Centre planning new quota from upcoming academic session

New Delhi: With Parliament giving its assent to reservation in jobs and education for the poor, the government intends to implement the new quota for students from the upcoming academic session and has started discussions to firm up the plan, which is likely to be announced next week, people familiar with the matter said.

Three key issues surfaced at the first round of discussions held by the HRD ministry on the 10% quota for the economically weaker sections on Thursday. The Department of Personnel and Training and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment are also being consulted. The three major issues pertained to the time frame for quota implementation, whether an intake expansion should be effected right away or be staggered and the financial implications of such a move.

On the time frame, while it was agreed the new quota should be effected from the upcoming academic session, a key question was whether it could be done across all institutes since many of them had already started the admission process. The JEEMain for engineering colleges including the Indian Institutes of Technology has just concluded, while the Common Admission Test for the Indian Institutes of Management was conducted in December 2018. Officials discussed whether the new quota system could be applied retrospectively to admissions in these institutes for the 2019-20 academic session.


The other concern was the logistical aspects of making more seats available for students, with the 2019-20 academic session just months away from starting. About one million seats may have to be added across higher education institutes to accommodate the 10% quota without impacting the existing reservation regime.