Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017

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]

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]}

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]

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]

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]

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]