Ahmedabad: The crucial meeting of board of directors of Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) began here today (June 19, 2004) in the presence of its Chairman and Infosys Chief Narayanan Murthy to discuss the fee structure.

Several members of the 25-member board, including HRD representative Sudip Banerji and State Government representative P Paneervel are attending the meeting even as Reliance Industries' Anil Ambani and Hindustan Lever Ltd's M S Banga were absent.

The Board is expected to discuss and approve the proposal suggested by the six IIM directors during their previous meeting in Ahmedabad.

The former Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Murli Manohar Joshi had proposed the fee-cut of the IIMs to Rs 30,000 from Rs 1.50 lakh, sparking off a controversy.

Directors of all six IIMs had met in the city last week and had arrived upon a "consensus" and prepared a proposal on the fee structure and had conveyed it to Union HRD Minister of the UPA (United progressive Alliance) Government, Arjun Singh.

The HRD Minister had after detailed meetings with all six directors, almost immediately after taking charge, had asked the IIMs to emerge with a solution to the vexed issues.

The IIMs had said that the focus would be on promoting need-based scholarships (NBS) and ensuring that maximum students, especially those from lower strata of the society, benefit from it.