Centre not delighted with fee hike by IIM-A: Jhunjhunwala

Remarking that the steep fee hike announced by the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) was not a very 'welcoming news' to the Central Government, the Union HRD ministry and himself, Chairman of IIM-Indore said that "other IIMs should be consulted before such decisions are taken".   

IIM-Indore Chairman L N Jhunjhunwala said, "Neither the Centre nor the Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh were happy with the IIM-A's step to hike its fees".  

He said that since the country is undergoing election process, the government was unable to take any decision on the issue, Jhunjhunwala told PTI here yesterday.  

He said that it would have been better if the IIM-A could have taken other IIMs into confidence before effecting the steep fee hike.  The noted industrialist was here to attend the tenth convocation ceremony of the premiere business management institute, in which 228 students were awarded management degrees.  

IIM-A recently announced a hike of Rs 50,000 in its fee of for the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP).

Jhunjhunwala, however declined to comment whether there was a similar plan to increase the fee in the IIM- Indore in the near future but said that he was "personally not in favour of raising IIMs fees in the country."  

IIM-A has been in news previously also over its fee hike decisions. Two years ago an controversy raged about the autonomy of the IIMs and contentious issues like fee hike and its independent functioning were raised by the HRD ministry.  

Earlier addressing the convocation ceremony, Tata Consultancy Service Chief Executive Officer (CEO) S Ramadorai said that the current economic crisis has put forward new challenges before the industry and the students.  

However, he hoped that the tenth batch of IIM Indore will deal with the crisis with their knowledge effectively.  The institute director N Ravichandran was also present on the occasion in which 174 students of PGP and 54 of Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) were awarded degrees.