cohort, depth, and recruiting cycle are different. The EPGP programme structure page is the right place to compare.
Will the IIM Bangalore MBA courses change between 2026 and 2027? Cores tend to remain stable year to year. Elective titles rotate; per IIMB, "depending on student demand the list of courses each year may differ." Expect 80 to 90 percent overlap between the 2026 and 2027 elective basket, with refreshes in analytics, sustainability, and digital strategy.
Related reading
- IIM vs foreign MBA: Should you pick an IIM A/B/C or a global programme?
- Which MBA ranking should you actually trust in 2026?
- How to build a balanced 8-school MBA list
- WePegasus service: MBA and MIM advisory
Sources verified on 21 May 2026 from official IIM Bangalore programme pages. Next review: January 2028. Core course names and elective lists may rotate; treat this as a directional map and confirm specific courses on the official IIMB site before relying on them for application or transfer decisions.
