IIM bill:Govt to take decision after considering all opinions

Facing open criticism over the draft IIM bill, Government today said it has received opinions and suggestions from the stakeholders about the bill and will take a "decision" after taking them into consideration.
"After consideration of all the opinions and suggestions, a decision will be taken by the Central Government," HRD Minister Smriti Irani told Lok Sabha today in a written reply without elaborating further.
Lok Sabha Members such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Kamal Nath, M K Raghavan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, V Panneerselvam, P K Sreemathi Teacher and M K Raghavan had sought to know if the government proposes to bring forward the bill and whether the key provisions have been objected by the IIM directors and the suggestions received among others.

In its reply, the Minister said the bill "intends to ensure greater synergy and financial autonomy along with commensurate accountability in academic and financial matters of the IIMs".
Heads of these institutes have contended that the bill will compromise with the "autonomy" of the IIMs.
"We are deeply concerned that some provisions of the bill would seriously compromise the autonomy of the institute. We believe that this is an important bill for the future of management education and therefore requires critical review to ensure an optimal balance between autonomy and accountability of the institution," IIM-Ahmadabad chairperson A M Naik had said in a letter to Irani last month.

"If the bill turns out to be that a lot of decisions by the boards are subject to government approval, and the government has uniform norms, then that may or may not be best thing for certain IIMs," said IIM Bangalore Director Sushil Vachani.

An IIM faculty member who was involved in drafting the bill, which was said to have undergone changes later, had expressed surprise seeing the final draft, saying some of the provisions were incorporated later without consultations.
According to IIM-A Director Ashish Nanda, the government, through the bill, has proposed some kind of control in almost every decision that the institutes take.

"The draft bill proposes control of government in almost every matter such as selection of Chairman of board of Governors, fee structure, expenses, etc. They have covered almost everything from strategic to operational decisions," said Nanda.