Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017

The Indian Institute of Management Act, 2017 (IAST: Bhāratīya Prabaṃdhana Saṃsthāna Adhiniyama, 2017) is an Indian legislation. The Act declared the Indian Institutes of Management as institutions of national importance and enabled them to offer degrees and further make substantial changes in their administration.

The Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017 Bhāratīya Prabaṃdhana Saṃsthāna Adhiniyama, 2017
State Emblem of India
Parliament of India
Long title An Act to declare certain Institutes of management to be institutions of national importance with a view to empower these institutions to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research and allied areas of knowledge and to provide for certain other matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Citation	Act no. 33 of 2017
Territorial extent	Whole of India
Passed by	Lok Sabha
Passed	28 July 2017
Passed by	Rajya Sabha
Passed	19 December 2017
Assented to	31 December 2017 (by President of India, Ramnath Kovind)
Commenced	31 January 2018
Effective	31 January 2018^[1]
Legislative history
First chamber: Lok Sabha
Bill title	The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017
Bill citation	Bill no. 20-C of 2017
Introduced by	Prakash Javadekar (as Minister of Human Resources Development)
Introduced	9 February 2017
Second chamber: Rajya Sabha
Bill title	The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017
Member in Charge	Prakash Javadekar (as Minister of Human Resources Development)
Related legislation
The Delhi University Act, 1922 All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act, 1956 The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007
Summary
The Act provides further autonomy to Indian Institutes of Management by declaring them as institutions of national importance.
Status: In force

Premise

The bill was approved by the Union Cabinet on 24 January 2017.^[2][3][4]

The Act was introduced as a bill in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, on 9 February 2017. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 28 July 2017,^[5] and by the Rajya Sabha on 19 December 2017.^[6][7] After receiving the President's assent, the bill became an Act on 31 December 2017.^[8][9][10]

Provisions

The Act declares Indian Institutes of Management as institutions of national importance and grants them the power to give degrees.^{[7][9][11][12][13]}

Board of governors

The Act provides for the creation of a boards of governors, which would act as the principal executive body for each IIM, and would appoint one director for each IIM, whose pay is ₹225,000 in seventh pay commission but who is entitled to a variable pay.^[11][12][13]

The board of governors would have a maximum of nineteen members including one chairperson of the board; a nominee each from central and state governments; two members of the faculty; four eminent personalities from fields including education and industry, one of whom has to be a woman, and; the director of the institute.^[11][12][13]

Academic council

The Act provides for the creation of an academic council for each IIM, which is the principal academic body under the act and which would decide the: (a) academic content; (b) criteria and processes for admissions to course; and (c) guidelines for conduct of examinations.^[11][12][13]

The academic council would comprise: (a) the director; (b) deans in charge of academics, research, student affairs and other such functions of the institute; (c) chairs and coordinators of various areas, programmes, faculties, centres, departments and schools of the institute; (d) all full-time faculty members at the level of professor and; (e) members, by invitation of the board — on the recommendation of the director — who are eminent in the fields of industry, finance, management, academics and public administration.^[11][12][13]

Coordination forum

The Act provides for the creation of a coordination forum, which would discuss matters pertaining to all IIMs.^[11][12][13]

The coordination forum would comprise: (a) Higher Education Secretary (ex-officio); (b) two secretaries in charge of management education of state governments in which the institutes are located, by rotation, each year (ex-officio); (c) four chairpersons of institutes, to be nominated by the chairperson of the coordination forum, by rotation for two years; (d) the director of each institute (ex-officio); (d) five eminent personalities—of whom one has to be of a woman—in the fields of academia and public service.^[11][12][13]

The bill also proposes to incorporate many other changes like audit of institutes by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.^[11][13]

Aftermath

Even after the commencement of the Act, not all IIMs granted degrees in the first year of its commencement.^[14] IIM Lucknow, IIM Ranchi, IIM Rohtak and IIM Ahmedabad granted postgraduate diplomas,^[14][15] whereas IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, IIM Udaipur, IIM Visakhapatnam granted degrees.^{[14][16][17][18]}

