Independent body to choose IIM directors, board members India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Union Government on Friday agreed that board members and directors of Indian Institutes of Managements (IIM) will be appointed by an independent panel of industrialists and academicians. Currently, these appointments are being made by the Human Resource Development Ministry. After meeting with the Directors of IIMs, Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal informed that, henceforth, the government would place ads in papers for these positions and then shortlist respondents. Sibal said several issues related with the IIMs came up during the meeting. IIM faculty has been arguing that independent collegiums would allow for more transparency in the selection of directors and board members. The government has agreed to grant permission to the IIMs to set up campuses abroad. The Ministry has also approved performance-related incentives for IIM faculty. Though there was no discussion on the issue of pay structure, the faculty has taken positive view of the meeting. "It was a very promising start in the first conversation with him (Kapil Sibal). He has promised us no interference. We have had a wonderful conversation as to what we can do together," said Prof Debashis Chatterji of IIM Kozhikode. "There is a lot of positivity and there won't be too many constraints as we were presuming," he added. IIM Bangalore's Prof Chandra said: "It was a very good meeting with the ministers and others. We raised many issues that we had at the back of our minds. We found an interesting way to move forward." The meeting also decided to meet again in January 2010 to discuss how to implement the decisions taken in this meeting.