Chandigarh: Punjab-based Aryans Business School (ABS) has become the first private B-school in the region to get approval from the US-based Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) to use Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score for admitting students.

"We are the first in this region and 31st in the country to get nod from GMAC to become part of one of this biggest MBA entrance exam around the world. In fact, we are probably the first private B-school in the country to get this approval," ABS chairman Anshu Kataria told reporters here on Sunday evening.

He added, "This recognition is very important for us in the wake of the fact that GMAC has started showing keen interest in India. Recently, they have announced their plans to set up an office in India, its third in the world after the US and the UK."

According to official records, over 1,900 institutions in 81 countries, use the GMAT score as part of the selection criteria for various management programmes.

Kataria said that now students from this part of the country would not require to move to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad in search of GMAT-affiliated management school.

He said that world famous Harvard, Boston and Kellogg and India's top B-schools including Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, also consider GMAT score for admissions.

"There has been a steady rise in the number of Indian MBA aspirants taking this test. More than 265,000 management aspirants appeared for GMAT across the world in 2009 and over eight per cent of them were from India," he noted.

The ABS is located in Nepra village of Punjab, about 25 km from Chandigarh. IANS