Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday asserted quality of B-schools has nothing to do with its fees even as the Supreme Court gets ready to hear a Public Interest Litigation challenging his decision to slash course fees in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management.

Joshi said the quality of education depended on the commitment of the teachers and the quality of the students. Quality would not suffer, as there would be no shortfall or lack of resources to these institutions, he insisted.

Also Read IIM-Ahmedabad managed without central grant in 2003-04

Criticising the management of IIMs, he said the teacher-student ratio in IIM-Ahmedabad was 1:5, IIM-Bangalore 1:4 and IIM-Calcutta 1:7 whereas the same in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School, considered the best management institutions in the world, is 1:10.

Strongly defending the decision to reduce the fees, Joshi said the IIMs cannot merely cater to the elite. "(Now) There is a psychological change in the minds of the people that the government cares for the upliftment of the people belonging to low income group," he said adding he also wants to increase the number of seats as the country wanted more quality managers.

Refuting the charge that the government move was aimed at interfering with the autonomy of IIMs, Joshi said autonomy did not mean licence to do what they wanted. "Autonomy is safe and the funds are safe. They should manage themselves well," he said.

His ministry had already asked former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu to go into the financial needs of the IIMs and 'whatever shortfall is the government would give'.

"As against a Government grant of Rs 25-30 crore, I am now paying Rs 140 crore to these institutions," he said. "We have given them full liberty. I have made institutions such as IITs and IIMs more professional. For the first time, there is no political interference and there is no political appointment," he said adding all the IIMs are now managed by professionals and not politicians.

Pointing out that the Kurien Committee had suggested that the IIMs should generate more internal resources and a large share of counselling fee should go to the institutes, he said that funds should not be generated only through raising the fees.

Also Read IIM fees: Narayana Murthy meets PM

Asked to comment on Infosys chief and chairman of IIM-A N R Narayana Murthy and others reportedly seeking Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's intervention on the issue, Joshi quipped, "The prime minister listened to them."

Though elections are due, he denied there is an attempt to woo the electorate with the announcement of reduction in fees as the issue had been brought up as early as in 2000.

The IIM Controversy