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| Edited By: dna Correspondent |Source: DNA |Updated: Jun 04, 2011, 11:07 AM IST
If indications from the HRD minister Kapil Sibal, during his recent visit to Gujarat are anything to go by, then the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) has come one step closer to becoming fully autonomous.
But the question that arises is- will it able to appoint its director, recruit foreign faculty, decide salary of faculties or even sell a chunk of land of the institute on its own in near future?
If things are to be believed, IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Indore and Kozhikode will be among the first four institutes (of the nine IIMs) to have amended their Memoranda of Association that would enable them to become fully autonomous.
During Sibal’s visit to Gujarat, he had told DNA that the HRD will not interfere in the decision making and the IIMs will soon be announced a fully autonomous body. “We will soon hold a press conference in Delhi,” Sibal had said.
It has been a long wait for the IIMs in getting the status of autonomous bodies. It was during the tenure of former director, IIMA, Bakul Dholakia that the issue of declaring IIMs as an autonomy body had cropped up.
Faculties at the IIMA, however, said they have not received any intimation from the centre. Once declared autonomous, according to the new amendment, the IIMs will have the power to take decisions related to the institute on their own. Currently, IIMs are dependent on the HRD ministry for the smallest of decisions concerning the institute.
Being tagged as autonomous will ease the process of bringing down the number of board members to 14 and the board of governors will be changed to make adequate representations from the government, faculty and alumni.
Other powers given to the IIMs will include appointment of director, for which the institute will have to submit three names and the government will chose one . Currently, this procedure is done by publishing advertisements for the post of director. Also, the faculties will have to work for 160 hours and annual targets will also be set.
