Kolkata: Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) will implement the final stage of Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota reservation, from next year. According to a statement issued by Shekhar Chaudhuri, IIM-C Director, they will implement the OBC quota (entirely) from the 2011-2013 batch slated to begin in June, increasing strength from the current 400-odd to 460.
As per sources, the quota implementation is part of the 2008 instruction from the Supreme Court, where it upheld the 27 % quota for OBCs in higher educational institutes which receive funding from the government, bringing the total percentage of reserved seats in such institutions to 49.5 %.
Besides, the 27 % reservation to OBCs, a total of 22.5 per cent seats are reserved for scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs), of which the SCs enjoy 15 per cent and STs enjoy 7.5 per cent reservation, respectively. The increased system of quota implementation, which came under fire three years earlier from all quarters, was accepted after the SC judgement.
The IIMs had arrived at the decision to implement the quota system in a phased manner. With the implementation this year, IIM-C would have completed this requirement. Chaudhuri has said that after this increase, which is quite a significant number, they will not be increasing student strength at least in the next few years, given especially the fact that we need time to integrate the increased strength.
