Indian Institutes of Management, the top management institutes in the country, have been allowed to go global.
The IIMs will now have the freedom to open new centres in and outside India. The decision was taken at a meeting of IIM directors on Wednesday where several steps to improve the autonomy of these institutes were also approved.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal. This paper had first reported on October 11 that the crucial meeting was likely to take a decision on opening of international campuses by the IIMs apart from taking steps on providing more autonomy for them. Other decisions taken at the meeting include providing power to the boards of IIMs to create posts within the approved norms, amend rules of the IIM within the framework of Memorandum of Association and Rules, powers to approve their own Budget, to manage the funds generated by the IIMs and power to acquire and dispose property not fully or partially funded by the ministry of HRD.
In a statement HRD minister Kapil Sibal said that autonomy should go hand in hand with accountability. "The faculty, the director and the board should take steps to prepare annual action plans and key performance indicators at each level and be fully accountable and transparent," Mr Sibal added. In other decisions, as per the recommendation of committee, chaired by R.C. Bhargav chairman BOG- IIM Ranchi, it was decided that the number of Board Members of IIMs would be reduced to 14.