Would-be MBA students getting ready to take the GMAT might be in for a little surprise when they show up at the testing center. In addition to all the usual security measures—including video monitoring and the computer adaptive test itself—test takers will soon be asked to submit to a new one: a biometric device that uses an infared light to capture the test-taker’s unique “palm vein pattern.”

Pearson VUE, the company that administers the GMAT for the Graduate Management Admission Council, plans to announce the new security effort tomorrow, but BusinessWeek got a sneak peak at it today.

The Fujitsu “PalmSecure” device will be rolled out next month at 16 testing centers in India and Korea for GMAT candidates. It goes live in the U.S. this fall, and when fully deployed will be used in 400 facilities in 107 countries by May 2009.

The announcement comes as the b-school world is embroiled in a cheating scandal involving the GMAT–users of a now-defunct test prep Web site, Scoretop.com, have been accused by GMAC of using it to post and access live test questions, and GMAC has said it will cancel the test scores of anyone who violated its rules.

But the new security measure is designed to stop a different kind of cheating–the use of professional test takers, or proxies, to take the exam on behalf of someone else. GMAC’s been burned by this type of cheater before. Back in 2003, it busted a half dozen people who took the GMAT for others for about $5,000 a pop. GMAC canceled 166 scores as a result, and five of the six imposters ended up at Rikers.

More : businessweek.com

Students of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad are set to give the IIMs a run for their money if the placement pattern for the current year is any indication. Barely three weeks after an IIM Ahmedabad student set a record by bagging an annual salary package of Rs 67 lakh, an ISB graduate broke the record by accepting a package from an international company for Rs 80 lakh.

The five-year-old ISB did not release the name of the student.

Its deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar said in a statement, “The placement results for 2005 have been phenomenal. The number of offers our students received this year jumped by 26%, with the number of international offers increasing by 55%. Consultancies were the biggest recruiters followed by information technology and financial services.”

Of the 273 students in the 2005 batch, 251 participated in the placement process. They received 344 offers, of which 333 were lateral and 31 international.

While there was a growth in international offers, the number of Indian companies offering international assignments too has gone up. Companies like Birlasoft, ITC Infotech, Satyam, Mindtree Consulting and RPG offered international positions to ISB students in countries like the UK, Australia, US and Singapore.

With a representation of 19%, ISB’s Class of 2005 had the highest number of women students across B-schools in the country. Out of the 52 women students in the class, 48 participated in the placement. The highest offer made to a woman this year was Rs 20 lakh, an increase of 53% compared to Rs 13 lakh in 2004.