Arjun Singh has expressed hope that the IIMs would give admission to OBCs and follow the new reservation policy from the current academic session.

“It is April 18 today. We are hopeful of finding out ways by April 21,” the HRD minister (in picture) said in Ranchi, unaware that the Supreme Court had fixed April 23 for the next hearing on reservation for OBCs.

Addressing a convocation at Ranchi University, Singh said only 7 per cent of students in India can afford higher education. With the percentage much higher in the developed world, he said, there is an urgent need to increase the Indian figure to 15 per cent by 2015.

“We have to ensure that benefits of higher education be reaped by all sections of society,” the minister stressed in his 15-minute address.