‘Government should create more opportunities for students in the country by opening at least one IIM in each state,” its report said last week. The committee has also suggested that the number of seats in the existing IIMs be increased.
Responding to the committee's recommendations, the government, in its Action Taken Report, said that it has been advising the IIMs to increase their students’ intake. The government has also recently announced the setting up of the seventh IIM in Shillong.
Among the other recommendations that the committee had to offer was the proposal that the government chalk out a plan, in consultation with IIMs, to ensure that over a period of time the IIMs become self-supporting and not depend on government funds. It noted that, at present, IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata were generating their own resources while the government was providing financial assistance to IIMs in Indore, Lucknow and Kozhikode.
In its Action Taken Report, the government has said that as a measure to provide greater autonomy in the functioning of the centrally funded higher educational institutions of importance, the HRD ministry had decided to introduce a scheme of block grant (non-plan) for a period of five years from 2005-06 for the IIMs. On the issue of the shortage of faculty in IIMs, the committee recommended that the government and IIMs ensure that all the faculty positions were filled up at the earliest.
The recommendation to set up an IIM in each state raises many questions. Can the current management education infrastructure -- particularly the area of qualified faculty -- be scaled up to accommodate more IIMs? Will Brand IIM retain its appeal when so many new ‘extensions’ come into the market? How will the decision impact global-branding initiatives – such as the one being tried out at IIM Ahmedabad which is trying to position itself as a key global school?
MBAUniverse.com will continue to bring you more details on this development, and also present more views on this issue.
