Centre wants IIMs to increase student intake

The Centre wants the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to increase their students intake.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has asked the premier B-schools to look into the possibility of increasing the number of seats available for various programmes offerred by them.

“The ministry wants that IIMs increase the intake so that more students get opportunity to study from the premier business schools and have a bright future. But, a decision has to be taken by the institutes. The government cannot force them to do so. Nothing has yet been finalised,” official sources told DH.

This comes after the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) recently gave “in principle” approval to increasing the number of students intake to about one lakh by 2020. The decision was taken at a meeting of the IIT council, presided over by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, last week.

Official sources said that though a final decision has not yet been taken by the IIMs on the ministry’s proposal, many of the older IIMs were onboard and willing to increase the intake of students.

“IIM Ahmedabad has even sent a proposal to the ministry for increasing its seats,” they said.

The issue may come up for a discussion at the meeting of the IIMs, to be presided over by the HRD minister in September.