By Sanjiv Dube
NEW DELHI : On January 24 the Union Cabinet chaired
by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Indian
Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017, that seeks to
declare IIMs as Institutions of National Importance,
granting them the authority to award degrees instead of
diplomas.
Briefing reporters the following day Union Human
Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar boasted
of having given "complete autonomy" to the IIMs in the
proposed bill and even went to the extent of saying that
more ace institutions would get autonomy if they do well
in future.
The minister however failed to answer a pointed question
as to when the IIM Bill would be tabled and passed in
Parliament. He said he "hoped that the proposed
legislation will come up in the upcoming Budget Session
of Parliament and would be passed soon. “If the House
decides they can straight away discuss, or if it comes
to a Standing Committee, I am still sure it will be
passed soon,” he said.
There are already a number of MHRD bills pending in
Parliament and this one may also meet the same fate, say
experts in parliamentary affairs here.
The bills seeks to give IIMs freedom to be governed by
their board of governors with the President having no
direct role. In other institutions like the IITs and
Central universities, the President is the Visitor who
appoints directors, vice-chancellors and chairpersons on
the recommendation of the ministry.
Similarly the HRD minister will also have no
role in the affairs of the IIMs. At present, the
ministry appoints the IIM board chairperson and
director. Once the bill is passed, the situation in the
IIMs will be different from that of the IITs whose
council is headed by the minister. In the case of
Central universities, the minister summons meetings of
the vice-chancellors.
Each IIM's board of governors will have a chairperson,
director, four eminent persons from industry, social
service and academia, five representatives from alumni
and the IIM Society, two representatives of faculty and
one representative each from the Centre and the state
government where it is located.
Among the total 15 members, there should be at least
three women, including one SC/ST. The chairperson of the
board can invite any expert to attend its meetings. But
the experts will not have voting rights.
The IIMs presently award postgraduate diplomas in
business administration (PGDBA) which is technically
equivalent to a Master of Business Administration (MBA)
degree. However there have been many instances abroad
were the PGDBA holders were denied higher education
because all foreign universities award and recognise MBA
degrees only. Once the bill is passed the IIMs will be
able to award MBA degrees instead of the PGDBA.
The minister was not present when the cabinet approved
the bill on January 24 because he was in Pune for his son's wedding.
The bill is understood to be silent on implementing
reservations in faculty recruitment. The IIMs had
earlier cited a 1975 government order giving them
exemption. But in 2013, the HRD ministry requested the
IIMs to implement the quota, which they are yet to do.
The following are the salient features of the Bill:
i. IIMs can grant degrees to their students
ii. The Bill provides for complete autonomy to the
Institutions, combined with adequate accountability.
iii. Management of these Institutions would be Board
driven, with the Chairperson and Director of an
Institution which will be selected by the Board.
iv. A greater participation of experts and alumni in the
Board is amongst other important features of the Bill.
v. Provision has also been made for inclusion of women
and members from Scheduled Castes/Tribes in the Board.
vi. The Bill also provides for periodic review of the
performance of Institutions by independent agencies, and
placing the results of the same on public domain.
vii. The Annual Report of the Institutions will be
placed in the Parliament and CAG will be auditing their
accounts.
viii. There is also a provision of Coordination Forum of
IIMs as an advisory body.
IIMs told to double their
students' intake capacity
By Our News Desk
NEW DELHI : In an ambitious decision taken under the
headship of Human Resource Development Minister Prakash
Javadekar on September 20 the Indian Institutes of
Management have been told to double their intake
capacity so that the combined intake of all the IIMs
could expand from 10,000 to 20,000.
Speaking to reporters at IIM, Shillong -- the venue of
the crucial meeting -- a beaming minister said : "We had
a very good, successful and productive meeting of all
IIMs directors and chairmen. We met after two years and
will now be meeting frequently to discuss specific
issues."
"More students will now get the opportunity to study
in the best institutes. The IIM directors will submit
their action plans on the expansion of student intake
capacity," he added.
The
parliamentary standing committee on MHRD had, in its
274th report had recommended expansion of seats at the IIMs
and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), besides a periodical
expansion of faculty. The Shillong decision is a sequel
to that, the minister said.
The minister also announced expansion of doctoral (PhD)
programme to address the shortage of faculty in IIMs.
"We discussed expansion of PhD programme by offering
more fellowships to students of IIMs. To students in
IITs, we have decided to give Prime Minister's Research
Fellowship. We will also take the government's approval
to give PM scholarship to the best of PhD scholars in
IIMs but the final decision will be taken by the
cabinet."
The meeting also discussed the need for IIMs to
participate in the government's new initiative to
develop 20 world class universities/institutes. "We want
to create 10 (world class institutes) from the
government sector and 10 from the private sector. The
IIMs should prepare themselves because world class
institutes will be decided by a challenge mode," the HRD
minister said.
The IIMs will also participate in the implementation of
Swayam, a massive platform for open online courses
proposed to be launched soon by the government,
Javadekar said. The IIMs will be required to create the
content for Swayam which will offer 2,000 courses from
Class IX to the post-graduate level.
"The courses will be offered to students free of cost,
online and through TV channels. They will comprise
lecture materials, mid-exam, final exams and
certificates," the minister said.
Replying to a question on reservation for scheduled
tribe teachers in IIMs, he said reservation already
exists. "I do not know who started all this. It's
already in the Constitution and no one can bypass the
Constitution," he said.
Earlier in the morning the Minister interacted with the
students of IIMs. Remembering the great teacher Late
A.P.J Abdul Kalam, the minister said that there is a
need to inculcate the willingness for adopting teaching
profession among students as the country requires 10
million good teachers to improve the quality of
education from primary to higher education; and from
higher education to research and innovation.
While
reiterating the fact that India is the youngest nation
with the youngest population, he said that unless there
are good passionate teachers to educate these young
minds they would not turn into be dividends. He ended
his interaction with an appeal to the students to ponder
upon the need for research and innovation for developing
good quality education.