Hi Gnanagurubaran, Thanks for your comment. You are right in that it might not make sense for the IIMs to give a cheaper BMS/ BS degree lest they cannibalise their own MBA. But the article was looking at whether it makes sense for any student to opt for these undergraduate degrees in the first place. Moreover, the MBAs have a prestige aspect of their own and are seen by some as finishing schools. In that a student that clears CAT and goes to a top IIM is considered good enough for companies who trust the IIMs to give the finishing touch. It is unclear whether a BMS degree, even from an IIM, will be given the same preference. Especially considering that, even with the fourth year, the undergraduate degree generally deals more with the fundamentals. Regarding your question about fund cuts. This has been happening in all higher educational institutions for a while and is not restricted to the IIMs. If you haven't already, I would urge you to read this article I wrote in the past: https://the-ken.com/story/universities-go-the-american-way-as-india-slowly-turns-off-the-funding-tap/ Thanks.

Atul Krishna The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Manoj, the reason for the drop in enrolment is given in the section "Students give it a miss… or did the schools go missing?", where it is pointed out that the government has dropped a list of schools from its portal due to them being unrecognised or not following the data collection method prescribed by the government. The section explains that this essentially puts a large number of students outside the government's tracking system and hence out of the enrolment data.

Atul Krishna The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Siddharth, I feel like there was enough data in the copy to brief the reader on what is happening to learning levels across the country. The data on learning levels used in the story is from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) which is a national survey conducted by the non-profit Pratham since 2005. While it is true that there are other institutions such as Educational Initiatives that work on learning levels, Pratham has been doing the national survey at a large scale from 2005 and hence they provide a more complete picture of what is happening across the country.

Atul Krishna The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Viren, You do make a good point about the decline in the TFR. However, I did not focus on it because this decline is something that will impact enrolments in the future, and not now, due to the 'population momentum'.

Atul Krishna The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Ankit, Thank you for you comment. Various alumni have been donating to their alma mater's endowment for decades, like in the case of IIT Gandhinagar as you mentioned. The story is not about taking stock of all the donations to all the institutions over the years. Rather, it focuses on government institutions that have started Section 8 companies for the purpose of increasing their endowment fund amid dwindling financial support from the government. The institutions mentioned in the story are government institutions that have seen considerable increase in endowments since they set up a company for fundraising. For the same reason, institutions such as Ashoka University, which is a private university, does not have a place in the story as they are not dependent on government funding.

Atul Krishna The Ken, Staff Writer