Planners, politicos in campus face-off

IIM-Ahmedabad chairman refuses to be persuaded by HRD Minister Arjun Singh to roll back its proposed 150 per cent fee hike, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 3, 2008, 01:21:01 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A major controversy could be brewing between India’s education planners, and politicians advocating a populist approach to education.

On Wednesday evening, IIM-Ahmedabad chairman Vijaypat Singhania refused to be persuaded by HRD Minister Arjun Singh to roll back its proposed 150 per cent fee hike.

Hours earlier, the Planning Commission recommended that profit-making should be allowed in higher education, thus paving the way for the entry of corporates in the sector.

The Commission’s proposal, sent to PM Manmohan Singh, could trigger a debate reminiscent of the controversy over OBC quota in institutions of higher education.

The report has its genesis in a similar proposal mooted two years ago by the National Knowledge Commission. The HRD ministry had opposed it then, saying education was a ‘social service’.

Two days ago, Singh had argued for making high quality education affordable for poorer students. His ministry is likely to oppose the Plan panel’s idea this time too — and might find support from the Left for whom private participation in education is anathema.

Those who back corporate participation in education are, however, convinced that the traditional approach has not been greatly successful either in terms of business or in meeting the manpower requirements of India’s $400 million service sector.

Speaking to reporters after releasing the report, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia backed Singhania over Arjun Singh on the IIM fee hike. Costlier education in the IIMs and IITs can be made affordable through easy loans for students, Ahluwalia said.

Emerging from his meeting with the minister, Singhania said IIM-A’s total scholarship amount was being upped from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 8.5 crore, covering 62% of all new students.

“The fee hike is not to make profit,” he said. “The cost of the course has to be met. Our students get into jobs immediately with an annual package of Rs 25 lakh or more,” Singhania said. “Students will be able to repay their loans before leaving the institute as employers are ready to meet the cost of their education.” Singhania said IIM-A would not roll back the hike but would put in place a system to assess students’ family incomes to offer scholarships.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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