Prof.
J.D.Agarwal, Director, Indian Institute of Finance while
welcoming the Ministry of HRD’s initiatives to regulate
the management education in the country more appropriately
has said that the implications of refusing to sign the MoUs
with the government for reducing down the reserves of IIMs
to Rs.25 crore may lead to a major cut in government’s
grants to IIMs who refuse to sign MoUs. He feels that the
government has a right to have regulatory control not only
on IIMs but even over those institutions which don’t
enjoy the government patronage or government funding. Prof.
Agarwal stresses that education is a charitable activity for
public good and it must be followed in that spirit. According
to him, the government, will save all those funds which go
as grants to these IIMs and use them alternatively to set
up new institutions of higher learning or divert these funds
to the elementary and secondary education which should be
the primary responsibility of the government to increase literacy
level in the country.
Prof.
Agarwal feels that some of the IIMs have been refusing to
sign the MoUs because they believe that MoUs will force them
to comply with ERC guidelines, killing the staff’s initiative
to do research. According to him, research is an activity
which once gets imbibed one gets addicted to it and cannot
leave it. A researcher derives immense pleasure from research
amidst pains. If foreign travel and expenditure incurred is
the measuring rod for research than the output then ERC guidelines
would certainly affect research adversely says Prof. Agarwal.
He feels that increased government control does not seem to
be a valid argument for not signing the MoU. However he opines
that some of the provisions of the MoU which may affect the
academic pursuits of IIMs, if not acceptable, may be discussed
by a joint committee of IIMs and IIMs can request the government
to either modify or delete such provisions giving justifications.
According
to him, all IIMs have been financed by the government with
public money and over a period of time been given free land
and crores of rupees of funds for developing infrastructure
and meeting revenue expenses besides the government patronage
ever since their inception. He strongly feels that the cut
in the government grants to IIMs may not pose any problems
for older IIMs as their need for developing infrastructure
is almost zero and they can manage enough funds through their
earnings and grants from other agencies such as AICTE, DST
etc. and international Agencies to take care of their operating
costs.
Prof.
Agarwal thinks that the three relatively newer IIMs signing
MoU and older IIMs not signing MoUs would in any way not result
into any divide among them. He stresses that they are autonomous
bodies, each one of them is run independently except for the
admission test for which a joint committee is set up. This
in any way is not likely to be diluted in the present circumstances.
Prof. Agarwal has also highlighted the need for more joint
programmes and collaborative faculty exchanges between the
management Institution in the best interest of the nation.
He says that the sharing of library resources amongst institutions
has become a common feature and are being shared through a
library network but faculty amongst IIMs is hardly exchanged.
Except for CAT there is no other joint programmes offered
by IIMs.
