The oldest among 20 IIMs, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta will become IIM Kolkata and Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management, Shillong will no longer carry the name of late Prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi, if the IIM Bill 2017 tabled in Lok Sabha on February 9 has its way.
Established in 1961, IIM Calcutta is the first IIM of India. Despite the change of the city name from Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001, the prestigious India Institute of Management has continued carrying its brand with the old name of the city ‘Calcutta’. However, after 16 years since the change of city name, now the Government of India has proposed to change the name of IIM Calcutta to IIM Kolkata. With the introduction of the IIM Bill 2017 in the Lok Sabha by the Government of India on February 9, 2017, this changes has been proposed to synchronise it with the changed name of the city to avoid any confusion world-wide.
Another change that IIM Bill 2017 proposes is to remove the name of Rajiv Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India from IIM Shillong which started operation in 2008. At present IIM Shillong is known as Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management, Shillong. After passing of the IIM Bill 2017, the IIM will be known as ‘Indian Institute of Management, Shillong’.
However, there is no proposal in the IIM Bill 2017 to change the name of ‘IIM Bangalore’ to ‘IIM Bengaluru’ although the name of the city was also changed in 2014.
2 IIMs with IIM-K now
So far the top 3 IIMs, namely IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta are referred to as IIM-A, B, C; now after the change of the name of IIM Calcutta to IIM Kolkata, the group of top 3 IIMs will be known as IIM – A, B, K.
This may also create confusion as IIM Kozhikode is already known as IIM-K. Now either of the 2 IIMs may have to suffix more letters to bring distinction between their short names.
IIM Bill 2017: Highlights
According to IIM Bill 2017, students of all the 20 IIMs would be awarded MBA degree instead of Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM). Union Cabinet in its meeting has approved the long awaited IIM Bill on Tuesday January 24, 2017. The bill was tabled in Lock Sabha on February 9, 2017 and is under discussion.
For the last few years, IIM Bill was under consideration and lot of debate & discussion on it in the IIM circles and at the MHRD level had been going on over the various provisions of the bill. With the approval by Cabinet and after the IIM Bill 2017 was tabled in Lock Sabha, now the long cherished dream of IIM passing out students to get MBA from their IIM would come true in the year 2017-18 as IIMs would be vested with the statutory powers to award MBA degrees now.
Key highlights
Full autonomy is proposed to be given to IIMs in regard to their administration, recruitment and daily functioning. The Union Cabinet meeting that approved the IIM Bill has outlined various major provisions. Few highlights of the IIM Bill 2017 are –
-- The Bill proposes to grant “complete autonomy” to the IIMs making it possible for them to award MBA degrees instead of PG diplomas as they are doing now. The MBA degree from IIMs will be globally acceptable without any need of getting supported with a parallel certificate.
-- The bill provides and grants powers to the IIM Board of Governors to get an inquiry conducted by the person not below the rank of a High Court judge against a Director in case it is felt that an institute has not performed as per the provisions of the proposed Act and can also remove the Director of the IIM on the basis of the enquiry report.
-- The Boards of Governors of IIMs would be empowered to evaluate the performance of the IIMs periodically, after every few years.
-- The autonomy of IIMs is proposed to be combined with accountability.
-- The bill provides that IIMs are board-driven, and the chairperson and director are selected by the board. Accordingly as per the provisions of the IIM Bill the MHRD or the President would have apparent role in selecting the top executives of IIMs like directors of Chairman BoG.
The changes have taken into account most of the demands raised by top IIMs. Now the IIM Bill 2017 is proposed to be passed by the Parliament in the current budget session to turn it into the Act.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on IIM Bill 2017
