'IIMs can implement OBC quota at one go'

A founder director of IIM says there was adequate infrastructure to add the necessary seats at one go in the elite management institutes.

As the government proposes to introduce reservation for OBCs in higher education in a staggered manner, a founder director of IIM, Bangalore, has said there was adequate infrastructure to add the necessary seats at one go in the elite management institutes from the coming session onwards.

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The enhanced reservation can be implemented in the six IIMs from 2007-08 onwards with the same faculty strength and roughly the same infrastructure and need not be staggered, Prof NS Ramaswamy said on Sunday.

"The present intake of students in each IIM is around 240. Each IIM can take in 120 students more from the next session onwards," he said.

He claimed that the 100 faculty members in each of the IIMs were putting in 4,000 hours of work every year as against the 10,000 hours they were required to and hence 6,000 hours were still available with them.

"They are teaching three sections of students and putting in 4,000 hours into it. They can teach two more sections of 120 students more using the 6,000 hours still available," Ramaswamy said.

"If there is any need for additional faculty, teachers can be appointed on a part-time basis," he said.

As for infrastructure required for the additional students, he said each IIM would need four classrooms, which could be managed.

He suggested that teachers could be given enhanced house rent allowance rather than be provided with on-campus accommodation and buildings could be hired to meet the hostel needs of the students.

He also recommended increasing the fees of the IIM students to generate resources for improving the infrastructure.