IIM-A decides to reject HRD ministry grant

The ongoing cold war between the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the ministry of human resources development has now taken another turn.

On Saturday, following the annual meeting of the board of governors of IIM, Ahmedabad, the institute decided to reject the grant of Rs 10 crore from the ministry.

The decision was taken following recent indications that the ministry might deny IIM, Ahmedabad, the annual grant this time. However, there seems to be no apparent reason for this.

At Saturday's meeting, the IIM, Ahmedabad board of governors decided that the institute would neither ask for the money nor would it accept the grant, even if it came.

The meeting took place at the office of Bakul Dholakia, director, IIM, Ahmedabad. It was attended by Infosys Chairman NR Narayan Murthy, who is also the chairman of the board of governors.

The others who attended were A M Naik, chairman and managing director of Larsen & Toubro, M Banga, managing director of Hindustan Lever, KV Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI, Arvind Lalbhai, managing director of Arvind Mills Limited, Anil Bakeri, chairman of Bakeri Engineers Limited, and Indira Parikh, the dean of the institute.

"Following the annual meeting on Saturday, the board has decided not to accept the Rs 10 crore which IIM, Ahmedabad, is slated to receive from the human resources development ministry in March as a grant for the year 2003-04.

The meeting, which was called to discuss various issues including the main agenda of the institute's budget for the next year, came to an unanimous decision, and we will soon inform the ministry in writing about this," a senior member of the board said.

"The grant is also reducing year after year. Three years back, it was Rs 13 crore. The next year, it came down to Rs 12 crore, and this time the ministry sanctioned a grant of Rs 10 crore for the institute. Only few weeks back, in a meeting with the ministry officials in Delhi, it was hinted that this time IIM-A might be denied the annual grant," the member told Business Standard on condition of anonymity.

Interestingly, it also has been learnt that the ministry may mete out similar treatment to IIM, Bangalore, and IIM, Calcutta, but both the institutes are yet to take any decision in this respect.

"Our director was told by the ministry representatives during a meeting that the income of IIM-A is higher than the expenditure and we may not be given the grant. We are not looking for the government fund but it should go to other institutes which are smaller and newer than us," Parikh told Business Standard.