With
Cabinet nod, IIMs can now award degrees
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the IIM Bill
2017, which would declare the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as
Institutions of National Importance and allow them to award degrees to their
students.
According to a Ministry of Human Resource
Development (MHRD) notification, the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, approved the longawaited Bill, paving the way for it to be
presented in Parliament during the Budget session.
At Present, IIMs are separate autonomous
bodies registered under the Societies Act, and are not authorised to award
degrees. They have been awarding postgraduate diplomas and fellow programmes in
management. While these awards are treated as equivalent to MBAs and PhDs,
respectively, the equivalence is not universally acceptable, especially for the
fellow programme.
The IIMs’ autonomy had been a widely debated
issue, especially during the former human resource development minister Smriti
Irani’s stint, when the B-schools had raised concerns over certain clauses in
the draft Bill. However, later, the draft Bill had undergone several revisions,
with the MHRD inviting IIM directors and chairpersons for a dialogue, following
which a revised draft had been worked upon.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had earlier
asserted the governments desire to grant greater autonomy to IIMs through the
Bill. Welcoming the move, Ashish Nanda, director of IIMAhmedabad, said,
“Although we have not yet seen a copy of the IIM Bill approved by the Cabinet,
Press Information Bureau release of January 24 and newspaper reports, as well
as earlier assurances from the minister suggest the Bill approved by the
Cabinet adequately addresses IIMs’ concern about maintaining autonomy while
ensuring accountability. We look forward to studying the Bill in detail, when
it is available.” The current draft provides for a Board of Governors’ driven
management of IIMs wherein the chairperson and director can be selected by the
board itself.
Source | Business Standard | 25 January 2017
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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