IIM-A board shortlists three candidates for chairman's post

Names will be sent to the Ministry of Human Resource Development soon

After former Union minister of human resource development Smriti Irani rejected a shortlist earlier this year, the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, or IIM-A, on Friday shortlisted three new names for the chairman's post.  

The names will be sent soon to the ministry of human resource development (MHRD), IIM-A director Ashish Nanda said.

"The search committee presented the three names to the board, which were approved this morning. All I can say is that they are very good names.  The shortlist either has been sent or will be sent soon to the MHRD," Nanda told mediapersons.  

Currently, IIM-A BoG is headed by Cadila Healthcare Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Pankaj Patel as the interim chairman. The post at the helm of IIM-A's BoG has been in want of a full-time chairman ever since L&T chairman A M Naik stepped down in January this year.  

Earlier in May, Irani had rejected a shortlist of three names including R Seshasayee, chairman of board of directors at Infosys; Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC; and Pawan Munjal, CMD, Hero MotoCorp; forcing IIM-A to reinstitute a new search committee.  

While refusing to divulge further details, one of the board members of IIM-A's BoG ruled out the possibility of interim chairman Pankaj Patel's name in the shortlist. Meanwhile, TCS on Friday announced supporting IIM-A's library with a funding of Rs 20 crore.  According to Nanda, the idea is to make the library future ready for students with emphasis o digital collections even as print collections continue to retain their importance to the library. Open and flexible spaces will be provided to create an environment of collaboration among students, academics and visitors.  

"IIM-A was recently ranked 16th worldwide in FT rankings for our two-year post graduate programme. If we need to move to the top 10-15 spot then we need to compare our infrastructure with these top 10 global institutions. We are happy that IIM-A has reached at this level with the limited infrastructure that we have. Now we are bringing our library on par with some of the best management schools worldwide," said Nanda.

On the other hand, clarifying on the reservation in faculty posts, Nanda told mediapersons that while the MHRD had not enforced any quota on IIMs in faculty recruitment, the ministry had requested the premier B-schools to aim for inclusiveness in the same.  "The MHRD has simply asked the IIMs to make efforts to include weaker sections and the IIMs have assured that we are also trying the same.  However, there was no such enforcement by MHRD on IIMs," Nanda stated.