Finally, IIMs can award degrees

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the much-awaited Indian Institute of Management Bill, 2017 thereby declaring the top management institutions — Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) – as Institutions of National Importance.

Following the passage of the Bill, these institutes will now be able to grant degrees to students, as against post-graduate diplomas that are awarded currently.

As per the provisions of the Bill, the Board of Governors will be the executive body of each IIM comprising 19 members; 17 of them will be nominated members from a pool of eminent persons, faculty members and alumni, while the rest two other members will be government nominees from the Union and State governments.

The Board will have the powers to appoint its own chairperson and the director of the institution. A search committee will recommend the names for the post of Director, who will be eligible for variable pay, to be determined by the board.

Till now the appointments happened through Appointments Cabinet Committee (ACC) chaired by the Prime Minister. IIMs were accorded separate autonomous status being registered under the Societies Act, but were not authorised to award degrees. The PG Diplomas awarded by these institutions were considered equivalent to MBAs awarded by the universities.

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

“I am delighted that the Lok Sabha has passed the IIM Bill. I hope Rajya Sabha also passes it expeditiously and the President gives his assent very soon. Once it becomes an Act, the IIM Bill will provide an opportunity to the premier national management schools to compete effectively with the world’s best. Once the Act comes into force, IIM leaders must respond to the trust reposed in them by the public and the government, and strive to excel even harder than before,” said Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM-A.

Earlier the autonomy to these institutions had been widely debated during the tenure of the former HRD Minister Smriti Irani.

The B-schools had raised concerns over certain clauses in the draft Bill. After serious objections raised by the experts, the draft Bill underwent multiple revisions with inputs from Directors and Chairpersons of the institutes. After Lok Sabha, the Bill now moves to the Rajya Sabha for a vote before being promulgated as an Act by the President of India.

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