Amidst the raging controversy over the alleged government interference in the functioning of prestigious management institutions in the country, chairman of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, N R Narayana Murthy gave a clean chit to the government on Wednesday saying there was no such interference.
"There has absolutely been no interference by the government in deciding the curriculum of the course," Murthy, who is also the chairman of infotech major Infosys Technologies, told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.
Asked to comment on the reports about increasing the intake of students without compromising the quality of education, he said that the minister was getting his people to look into all the data available and whatever decision is taken would be fair.
He said the decision will ensure that the management system becomes more powerful.
"The minister will come out with his decision, which will be fair and will not mitigate the quality of education," Murthy said, adding that they discussed various issues.
Describing his meeting with Joshi as a courtesy call, Murthy said that they did not get into any specific detail.
To a question whether IIM-Ahmedabad, had rejected the Rs 10 crore (Rs 100million) grant offered by the ministry, he said, "Nobody from the institute has rejected the grant. We are civilised people and we do not believe in being arrogant. This is the child of the government. We cannot be arrogant. I do not subscribe to that."
He said that there is a need to increase the intake of students in IIMs as the country needed a lot of managers.
