The Hindu Business Line : `Quota in higher education inevitable'

Chennai May 1 Quotas in higher education, in some form or the other, is inevitable, Mr Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, VSNL, who is a Director on the board of Indian Institute of Management, Indore, said today.

Addressing a gathering of the Rotary Club of Madras here, Mr Bhargava, a former Chairman of Eicher group and a past President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said that it was a "lesser evil" than reservation in the private sector.

Answering a question from the audience, Mr Bhargava observed that the Supreme Court is not against quota— the apex Court had only asked the Government to be "rational" in its approach and not ignore the "creamy layer" factor.

He added that over time, reservation of jobs in private sector may not be avoidable.

Answering another question on why the corporate sector was always demanding for support from the Government, Mr Bhargava said that all that the corporate sector wanted was stability in policies— even if they are irrational— equally applied.

Because the industry does not know what is going to happen next, it tends to "demand for the moon," he said.

Mr Bhargava said that India ought not be "cowed down" by a fear of China. China has its own constraints, he noted, adding that when it came to complex technology, India was better. He, however, said that the Indian industry ought to make better use of IT in its own operations. The industry used computers essentially doing mundane jobs but not for analysis and decision making, he observed.

Mr Bhargava, who is on the board of Tata Steel, said that mergers and acquisitions today were not just a "fashion of the day" but were indispensable for survival. Stressing the importance of supply chain management, he said that Indian industry ought to have control over the full supply chain, right from the stage of ownership of sources of raw material.