New Bill recognises IIMs as Institutes of National Importance

 

After a lot of discussion and debate, the Indian Institute of Management has received the nod from the Central government (Cabinet) to come under the umbrella of Institutes of National Importance. Now Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Indian Institute of Management Bill, 2017.

 

An Institute of National Importance, in India is defined as one which serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled personnel within the specified region of the country/state. These institutes are usually supported by the Government of India or even any other international institutes to develop centres of excellence in research, academics, and other such elite schools of education. The admission to these institutes is through examinations like the IIT-JEE/JMET/AIEEE/NIMCET etc.

With this Bill in motion, it means the IIMs can:

 

1. Grant degrees to their students

 2. Have complete autonomy of their decisions on applications, along with adequate accountability 

3. Select their own management. The management of these Institutions would be Board driven, with the Chairperson and Director of an Institution being selected by the Board.

 

4.  Involve the participation of experts and alumni in the Board is amongst other important features

 

5. Include women and members from Scheduled Castes/Tribes in the Board. 

    
6.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.

    
7.The Annual Report of the Institutions will be placed in the Parliament and CAG will be auditing their accounts.

  
8.There is also a provision of Coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body.

 

Indian Institutes of Management have been recognised as world-class management Institutions and Centers of Excellence and have brought laurels to the country. All IIMs are separate autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act. 

 

Being societies, IIMs are not authorised to award degrees and, hence, they have been awarding Post Graduate Diploma and Fellow Programme in Management. While these awards are treated as equivalent to MBAs and Ph.D, respectively, the equivalence is not universally acceptable, especially for the Fellow Programme.