IIM-C Interviews held, results put on hold

The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta conducted interviews for Other Backward Class (OBC) category students as scheduled on Thursday but decided to hold the results in abeyance.

This follows the stay granted by the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday on the memorandum issued by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry according reservation to IIM aspirants belonging to the OBC segment in the postgraduate courses in the central institutes of higher learning.

Chairman of admissions in the institute, Subrata Mitra, said 20 interviews were conducted during the first-half of the day at the Joka Campus.

The candidates were told to sign an undertaking which said they understood the backdrop in which the interviews were taking place and that the entire process may become null and void depending on the apex court’s ruling and the subsequent instructions from the Ministry.

Mr. Mitra said all the IIMs have been in touch with one another and had decided to evolve their own process of conducting the admission process this year, in view of the exceptional situation that had arisen after the HRD memorandum.

On fears of legal hurdles delaying this year’s admissions, he said the academic calendar of the IIMs were fixed and he hoped that the classes would commence from mid-June as scheduled.

IIMC interviews stayed

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday stayed a memorandum by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry granting reservation for candidates belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) in postgraduate courses in Central institutions of higher learning.

The court also restrained the holding of interviews of OBC candidates for admission to the postgraduate courses in the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) scheduled for Thursday.

Justice Maharaj Sinha, in an interim order, granted the stay following a petition by Sayan Guha, a candidate of the general category, challenging the HRD Ministry’s office memorandum as well as the interview called by the IIM-C. The matter will be taken up for hearing on June 9. The IIM-C had scheduled the special interview of OBC candidates pursuant to the Ministry’s memorandum.

Mr Guha’s counsel submitted before the court that the HRD Ministry’s office memorandum and subsequent reservation clause were in violation of the April 10 Supreme Court order on reservation for OBC candidates that had also set a yardstick for such quotas in Central higher educational institutions.

They submitted that while the apex court had observed that graduates would not be considered for reservation in the postgraduate courses, the HRD Ministry had violated the order and issued an office memorandum to the effect that OBC students would get reservation in postgraduate courses.

IIMC Cut-offs GD and PI

CATEGORY SECTION 1 SECTION 2 SECTION 3 TOTAL
% Score Percentile % Score Percentile % Score Percentile % Score Percentile
Score Score Score Score
OPEN 31.00 95.02 46.88 95.07 27.00 94.70 38.00 98.96
SC 20.00 85.27 23.96 65.69 11.00 66.10 21.00 85.12
ST 20.00 85.27 20.00 58.65 10.00 62.02 19.32 81.85
PWD 20.00 85.27 20.00 58.65 10.00 62.02 17.97 78.83
OBC 24.00 89.85 39.58 89.53 22.00 89.80 35.00 98.14

IIM-C hikes annual fees by Rs 1 lakh

Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta (IIM-C) has decided to hike the annual fees by Rs 1 lakh per student to Rs 3 lakh per year for students taking admission this year.

The fees would be hiked further by another lakh to Rs 4 lakh per year for students taking admission to IIM-C from 2009.

The decison to hike the fees was finalised at the board of governors' meeting and there would be no impact on existing students, Shekhar Chaudhuri, director, IIM-C, said. The institute had increased fees by Rs 25,000 last year.

"Costs have risen and are expected to increase even further once the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations are implemented," Chaudhari said when asked about the reason behind the hike in fees.

The decision was also taken keeping in view the fee increase at other IIMs like IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and other institutes.

IIM-Bangalore has increased annual fees for first-year students to Rs 3.5 lakh, an IIM-C official said.

IIM-C currently incurs a deficit of Rs 1.5 lakh on every student each year, the official said. "The fee increase will help us meet growing expenditure, while providing students better opportunities and improved facilities," the IIM-C official spokesperson said.

IIM-C has also effected a change in the need-based scholarship scheme. So far, students from households with annual income of up to Rs 2 lakh were eligible for scholarships offered by the institute. From this year, the eligibility margin has been increased to Rs 4 lakh.

"There are at least 25-30 students who benefit from fee waivers every year. The new scheme will encourage more students from financially-weak backgrounds to seek admission," Chaudhuri said.