Meritocracy & reservations

Has merit become a bad word in India? For India's exceptional human resources to remain in the country, it needs to phase out all caste, community, and income-based reservations

The Supreme Court’s November 7 ruling upheld the 103rd Constitutional amendment allowing an additional 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWSs). To be eligible for this reservation benefit, the annual family income must be below Rs 8 lakh, along with ceilings on ownership of residential property and agricultural land holding, which should be less than 5 acres. This new 10 per cent reservation would exclude scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs). Total reservations would henceforth be 59.5 per cent, made up of 15, 7.5 and 27 per cent of reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, respectively, plus 10 per cent for EWSs. Even without the 10 per cent reservation for EWSs, Tamil Nadu is already at a total reservation of 69 per cent.

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