Bill gives IIMs greater autonomy, higher status

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017, that aims to give more autonomy to B-schools and will allow them to grant degrees. The Bill also declares the 20 institutes as 'institutions of national importance'.

Moving the Bill in the Parliament on Friday, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "By giving more autonomy to IIMs, India has taken a historic step and the world will see it. We must trust our best institutions and give them more freedom to operate. It is difficult to run IIMs from here (New Delhi)."

The minister added that while these institutions will be accountable for their performance, which will be gauged in the Parliament, they will otherwise get complete freedom.

The Board of Governors will be the executive body of each IIM, comprising up to 19 members. It will nominate 17 board members, including eminent persons, faculty members, and alumni. The remaining two members will be nominees from the central and state governments, respectively.

Appointing its own chairperson, the Board will also select the director of each IIM. A search committee will recommend names for the post of the director, who will be eligible for variable pay, to be determined by the board.

While presenting the Bill in the Parliament, Javadekar also addressed certain key issues related to IIMs, like a shortage of faculty, vacant posts of directors in some IIMs and infrastructure for newly established institutions.