Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

How is Indian Institute of Management Calcutta ranked in 2026?

As of 2026, the most recent published rankings place Indian Institute of Management Calcutta at Rank #7 in the NIRF Management category (2025, score 77.34), Rank #3 in the India Today MBA ranking (2025, score 92.00), and Rank #3 in the QS India MBA ranking (2025, score 87.20). The NIRF 2026 rankings have not yet been released, so the NIRF 2025 result remains the current government benchmark for the institute. In short, IIM Calcutta sits firmly inside India's elite tier of business schools, holding a top-3 position with two major rankers (India Today and QS India) while having slipped to 7th in the official NIRF Management list.

This split picture is the key thing for an aspirant to understand: IIM Calcutta, one of the three original IIMs founded in 1961, is still rated among the very best for its flagship two-year MBA (PGP), with a 2025-2026 programme fee of approximately ₹27 lakh as commonly reported. The divergence between its strong India Today and QS India ranks and its lower NIRF rank is the central story of its current standing, and the sections below break down each ranking year by year.

Year-Wise Rankings

The table below consolidates Indian Institute of Management Calcutta's verified ranks across the three ranking bodies that matter most to MBA aspirants: India Today MBA, NIRF Management, and QS India MBA. It answers the question "where exactly does IIM Calcutta stand with each ranker, and how did that change from 2024 to 2025?" Read it ranking-body by ranking-body: compare the 2024 row with the 2025 row for the same body to see the direction of movement, and note the score next to each rank, since scores reveal how tight the competition is at the top.

The takeaway is striking: between 2024 and 2025, IIM Calcutta actually improved in two rankings while declining in one. It climbed from #4 to #3 in both India Today MBA (91.10 to 92.00) and QS India MBA (86.30 to 87.20), but fell from #4 to #7 in NIRF Management, with its NIRF score dropping sharply from 89.20 to 77.34. That NIRF slide is the single biggest negative movement in its recent ranking record and is the metric an applicant should watch most closely going into the 2026 cycle.

Ranking Trajectory of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

The clearest signal in Indian Institute of Management Calcutta's recent trajectory is the NIRF Management decline: the institute slipped to Rank #7 in NIRF 2025, the second consecutive year of slippage in the official framework as reported, after standing at #4 in NIRF 2024. In the NIRF Management 2025 list, IIM Ahmedabad retained the top spot, followed by IIM Bangalore (#2) and IIM Kozhikode (#3), while IIT Delhi's Department of Management Studies (DMS) broke into the top 4. IIM Calcutta was overtaken by IIM Lucknow (#5) and IIM Mumbai (#6), pushing it to #7. The NIRF score itself fell from 89.20 in 2024 to 77.34 in 2025, a drop that reflects movement across NIRF's weighted parameters rather than any single factor.

What complicates the "decline" narrative is that IIM Calcutta moved in the opposite direction with two other respected rankers over the same period. In the India Today MBA ranking it rose from #4 (91.10) in 2024 to #3 (92.00) in 2025, and in QS India MBA it climbed from #4 (86.30) to #3 (87.20). So the trajectory is genuinely mixed: a weakening position in the government's NIRF framework alongside a strengthening position in India Today and QS India. For an aspirant, this signals that IIM Calcutta's brand, peer perception, and outcomes-based standing remain top-tier even as its NIRF score has compressed. The decisive data point to watch is whether the NIRF 2026 cycle, not yet released, arrests or reverses the #4-to-#7 slide.

How Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Compares

The table below positions Indian Institute of Management Calcutta against the institutions that finished ahead of it in NIRF Management 2025, using only verified ranks. It answers "who is IIM Calcutta competing with at the top, and where does it land?" Read each row as the NIRF 2025 pecking order from #1 down to IIM Calcutta at #7, which makes clear exactly how many institutions now sit between it and the top.

The comparison shows that IIM Calcutta now trails the long-established trio of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Kozhikode, and in NIRF 2025 was also placed behind IIT Delhi's DMS, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Mumbai. However, the picture flips under India Today MBA 2025 and QS India MBA 2025, where IIM Calcutta holds Rank #3, indicating that on perception and outcome-driven measures it still outranks several schools that finished above it in NIRF. The practical reading for an applicant: IIM Calcutta remains a genuine top-3-to-top-7 institution depending on the ranker, and its peer set is the absolute upper crust of Indian B-schools.