New Delhi: In a major development that will have great impact on the higher education, especially business and management education, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi has today approved the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017, under which the IIM would be declared as Institutions of National Importance. Hence, now IIM Bill 2017 enables these premier business schools to grant degrees to their students.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017 provides complete autonomy to the Institutions, along with adequate accountability. This new rule allows IIMs to grant degrees to their students. The management of these institutions will be Board driven while the Chairperson and Director of an Institution will be selected by the Board.

Once this bill becomes Act, experts and alumni will have a greater participation in the Board.  Another key feature of the bill is that provision has also been made for inclusion of women and members from Scheduled Castes/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.

For financial accountability, the Bill proposed that the Annual Report of the Institutions will be placed in the Parliament and CAG will be auditing their accounts.

For more co-ordination among the premier Business Schools, the bill incorporates a provision of  Coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body.

Currently, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are the country’s premier institutions imparting best quality education in management on globally benchmarked processes of education and training in management. All IIMs are separate autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act.

Being societies, IIMs are not authorized to award degrees and, hence, they 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.

Now the IIM Bill 2017 will be placed before the Parliament for its approval. Once the bill is passed by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha houses, it will be sent to the President for his consent. Once the President signs the Bill, this Bill will become Act.