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Will there be reservations in armed forces, asks Murthy

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CIOL Bureau
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With the reservation bogey raising its head again, heads of IT majors and industry bodies in India have gone on record expressing their views on the issue.

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Most of them are unanimous in their view that while the disadvantaged need to be enabled, the solution does not lie in reservation.

CyberMedia News presents some of the prominent views recently reported.

NR Narayana Murthy, chief mentor, Infosys Technologies

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“There is no doubt at all that there has been a social injustice for majority of the country and that has to be set right. We also have reservation for SCs and STs. That again is a fact of life. But I believe expanding it is not the right solution because that raises many questions. Are you going to have reservations in armed forces then? Number two-at level the basic problem in this country is at the primary and secondary school level. We have not been able to enroll sufficient number of students from the disadvantaged segment of the society. We have to make a strong effort so that they are well enabled and become competition-worthy. I think the solution is to spend more money, more effort in making these people market-worthy and competition-worthy and I have no doubt that we can do it as long as we all resolve to do it. So my view is that reservation is not the solution, making them more market-worthy, spending more money, spending more effort, taking it as a national mission is the way to move forward.”

Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro



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"We are an organisation which requires selection on merit".

Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chief Operating Officer, Mindtree Consulting

“In our industry, the only qualification is the ability to write software code. It is something you can do only if you have strong mathematical aptitude and analytical skills. Anyone who has these, can work in the IT industry. Either you have it or you do not. Nothing more, nothing less.”

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Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom

"We feel the best way of doing that is to raise their ability to compete rather than creating some kind of a special thing and saying you are giving something special which, in a sense, separates and makes feel something second class."

R Seshasayee, president, CII

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"Mandatory reservation in any form is not conducive to competiteveness of the industry. It is not acceptable."

Anil K Agarwal, president, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry

"It is unfortunate that the government wants to promote and increase the reservation in the reputed Central Universities, engineering colleges and institutions like the IIMs and IITs at a time when India is fast emerging as a top quality global hub for outsourcing, both in the services and the manufacturing sector."

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Professor P V Indiresan, former director, IIT-Madras

"The proposed 49.5 per cent reservation for students in IITs and IIMs will be a disaster, because reservation at a late stage (in a student's life) is ineffective and inappropriate as these institutions cannot correct years of neglect and irreparable damage that has been done to the student."

President APJ Abdul Kalam

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"I am on a mission to increase the number of seats in higher educational institutions so that these problems are solved".

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science and Technology

"Excellence is not against reservation. You can achieve both things. You can have a reservation policy and still have excellence."

"No policy should be taken which will dilute the levels of excellence in our research and development and educational institutions. When the West is looking at us for excellence, we should do nothing that will work as a dampener".

Ashwini Kumar, Minister of State of Commerce and Industry

"The government is not talking of any enforced action for the industry that would be run down your (India Inc) throats."

A B Bardhan, General Secretary, Communist Party of India

"There is already a quota that comprises both the SCs and STs of 22.5 per cent, which is almost equal to the population ratio of the SCs and STs. Any attempt to raise this quota will be detrimental to the other segments of the population, in particular the OBCs."

Meira Kumar, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment

"No industry, no enterprise ever succeeded in a society which fails."

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