NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Management Bill, 2017 aimed at giving greater autonomy to the premier management institutes in the country, was passed by the Rajya Sabha unanimously today.
India has 20 IIMs. The bill, which was approved by the Union cabinet in January and cleared by the Lok Sabha in July, also aims to ensure that IIMs are "board-driven, with the chairperson and director selected by the board".
This effectively means that neither the human resources development ministry nor the President will have any direct role in the appointment of top executives at these B-schools. The government will also have no say in fixing tuition fee at these institutes.
There will, however, be a periodic, independent reviews of the IIMs which would be allowed to award degrees, instead of just diplomas, once the law is notified. Until now, since they are not governed by the University Grants Commission, nor enacted by am act of the Parliament, IIMs have only been allowing postgraduate diplomas.
The bill also contains a provision for a "co-ordination 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 body will not be headed by the Union HRD minister.