The current move for increasing reservations from 22.5% to 49.5% in IITs, IIMs, etc., if viewed in the backdrop of "globalization", is sure to undermine national interests.

Everything in this world has an ex-piry date: Aspirin of Bayer, VS Naipaul of literature, Ramanna of BARC, Dilip Kumar of Bollywood, even Lata Mangeshkar of the music world, but not the "reservations" of India. The recent announcement of Ministry of HRD proposing to create reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to the extent of 27% over and above the existing 22.5% for Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes (SCSTs), in central educational institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Central Universities, etc., and the consequent reactions of the society would corroborate the statement. It is averred that the present proposal is an outcome of the 93^rd Constitutional Amendment Act, which enables the state to offer special provisions for the advancement of backward classes in "educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than minority educational institutions". But the 93^rd Constitutional Amendment Act has only an enabling clause to offer such reservations; it is not mandatory. The impact of the proposal could be gauged from the fact that every year nearly four lakh students appear for entrance test to secure admission in the 4,500 odd seats on offer in the seven IITs, which would now stand reduced by a whopping 1200 seats under the "merit" category.

It is further feared that the government may extend "quotas" to private educational institutes, foreign universities operating from India and even private businesses for employment. This has obviously raked up a fresh debate nationwide. Reacting to the proposals, Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, as quoted in The Hindu, said: "Though I do not want to comment on it, it (reservation) is bad In some way it will tend to divide the country into different groups". That aside, the current move, unlike that of yesteryear's propositions, merits critical examination from the perspective of the ongoing "globalization" process, is an altogether different ball game of economic pursuits that the country is engaged in.

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