BANGALORE: The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, (IIM-B), which is faced with an acute shortage of teachers, has said that its student intake can be increased by 54 per cent only in a staggered manner over three to four years and not in a year as proposed by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The proposed increase in intake was to compensate for the 27 per cent reservation announced for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in institutes of higher education, including IIMs.

"IIMs cannot implement the increase (in student intake) in one go. It cannot be done in one year," IIMB director Prakash G. Apte told presspersons after the institute's Board of Governors met here on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by Mukesh Ambani.

Identifying teacher shortage as the most critical issue, Dr. Apte said that IIMB had only 73 faculty members against the approved strength of 89.

"There is a shortage of 16. We will eventually need 110 faculty members," he said, adding that the meeting did not discuss the reservation issue.

Shortage of classrooms and dormitories was also a cause for concern at the IIM-B. Approval of new construction projects figured prominently at the Board meeting. On the cards is a Rs. 50-crore expansion plan, excluding land costs.

"The Government has to give us the money. Around 15 to 20 acres of land will be required and, for that, we will have to go at least 10 km from the present campus," Dr. Apte said.

Building proposal

A proposal to construct multistoreyed buildings within the Bannerghatta Road campus was turned down by many Board members, who felt that high-rise structures would spoil the aesthetics of the campus.

"An architectural plan will be submitted in the next Board meeting, scheduled to be held on the institute's Foundation Day on October 26," Dr. Apte said.

On the proposed Singapore campus of the institute, he said the Board's subcommittee was still working on it and a report was likely to be submitted in the next meeting.

The Board discussed the need to improve compensation for the teachers. The details would be placed in the next meeting and once finalised, the new package would be implemented with retrospective effect, he said.

Felicitated

Earlier, Mr. Ambani described IIM-B's founder director N.S. Ramaswamy as the driving force behind the institute. "We ultimately recognise merit in this country," he said.

Mr. Ambani said that in the next 10 to 20 years, the problems of resource distribution could be solved through a global distribution system. During the next two decades, the development of India could be transformational, he said.

Prof. Ramaswamy said that the country had abundant resources but no distribution system.

Managements, he said, should not be restricted to narrow business interests alone. They should be socially relevant. "Only 10 million workers in the country are governed by managements. As much as 300 million do not have any such management," he said.

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