Coming out strongly against the draft IIM bill, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad chairman and its director said it goes against PM Modi’s vision and seeks to reduce IIMs to a “government department”.
Coming out strongly against the draft IIM bill, Indian
Institute of Management-Ahmedabad chairman A M Naik and its director Ashish
Nanda Thursday said it goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision and seeks
to reduce IIMs to a “government department”.
To a question on a provision of the bill, which requires
the director to report to the government about the five highest paid faculty
members and employees of the IIM vis-a-vis their contribution to the institute,
Nanda told The Indian Express, “Basically they are treating us like a
government department…”
They were speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the
governing body to discuss the IIM bill 2015, drafted by the Human Resource
Development Ministry.
“To us, it seems the impact of the bill may be in a
direction opposite to what the government intends to achieve. The government’s
vision is to encourage efficiency, innovation and quality. The centralisation
effected by the bill would be deleterious to all those goals. The preamble of
the bill outlines the government’s vision to empower institutions to attain
standards of global excellence. But we worry the bill does not achieve that
vision; in fact, it goes in the other direction,” Nanda added.
Naik raised fears about IIMA losing its position in the
top 500 global management institutes if the bill becomes an act in the present
form. “With the government holding sweeping powers, the bill will make the
institution only an operational centre, with all the major diktats, directions
and approvals happening from Delhi… There is nothing much left in the institute
to do. It is like operating here, but the control is somewhere else,” Naik
said.
“Our PM has always wished that we have at least 25
world-class institutions and this kind of regulation only takes it in the opposite
direction,”said Naik.
Naik stressed that IIMA was created as an institution to
be managed by the IIMA Society under the Societies Act. “It was started by a
society. It was funded by the society and later on the government came into the
picture. It was the society and not the government that played a key role in
governing this institute,” he said.
Nanda said the IIMA has not been dependent on government
funds since 2002, and that its own revenues crossed Rs 200 crore this year,
making it the first IIM to reach this target.
“The subject of IIMA bill has been in discussion for the
last two-and-a-half years and it has gone through various amendments and
versions. Suddenly a week or 10 days ago, we were taken by surprise to find
that the draft bill, approved earlier by all IIMs and the HRD Ministry, has
been changed completely. Now it is worse than what it was when we started two
years ago,” said Naik after stepping out of the meeting.
Emphasising that IIMA should be given more freedom in
framing its curriculum, fee structure and recruitment, Naik said, “This bill is
going to be detrimental to the interest of management studies in India.”
Stating that, as of now, the draft bill is a “small
matter” to be raised with the PM, Naik said IIMA has taken up the issue with
the HRD Ministry by sending a letter on why the bill should not be implemented
in its present form.
“The government should be a wise overseer and hold us
accountable for performance,” the IIMA director said. Talking about the
proposed creation of a coordination forum as per the draft bill, Nanda said,
“If it is meant as a forum to exchange ideas, it is a good idea, but if it is
meant to centralise power, it is not good.”
Link
for Bill | http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/IIM_Bill_2015_for_%20consultation.pdf
Source
| Indian Express | 26 June 2015
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