Amid raging controversy over the Indian Institutes of Management fee cut issue, Union Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Wednesday said the premier institutes should take up more research and consultancy projects to augment income and look beyond the corporate sector to produce social managers.
"More research means more patents, which in turn means more money. Look at the Indian Institutes of Technology; they increased their research activities after their fees were slashed and today technologies developed by them are in demand worldwide," he told PTI.
Joshi also suggested that IIMs take up more consultancy projects to boost their finances.
"Many corporates want IIMs to act as their consultants and the institutes should actively pursue them," he said.
The HRD minister was also of the view that management institutes, especially IIMs, should look beyond the corporate sector and produce more managers who would serve the country better by addressing the basic needs of its people.
"India needs more capable managers in not only the corporate sector, but also environment, sports, education, cooperatives, transport and so on. These fields need much better management," he said.
He called for raising the intake of students in IIMs so that more people would be available to manage these diverse fields.
"The present teacher to student ratio in IIMs is 1:4 and so there is scope to substantially increase the number of students," the minister said.
"Even in developed countries like the United States, there were eight students for every one teacher. In Germany, in fact, the teacher to student ratio is 1:30," Joshi said.
On the feet-cut controversy, he said the government intended to provide affordable and accessible all-round education to the poor.
"Our aim is to increase the number of students in important institutes. We don't want commercialisation of education and a particular section of the society having access to education in some fields," he said.
Joshi also sought to play down a statement of Rajya Sabha MP Bimal Jalan on the IIMs controversy saying everyone is entitled to have his own opinion.
"I am sure Jalan was expressing his own opinion and he is certainly entitled to it," Joshi said.
Jalan, former RBI governor and Rajya Sabha member, last week had said: "Unwarranted political or bureaucratic interference" can permanently "damage" an institute.
Joshi also declined to comment on the decision by Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, to cut its fees. "As the government is one of the promoters of the IIMs, I would not like to comment on their decision," he said.
On the decision by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, to keep fees intact but hold detailed discussions with the government on the issue, Joshi said he was yet to receive official intimation from IIM-A and would comment on the matter only after that.