JOIN USIIMs to enjoy more autonomy than others
The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) would enjoy greater autonomy than any other professional institute in the country if a revised bill gets the approval of the Cabinet and Parliament.
The bill also seeks to give degree-granting powers to the elite business schools.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has agreed to give up its role in the appointment of the chairman of the IIMs and vest this power in the premier business schools’ board of governors.
Also dropped was a provision that required IIMs to get the approval of the ministry in matters relating to fee structure and expansion of the institutes, sources told DH.
“All contentious issues have been resolved in consultation with the IIMs and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The modified bill has now been sent to the Union Cabinet for its approval. After Cabinet’s clearance, the bill will be introduced in Parliament for its passage, most probably in the next session,” they added.
If the revised bill is approved by the Cabinet and Parliament, IIMs would be the only group of institutes whose board of governors will have powers to appoint their chairpersons.
Selection of candidates for the post of chairman of the Indian Institutes of Technology and other higher educational institutions, including IIMs, is currently approved by the HRD Ministry. In an unprecedented move, the ministry rejected the panel of names forwarded to it by IIM-Ahmedabad for appointment of its chairman a few months ago. Smriti Irani was then heading the ministry.
Fee structure
The ministry brought in changes in the bill to shed its power of appointing IIMs’ chairpersons and its role in decisions on matters of fee structure following the advice of the PMO last month, putting to rest its over a year-long standoff with the IIMs, particularly with the older ones.
The revised bill, which has not been placed in the public domain yet, was recently sent to the Union Cabinet for approval.
The draft bill, which was first brought during the erstwhile UPA regime and later reworked after the NDA came to power in 2014, was stuck so far as the IIMs, led by the IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Bangalore, opposed it.
They held that the bill would take away their autonomy in practice if it was passed in its original form.
The ministry gave in to the demands of the IIMs on PMO’s insistence and reworked the bill to bring all the institutes on board after Prakash Javadekar took charge last month.
The draft original bill also stipulated the creation of a Coordination Forum of the IIMs headed by the HRD Minister to discuss issues and policies of common interest and take decisions.
The PMO, according to sources, had suggested to the HRD Ministry to examine if the provision for placing the HRD Minister as the chairman of the coordination forum could also be dropped.
The ministry, however, did not accept this suggestion and retained the provision in the revised bill.