Lok Sabha passes IIM Bill that seeks to give more autonomy

The Lok Sabha on Friday approved the Indian Institutes of Management Bill 2017 that promises to grant administrative, academic and financial autonomy to the elite B-Schools and allow them to award degrees to their graduates.

The lower house passed the bill after a debate in which nearly two dozen parliamentarians participated. The bill is required to be passed by the Rajya Sabha and signed by the President to become law.

Human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar, defending the autonomy of educational institutions, said the government and lawmakers should “trust our institutions.”

 “There is tremendous government interference and control (in these institutions) ,We want to remove that. There would not be any government control.We have to trust the best brains, the best institutions,” Javadekar said.

India has 20 IIMs. The bill, which was approved by the cabinet in January, will grant greater autonomy to these schools and ensure they are “board-driven, with the chairperson and director selected by the board”.

There will be a periodic, independent review of the IIMs, which would be allowed to award degrees once the law is in place. Until now, since they haven’t been governed by an act of Parliament nor overseen by the University Grants Commission (UGC), IIMs have been awarding students post-graduate diplomas.

The bill contains a provision for a “Coordination Forum of IIMs.” But it will have limited power and work as an advisory body, consisting of 33 members, and its chairman will be selected by a search-cum-selection committee. The HRD minister will not head it.