Registration for the Common Management Test (CMAT) is now extended to September 7, 2012. Originally, registrations were to close on September 2, 2012.

One would naturally think that AICTE has done it to net in more applicants but apparently the extension has come about because states are gradually announcing their individual decisions to switch over to CMAT and students from those states need to be given time to apply.

Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Gujarat are two such states that have only just issued local advertisements indicating that they would admit students through CMAT. This means that students from the two states can now register with CMAT.

Confirming this, the All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Mr SS Mantha said that since students in MP and Gujarat have just got to know about CMAT acceptance, it makes sense to extend the registration period for their sake. While states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan had already given their consent to the exam last year, AICTE is in talks with various other states to move over, among them, Andhra Pradesh may be the next to come under the CMAT bandwagon. "Basically we are looking at about 10 main states," said Mr Mantha.

When asked why some of the better schools like the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai is still not willing to accept CMAT, Mr Mantha replied that since SP Jain offers a PGDM and not an MBA degree, it can accept any of the five tests as indicated by the last Supreme Court order. “It is the institutes that offer an MBA which are AICTE-affiliated which have to take CMAT and such institutes number more than 3,500. So if they take CMAT it is fine by me as we are talking about large numbers here," explained Mr Mantha.

He added: "While there are just about 290 institutes that are AICTE affiliated which offer the PGDM, so if these do not take CMAT it is not so much of a concern for me."

Mr Mantha was also asked why the AICTE website is projecting CMAT as one the five admission tests when by its own admission, earlier,the five tests included the Common Admission Test, (CAT), Management Aptitude Test (MAT), Xavier’s Admission Test, (XAT), AIMS Test for Management Admission (ATMA), and Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT). An official notification by AICTE replaced JMET by GMAT.“We are saying that we are one of the five tests for those offering an MBA degree. When AICTE drew up a list of five admission tests earlier, we were referring to the PGDM course. The five tests for the PGDM still stand."