In addition to a clutch of candidates offering something different from the usual engineering or commerce background, ISB also reports an increase in female candidates in its 2025 batch. This year, women take 47% of the seats, up from 40% for the Class of 2024. The move closer to gender parity is on trend with an increase in gender diversity among Indian Institutes of Management.
Meet six of the Indian School of Business’s PGP-M 2025 batch.
Indian School of Business Class of 2025
Actor to MBA student
Abhilash Bandari is a Telugu actor who has played leading roles in nine movies. He also has a corporate background, having worked in finance at Dell Technologies, and was awarded his bachelor’s degree from ISB. Abhilash has been elected director of the Student Life Council at the school.
©Abhilash Bandari/LinkedIn
PM Office to MBA student
Ashish Kashyap worked in the Indian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for six years before embarking on the MBA at ISB. His bachelor’s in BTech and Computer Science is from the Lovely Professional University. He held an organisational at the PMO, and managed the Prime Minister Modi’s engagements, even accompanying him on domestic and international visits.
Endurance runner to MBA student
Laxmi Prashanthi Karnati joined ISB following five years working in Silicon Valley as a senior software engineer at Cisco. As well as her work experience, Laxmi is a highly accomplished endurance runner and hiker. She has hiked 900 miles in US national parks and is also a master’s graduate in computer science from Stony Brook University in New York.
©Laxmi Karnati/LinkedIn
Bowler to MBA student
Apurv Ashutosh Sharma is also in the ISB Class of 2025. A member of the Bowling Federation of India for 10 years, Apurv has represented the Indian national as well as Delhi state team and holds a MS Civil Engineering from Purdue University in the US.
©Apurv Sharma/LinkedIn
Coastguard to MBA student
Aditi Sharma is a veteran of the Indian Coast Guard. Having served for eight years in the armed forces, she says she wants to use her time at ISB to move from the government sector to the corporate sector.
©Aditi Sharma/LinkedIn
Journalist to MBA student
Priyanshi Sharma, an economics graduate from Delhi University, left a role as anchor and reporter at English news channel NDTV to join ISB. Before journalism, she worked as a financial executive at Deloitte.
©ISB/Facebook
