The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the IIM Bill 2017, which would declare the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as Institutions of National Importance and allow them to award degrees to their students.

According to a Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) notification, the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the long-awaited Bill, paving the way for it to be presented in Parliament during the Budget session. 

At present, IIMs are separate autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act, and are not authorized to award degrees. They have been awarding postgraduate diplomas and fellow programmes in management. While these awards are treated as equivalent to MBAs and PhDs, respectively, the equivalence is not universally acceptable, especially for the fellow programme.

The IIMs’ autonomy had been a widely debated issue, especially during the former human resource development minister Smriti Irani’s stint, when the B-schools had raised concerns over certain clauses in the draft Bill.  However, later, the draft Bill had undergone several revisions, with the MHRD inviting IIM directors and chairpersons for a dialogue, following which a revised draft had been worked upon.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had earlier asserted the government's desire to grant greater autonomy to IIMs through the Bill. Welcoming the move, Ashish Nanda, director of IIM-Ahmedabad, said, “Although we have not yet seen a copy of the IIM Bill approved by the Cabinet, Press Information Bureau release of  January 24 and newspaper reports, as well as earlier assurances from the minister suggest the Bill approved by the Cabinet adequately addresses IIMs’ concern about maintaining autonomy while ensuring accountability. We look forward to studying the Bill in detail, when it is available.”

The current draft provides for a Board of Governors’ driven management of IIMs wherein the chairperson and director can be selected by the board itself.