IITs, IIMs, welcome increase in fund allocation

India’s premier educational institutions — the IITs and IIMs — have welcomed the government move to increase the Budget Plan outlay for higher education by Rs 2,000 crore —from Rs 7,593.50 crore in the Interim Budget (presented this February) to Rs 9,600 crore. The move is aimed at increasing the gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education from the current rate of 12.4 per cent.

“This is a good Budget for the education sector. The allocations made for new IITs should help us gear up. We can invest in necessary infrastructure and should be able to join the race soon,” Madhusudan Chakraborty, director, IIT-Bhubaneswar, told Business Standard.

IIT-Kharagpur, too, thinks the funds set aside for higher education will help the institute expand further. IIT-Kharagpur has already announced investment of Rs 400 crore in phases to double its student and faculty intake and to scale up its academic programmes. According to IIT-Kharagpur placements chairman B K Mathur, “Now we will have more money for further expansion.”

IIT-Bombay director Devang Khakkar felt most of the funds might go to expanding facilities meant for other backward classes (OBC) and other reserved categories. IIT-Madras head M D Ananth pointed out that most IITs had inadequate infrastructure and this money would help them speed up work.

With access continuing to be a concern, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also announced a scheme for full interest subsidy on education loans for technical and professional courses for the weaker sections during the moratorium period. The Budget focuses on physical access as well, with special attention given to higher education for minorities. Welcoming the move, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) director Samir Barua said, “Not just students of IIMs and IITs, the new move of providing full interest subsidy will be helpful in every discipline. It is no longer restricted to people who can afford such loans. While it is a good move, the government should now set up a finance corporation for higher education on the lines of IIFCL. This way, there will be a more integrated approach, thereby providing concessional interest on loans and other incentives.”

For Pankaj Chandra, director of IIM-Bangalore (IIM-B), however, the provision is not sufficient. “Providing full interest subsidy on loans during the period of moratorium is not enough. There should be low interest guaranteed loans for students irrespective of they being below poverty line or above,” said Chandra.

“Giving the subsidy to students is important. There has to be greater focus on primary education and primary health. Also, more IITs and NITs are required but they should be able to fill the gaps in core areas. Besides, polytechnics also need to be more practically oriented so that they produce employable students suited to the industry’s needs,” said Prof Rameshan of IIM-Khozikode.

“The government had already made commitments and has now only made the budgetary allocations for them. So, though this was a good Budget, all these changes were expected and there is nothing new. Money is the first phase for all developments to take place,” said Devi Singh, Director of IIM-Lucknow.

Indian School of Business (ISB) Dean Ajit Rangnekar concurred that “the allocations were expected as the government has been talking about all these initiatives but they also have to look at public-private partnership (PPP)”. “Liberal arts is one area where the government must focus because this is where the private players may be less interested. The Budget has recognised the fact that the youth must be productive and the next 6-8 months will clear its path,” he added.

However, another professor from an IIM felt there was no philosophical policy guideline in the Budget and it only had one-off measures like those for the Panjab University and the Aligarh Muslim University. “There is nothing significant from the past Budgets and higher education has been highlighted more may be because it is important for the elite. The HRD ministry spoke about revamping the entire education space but not much is evident in the Budget.”