His is an enduring appeal, a powerful personal branding. Students from across the country's leading business schools have rated Infosys chief Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy the most admired Indian businessman.

If that does not terribly surprise you, then what is the margin of difference between Mr Murthy and the other business tycoons. As many as 40 per cent of the students expressed their preference for Mr Murthy, while Mr Azim Premji comes in at No.2 with 10 per cent and Mr Ratan Tata at No. 3 with 7 per cent. Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla received five per cent of the preferences and Mr Mukesh Ambani, Mr Anil Ambani and NDDB's Mr V. Kurien four per cent each.

The survey was done by Bangalore-based brand consulting firm Brand-comm in October among 270 final-year students in ten leading management institutes, including five IIMs. This is the third consecutive year in which the survey has been done and in each of these years, Mr Murthy has topped the list. Last year, Mr Murthy had a rating of 47 per cent, Mr Dhirubai Ambani 26 per cent, Mr Ratan Tata six per cent and Mr Azim Premji four per cent.

The students admire Mr Murthy for his qualities as an entrepreneur and visionary, and for his ethics and values.

This year, the Mr Ambanis (including Dhirubai) as a single entity received 14 per cent of preferences. Others who made it to the admired list included Mr Venu Srinivasan, Mr Sunil Mittal, Mr Vijay Mallya, Mr K.V. Kamath, Mr Rahul Bajaj, Mr M.S. Banga and Mr Adi Godrej.

However, when asked about the most attractive Indian company to work for, the students placed HLL on top with 19 per cent. Infosys comes in second at 15 per cent and ICICl Bank and the Reliance Group next at seven per cent each. Wipro, Tata Administrative Services, i-flex Solutions, Tata Group, TCS, Tata Motors, ITC and Ranbaxy follow. Brand-comm CEO Mr Sridhar Ramanujam notes that HLL was preferred primarily for it being an excellent training ground and its brand name, while Infosys scored on work environment and culture. The top five industry sectors as a choice for immediate VB placement were consulting, banking / financial services, FMCG, software / hardware and investment banking. Upcoming areas like retail, fashion, telecom, biotech, pharma / healthcare, insurance and BPO are still not seen to be attractive enough for these managers in the making.