It was a combative HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who asserted yet again that the quality of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) has nothing to do with money. Joshi’s statement comes a day before the Supreme Court hears a public interest litigation tomorrow, as reported by The Indian Express, challenging the slashing of course fees.Instead, said Joshi, quality depended on the commitment of teachers and students. ‘‘What is the contribution of the teachers has to be assessed,’’ he said, adding quality would not suffer.He criticised the management of IIMs saying the teacher-student ratio was incredulously high as compared to institutions elsewhere in the world. ‘‘In IIM-Ahmedabad it is 1:5, IIM-Bangalore 1:4 and IIM-Calcutta 1:7, whereas the same in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and Harvard Business School, considered the best management institutions in the world, is only 1:10,’’ he pointed out.He refuted the charge of meddling with the autonomy of IIMs and said autonomy did not mean licence to do as they pleased. ‘‘Autonomy is safe and the funds are safe. They should manage themselves well,’’ he said. The Ministry, said Joshi, had asked former CAG V.K. Shunglu to go into the financial needs of the IIMs and any shortfall would be filled by the Government. ‘‘I am now paying Rs 140 crore to these institutions as against a grant of Rs 25-30 crore earlier,’’ he said, adding all IIMs are now managed by high professionals and not politicians.
