The Hindu Business Line : Corporate sector resents IIM fee reduction

WHILE the Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, has been vociferous in his criticism against the Human Resources Development Minister, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi's decision in the IIM fee matter, other voices in the corporate sector too have expressed similar opinion.

Ms Kiran Mazumdar, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Biocon India Ltd, told Business Line, "I share the views expressed by Mr Murthy and the Hindustan Lever Ltd Chairman, Mr M.S. Banga. I do not believe in subsidising higher education."

She felt that the Government needed to deploy all available funds towards attaining 100 per cent literacy and not towards educational institutes such as IIMs and IITs, which by their very stature provide high earning employment opportunities.

According to her, the perception that the IIMs are only accessible to the economically privileged needs to be corrected. "The IIMs and IITs are both educational institutes that have an egalitarian system of admissions through their entrance tests and I am sure that those that qualify are resourceful enough to fund their education through scholarships and loans."

Talking about the impact of the fee slash, she said that the centres of higher education need to urgently augment the levels of investment required in improving the educational infrastructure to enable both students and faculty to pursue research based studies.

"Any cutbacks in available funding will have a detrimental impact on such endeavours. I do hope this present debate will be resolved in a manner that provides the best future for the IIMs."

Mr V. Raghunathan, President, ING Vysya Bank Ltd, said, "While it's true that the IIMs are what they are essentially because of the Government, it's time they become independent and run on their own. Even in the Nehruvian era, when these great learning institutes were set up, the Government was expected to be a catalyst only," he stated.

He cited the examples of the PSUs becoming independent, and asked, "So why not educational institutions?"

But he did agree with the Minister on one count: "In most IIMs, the number of seats in the PGP course has more or less remained static for 25 years. They have not broadened their base. In that sense, you can accuse them of elitism."

This ex-IIM Ahmedabad faculty member, felt that it was not right to link the per capita income to the tuition fee. "The idea is if you cannot push up the first one, then you drag the other down, which I do not agree with," said Mr Raghunathan.

Even nursery schools charge about Rs 50,000 tuition fee per annum for which nothing is done. He also felt that the institutes could improve the teacher-student ratio.