New rules for IIM appointments

Appointment of directors and board members of the IIMs will be done through an independent collegium from now on, a move that will make the process broad-based, the government said on Friday.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of IIM directors with HRD minister Kapil Sibal in which they discussed about the vision and autonomy of these prestigious B-schools.

"The collegium will suggest names for appointment of the board members and the directors. The composition of the collegium will be restricted to 13 members," Sibal told reporters after the meeting.

Asserting that there will not be any interference into the autonomy of the IIMs, Sibal said that the directors of the seven IIMs have been asked to prepare a vision document for their respective institutes for next five years.

"The IIM directors will submit their vision document on expansion plans keeping in mind quality and inclusiveness. They will submit their vision document by January next year," he said.

At present, the IIM board members are appointed by the government on the recommendation of the boards. The directors are also appointed in a similar fashion.

Sibal said that the IIM directors have accepted the idea of collegium-based appointment. However, there will be no pan-IIM board as suggested by the R C Bhargava committee which went into the functioning of the IIMs.

The Bhargava committee had suggested setting up a pan-IIM board for greater excellence.

"The IIM directors are opposed to the idea of pan-IIM board. There will be no such body," Sibal said.

The proposed collegium will comprise academicians and members from industry. While each IIM have its own board, the proposed collegium will be a single body to suggest a panel of names for directors and board members of all IIMs.

The government will select one name from the panel, a procedure that would make it clear that government did not interfere in the selection, Sibal said.

"It is a good idea. We will see how it can be implemented," IIM Bangalore director Prof Pankaj Chandra said.

IIM Kozhikode director Prof Debasis Chatterjee said that directors were happy with discussions at the meeting.

"The minister said there will be no interference by the government into the functioning of the IIMs. He said there will be no constraints in our functioning. We are happy about it," he said.

Image: Kapil Sibal