A. According to the revised regulations of All-India Council for Technical Education [AICTE], which regulates management education in the country, every 2-year full-time general management programme which is not affiliated to any university, must be referred to as Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM).

In addition, B-schools are required to mention the sector/branch in brackets. For instance, programmes focusing on finance will be called PGDM [Finance].

Only 2-year Management courses offered by Univs can be called MBA. Hence, even the management programmes offered by the IIMs are called PGPM because the IIMs are not a university or affiliated to any university.

So these terms are merely a difference of nomenclature, and no way an indicator of the value or quality of the programme.

Also all management programmes between 1-2 years duration are treated as
certificate courses.

This means no private B-school can offer an MBA or a PGDM if the course duration is more than one year and less than two years.