Murthy ready to quit over IIM fees

N R Narayana Murthy says that he was willing to quit if HRD Minister wanted him to do so.

"I am at the service of the minister. If Mr Joshi wants me to quit, I will quit without any regret. However, he will continue to be my good friend," N R Narayana  Murthy, Infosys Technologies chief & chairman of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, said on the sidelines of a function in Mumbai, where he and M S Banga, chairman of Hindustan Lever and board member of the institute, flayed the government's move to slash annual fees at the IIMs by 80 per cent.

Murthy was responding to a question on whether he would be able to make Joshi reverse his decision.

Murthy and Banga reiterated that the fee cut would not make the IIMs more accessible to the poor. The ministry's priority should be to enhance the number of management seats in the country and to set up more such institutions, they said.

Murthy said there was no need to subsidise higher education. Instead, financial aid such as loans and scholarships would prove more helpful for deserving candidates, he said.

Terming the government's move retrogressive, Banga said considering the health of the economy, this was not a priority.

Having failed in their attempts to persuade Joshi to roll back the fee cut, Banga and Murthy had sought Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's intervention in this matter. "We have been sharing data with the government and are looking forward to a debate or a discussion on this," Murthy added.