A Country that Runs on Reservation

I know that it is a very sensitive issue for all of us and especially so when it comes to b-school admissions or for that matter engineering, medical or any other admission process. I, for one, feel that reservation is an important tool to bring the underprivileged people into the mainstream. However, there should be a limit on the extent to which reservations can be brought in the society. What are the limits to reservation? What parameters can be used to truly justify Reservation? Is it caste, gender, religion, income or something else?

I recently read an article on TOI (see bottom). In the article, the Supreme Court of India stated that Reservation is a hard reality and the anti-quota groups must accept it and understand that unequals cannot be treated as equals. The anti-quota group pleaded that the standard of education will go down if the quota system is implemented blindly without any check on the quality of students admitted in the reserved category.

One of the biggest problems of our country's decision makers is that they know which laws to formulate and pass, but they do not know how it would be properly implemented. They do not know how to make sure that the person actually in need of reservation is the one who is helped by this law. They do not know how to ensure that proper background checks are done before such privileges are given to certain people. So, we have a country that runs on reservations.

We all know about the explicit reservations in our country but the implicit ones pass under the radar.

• I am sure you must have read IIM K Director's interview hinting at an implicit reservation for women in IIM K. (The interview appeared on Pagalguy)

• Having academic cut offs without normalizing scores of different boards. (Again, IIM K is the culprit)

• Differential Weightages for Engineering or Non Engineering Students. Some colleges even give negative weightages to students from non IITs and NITs.

These all are forms of implicit reservation in our country which are very much prevalent but are not as visible.

Are these implicit reservations going to help?

My take

We will have to wait and watch this phenomenon. Now that a few colleges including IIM's are going for batch diversity instead of merit, we will have to see if it really helps improve the learning in the batch or if it helps to shape better managers.

There is no empirical study that shows better academic record means better managers for the future. As far as reservation for women is concerned, I do not think that the modern woman need crutches to climb up the corporate ladder. Many women have done it and many others will continue to climb up to the apex without any unfair advantage. They do not need reservation.

Possible Fall Outs

One of the biggest outcomes of these reservations has been that many top performers in exams like CAT don't get calls from the top IIMs. So, they are forced to take admission in the new IIMs or other top private B-schools.

I know its a hyperbolic comment to make but if the trend continues we will soon have only private b-schools at the top and not the IIMs or IITs. (how long can can merit be suppressed). ISB has proven that it can be done. And we need not forget that foreign educational institutes may enter the market soon.

Ever reducing popularity of CAT, JMET , XAT can all be credited to various reasons such booming economy, normalization process in CAT, or to the ever increasing cost of MBA. However, implicit reservations may also turn out to be a major reason for such an outcome.

What does it mean to you

I think you should simply not care about what is happening due to implicit or explicit reservations. These parameters are out of your hands and at the end of the day you need only 1 seat in a good college to build a good career. Don't think about the chances missed due to reservation or other's gain due to this. Just concentrate on what you can achieve and think of how you can achieve it. :)

Click here to read the TOI article on reservation.