The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the IIM Bill, 2017, granting complete autonomy to prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
The bill enables the IIMs to grant degrees and PhDs to their students instead of Post Graduate Diplomas and Fellow Programmes in Management.
The IIMs will also be declared as Institutions of National Importance said the bill, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.
Following the approval by the Cabinet, this much awaited legislation is expected to be introduced in Parliament in the upcoming Budget session.
Being societies, the IIMs are presently not authorised to award degrees and have been awarding Post Graduate Diploma and Fellow Programme in Management.
While these awards are treated as equivalent to MBAs and PhD, respectively, the equivalence is not universally acceptable, especially for the Fellow Programme.
In an official statement, the government said that the management of these Institutions would be Board driven, with the Chairperson and Director of an Institution which will be selected by the Board of Governors (BoGs).
The Bill provides for complete autonomy to the institutions, combined with adequate accountability, it said.
The Bill proposes a structure where the management of these Institutions would be Board driven, with the Chairperson and Director of an Institution selected by the Board.
A greater participation of experts and alumni in the Board is among other important features of the Bill, the statement said.
"The IIM Bill focuses on complete autonomy, effective administration, more alumni participation and many other areas," Prime Minister Modi tweeted shortly after the decision of the Cabinet was announced.
HRD minister Prakash Javadekar also tweeted that the decision is a "historic one" which gives the IIMs real autonomy and power to grant degrees.
"We trust excellence and quality. This reflects vision of Modi Govt for higher education," Javadekar tweeted.
This reflects the vision of the Narendra Modi government for higher education, the minister added.
The Bill also has a provision for inclusion of women and members from Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the Board.
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.
The annual report of the Institutions will be placed in the Parliament and CAG will be auditing their accounts, the statement said. The Bill also proposes a Coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body.
Initially, the HRD Ministry had considered including a clause as per which the President would be the Visitor to these institutions, but it was dropped and was not a part of the draft which was presented before the Cabinet today, it is learnt.
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