Ethics in Management Courses - An Anachronism in Today's World?

Animated discussions on the need for integrating ethics in management education has, of late, occupied centre-stage and the inevitability of a curriculum designed and implemented on these lines has assumed a reality of purpose. What has brought about this sudden clamour? Is it the series of unsavoury happenings in the business environment that have a peculiar and undying regularity to crop up at the most unexpected times or is it that there has been soul searching among practitioners which has thrown up this prescription ? In our immediate environment we see, to our dismay, decadence of values setting in. The slide is all round and is threatening to envelop the whole fabric of our society. In such a daunting scenario, will imparting ethics in MBA programmes pass muster? Is the community of students, taking it in with resigned indifference or stoicism that this too shall pass. Have Ethics teachers become relics of the past or is there some glimmer of hope still? This paper thus essentially addresses issues relevant to ethics education in management institutions in India.