As the newly appointed Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Kumar Mangalam Birla, who heads the Aditya Birla Group, sent out a clear message against any move to encroach on the autonomy of the institution.

In his first address to the media as IIM-A Chairman, Birla shared the ideology of his predecessor AM Naik, and said the institution’s autonomy “should not be tampered with”.

The much-debated draft IIM Bill, which created a controversy due to clauses taking away the autonomy of the leading B-schools, had strained relationships between the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and the heads of the IIMs.

However, Birla maintained that he is new to the scene and is yet to see the draft Bill. But, “the autonomy of institutes like IIM-A should not be fettered even to the slightest extent”, he said. “These institutes have their own DNA and have grown up in a certain way where they have been self-regulated. This has been the important reason for their success, hence it should not be tampered with in anyway.”

Fully cashless

On Friday, IIM-A’s Board of Governors met under the new chairman. The institute has decided to go cashless in a month’s time. “Most of the transactions at the institute are cashless, but in a month’s time we plan to go fully cashless,” said Manoj Bhatt, Chief Administrative Officer.

“It was a routine quarterly BoG meeting that we had. The Chairman interacted extensively with the faculty and students on the campus,” said Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM-A.

Birla’s appointment as Chairman of IIM-A came in October. His predecessor Naik, L&T Chairman, had tendered his resignation in December last year, six months before the end of his term.

Cadila Healthcare CMD Pankaj Patel held interim charge as chairman of the BoG till the new appointment was made.

As the new chief of the institution, Birla said, he would look to strengthen the existing academia-industry linkage.

“There is a linkage between industry and institute which has to be made stronger...I would like to contribute by trying to build an ecosystem that marries the two and brings them closer,” he said.

Birla refused to comment on the recent allegations by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi about his group allegedly offering ₹25 crore to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

“I am not aware. I don’t know about it and do not want to talk about it,” he said.

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