Lok Sabha passes Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017

The Lok Sabha passed the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017 by voice vote. The Bill declares the IIMs as institutions of national importance.
The bill seeks to empower these institutions to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research and allied areas of knowledge. It also promises to grant administrative, academic and financial autonomy to these B-Schools and allow them to grant degrees.

Key Highlights of Bill

The bill allows IIMs to grant degrees to their students. It also grants them complete autonomy, combined with adequate accountability. It establishes coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body. It empowers board of an IIM to drive the management of the institution. It will select Chairperson and Director of IIM.
The board will have greater participation of experts and alumni. It will also include women and members from Scheduled Castes/Tribes. Besides, it adds provisions for periodic review of the performance of IIM by independent agencies and their results will be placed in public domain. Besides, it also has provision to place the Annual Report of the IIMs in the Parliament and CAG (Comptroller and auditor general of India)  auditing their accounts.

Background

IIMs are the country’s premier institutions imparting best quality education in management and are recognized as world-class management Institutions and Centres of Excellence. India has 20 IIMs now. All IIMs are separate autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act. Earlier they were not authorized to award degrees. These awards were treated as equivalent to MBAs and Ph.D, respectively, but their equivalence was not universally acceptable, especially for the Fellow Programme.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017