In March 2018, IIMs were told at a meeting with HRD ministry that the Act only empowered them to grant degrees for courses with duration of two years or more.^[19][20] Further, the ministry told the institutes that, for them to confer degrees not mentioned in the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the institutes would have to seek the government's permission.^[21] IIMs were also asked to chalk up their action plan and outline their long term strategy.^[22]

References

1. Gazette notification dated 11 January 2018
2. Nanda, Prashant K. (24 January 2017). "Cabinet approves bill to make IIMs autonomous". Live Mint. New Delhi: HT Media Ltd. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
3. "Cabinet approves IIM Bill 2017". The Indian Express. New Delhi. Express Web Desk. 24 January 2017. OCLC 70274541. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
4. "IIM Bill 2017: Approved by cabinet, students will now get degrees instead of diplomas". India Today. New Delhi. Press Trust of India. 24 January 2017. ISSN 0254-8399. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
5. "Parliament live updates: Lok Sabha passes IIM Bill". The Hindu. The Hindu Net Desk. 28 July 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. OCLC 13119119. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
6. "Rajya Sabha passes IIM Bill granting more autonomy, power to grant degrees". The Economic Times. New Delhi. Press Trust of India. 19 December 2017. OCLC 61311680. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
7. Nanda, Prashant K. (19 December 2017). "IIM Bill approved for more autonomy to Indian Institutes of Management". Live Mint. New Delhi: HT Media Ltd. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
8. Roy, Shobha (1 January 2018). "IIMs initiate talks on common regulations". Business Line. Kolkata: The Hindu. ISSN 0971-7528. OCLC 456162874. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
9. Umarji, Vinay (3 January 2018). "After Prez's nod, IIMs get set to offer degrees under Act". Business Standard. Ahmedabad. OCLC 496280002. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
10. "IIMs can now award degrees instead of diplomas". The Economic Times. New Delhi. Press Trust of India. 1 January 2018. OCLC 61311680. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
11. Javadekar, Prakash (25 January 2017). "IIM Bill, 2017 (Bill 20-C of 2017)" (PDF). Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. New Delhi. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
12. Rao, Nivedita; Suhag, Roopal (30 March 2017). "Legislative brief - The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017" (PDF). PRS Legislative Research. New Delhi. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
13. Rao, Nivedita (28 February 2017). "Bill summary - The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017" (PDF). PRS Legislative Research. New Delhi. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
14. Chopra, Ritika (19 March 2018). "No consensus, IIMs go their separate ways on the degree-diploma debate". The Indian Express. New Delhi. OCLC 70274541. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
15. . The Telegraph. Ranchi. Our Correspondent. 26 March 2018. OCLC 271717941. Archived from the original on 2 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
16. "177 IIM-U grads to be conferred degrees instead of diplomas". The Economic Times. Jaipur. Press Trust of India. 22 March 2018. OCLC 61311680. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
17. "IIM Indore conferred degrees to students at 19th annual convocation". The Times of India. Indore. TNN. 29 March 2018. OCLC 23379369. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
18. Rao, Umamaheswara (30 March 2018). "In a first, IIM-V students awarded MBA degrees instead of diplomas". The Times of India. Visakhapatnam. OCLC 23379369. Retrieved 2 April 2018.IIM Calcutta, IIM Calcutta (21 March 2019). "IIM-Calcutta set to award degrees for the first time". IIM Calcutta. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
19. "IIMs can offer MBA only for 2-year course, B-schools told at HRD Ministry meeting". The Indian Express. New Delhi. Express News Service. 15 March 2018. OCLC 70274541. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
20. "IIMs can offer MBA only for 2-year course". Times Now. New Delhi. Times Now Digital. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
21. Chopra, Ritika (13 March 2018). "HRD Ministry: 'IIM degree should be in accordance with UGC Act'". The Indian Express. New Delhi. OCLC 70274541. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
22. "IIMs asked to outline action plan, help frame rules under new act". Hindustan Times. New Delhi. HT Correspondent. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.