OBC quotas: Only three institutes go full steam

Only three out of the 64 educational institutions under the Ministry of Human Resource Development are aiming for a 54 per cent increase in the number of seats to implement the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs from the 2007-08 academic session itself.

National institutes of technology at Warangal and Agartala and National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology in Ranchi plan to implement the OBC quota at one go.

Considering the practical problems the institutes might face, the Oversight Committee under Veerappa Moily had allowed the institutions to increase the student intake by 54 per cent within three years.

Since this would require a massive expansion of infrastructure, some institutes say the implementation may take up to five years.

According to the ministry documents, the seven IITs, with an allocation of Rs 988 crore, are on an average taking 1,788 additional students (16 per cent more than last year) in 2007-08. IITs at Roorkee and Kanpur are the only IITs that have planned for an 18 per cent increase in the number of seats in each academic year till 2010-2011.

Other IITs have expressed their inability to increase the number of seats by 18 per cent this year. "Some major constraints are compelling us to restrict to around 10 per cent for the coming year. We hope to catch up in the subsequent years," Surendra Prasad, director, IIT-Delhi, told Business Standard.

"We are prepared to increase the number of seats by 18 per cent for the coming academic session provided we get the ministry funds in time," said SS Kasalkar, registrar, IIT-Kanpur.

Even in the six IIMs, which have been allocated Rs 80 crore for the expansion, the average increase in intake would be 11 per cent for 2007-08. The 20 national institutes of technology (NITs) have to increase the number of seats by 3,881, for which Rs 780 crore has been allocated. In most NITs, the intake would be far better than what the IITs have proposed.

The two NITs at Warangal and Agartala, for example, plan to go for a full 54 per cent increase in 2007-08. Most other NITs are expanding by 27 per cent in the coming year, taking the average increase this year to an impressive 25 per cent.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which has got Rs 90 crore for the expansion, would be increasing the student intake by 18 per cent, from 280 to 330.