With differences of opinion still persisting among members of the selection committee over the choice of the successor and Dr Barua’s term completing on November 7, he has to be given an extension to keep things going. When contacted, the official spokesperson of the institute neither confirmed nor denied the recent development.
Dr Samir Kumar Barua has been working as a faculty member with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad for the last 32 years, last five years in the capacity of its director.
L&T’s chief A M Naik, who is the chairman of IIM-A board of governors, has reportedly asked Dr Barua to continue for another three months. The board will consider the choice of the search committee on December 28 before forwarding it to the Union HRD ministry. However, given the current situation, it is not clear whether the search committee will be able to finalise a panel before its next board meeting.
The advertisement for the position of IIMA director was published in national and international media in the month of July-August this year.
Eleven candidates have been shortlisted for the post of the director of the coveted institute. The search committee, comprising AM Naik, chairman and managing director, L&T, Hasit Joshipura of GSK Pharma, Sanjay Lalbhai, CMD of Arvind Group, Rama Bijapurkar and Ashank Desai of Mastek, was to pick up three names out of the 11 candidates already shortlisted. The HRD ministry will take the final call once the three names reach it.
According to sources privy to the latest developments, members of the search committee are vertically divided over whether the new director will be an internal candidate or not. While some members are keen on one of around 10 IIM professors lobbying hard for the post, others prefer an outsider, preferably from an overseas institution.
According to a section of the media, Prof Srikant Datar, IIM-A alumnus and Harvard Business School professor, is in the fray since the current need for IIM-A is to stand up to global challenges. However, his name may not figure in the final panel as other institutes have also made offers to Prof Datar.
The HRD ministry so far hasn’t directly intervened into the matter. The ministry officials want the IIM-A board to come up with a name. However, intense lobbying on part of the prospective candidates at the government level is likely to yield little results with the recent overhauling in the HRD ministry.
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