MUMBAI: Indian Institutes of Management have decided to continue with the existing admission system of conducting group discussions and personal interviews independently, at least for this year.

With the new IIMs starting operations this academic season, the Union human resource development ministry had asked the management schools to draw up a common admission process so that students are saved the trouble of travelling to various campuses.

However, some of the IIMs have already started putting in place arrangements to conduct their admissions independently. Chairman (admissions) at one of the IIMs said there were two issues that were coming in the way of a unified admission process: IIMs having varied admission criteria and the lack of time to design a common admission process.

"The glitches that took place because of the CAT have left us with no time to conduct common group discussions and personal interviews this year," said another head of admissions.

Sources in the HRD ministry said that four of the IIMs in Trichy, Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand are likely to start operations this year. Directors of all the IIMs are scheduled to meet union HRD minister Kapil Sibal later this week and inform him that some of the older IIMs will conduct the admission process for the new institutes.

This decision will mean that a large number of students will have to hop from one campus to another corner in the country. The small percentage of the brightest who will get a call from all the IIMs are expected to go to some of the older B-schools.

"But a lot of issues will come into play for the large majority who will get calls from the younger IIMs like Kozhikode, Indore, Lucknow and Shillong and the absolutely new ones," explained an IIM-A faculty member.  

The candidates who could not take the CAT-2009 exam due to technical glitches at the test labs in the first phase can now sit for the examination in the second phase scheduled for January 30 and 31, the convenor of CAT-2009 said here on January 1.

Go forth and multiply, Kapil Sibal tells IIMs 

From Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI : Taking a diagonally opposite view from his predecessor, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal promised more autonomy and freedom to the Indian Institutes of Management and gave them a clear green signal to open centres abroad.

Chairing the first meeting of the IIM Council here on October 16, Sibal said that the appointment of directors and the members of the board of governors of the IIMs would be done through an independent 13-member collegium.

The proposed collegium will be a single body to suggest a panel of names for directors and board members of the IIMs. The government will select one name from the panel, a procedure that will make it clear that government does not interfere in the selection, Sibal said.

He told reporters after a two-hour meeting that the institutions would submit a proposal to him on how the collegium should be formed and how the offshore campuses could be worked out.

"The collegium will suggest names for appointment of the board members and the directors. The composition of the collegium will be restricted to 13 members," Mr Sibal said. Presently, the IIM board members and directors are appointed by the government on the recommendation of the boards.

The R.C. Bhargava committee, set up last year to recommend improvements in the IIMs' functioning, had suggested that a single council be formed comprising faculty from all IIMs to choose the directors and board members. The suggestion, opposed by the IIMs, has been rejected and the collegium decided upon in its place.

Deviating 180 degrees from his predecessor Arjun Singh, Mr Sibal not only allowed the IIMs to go ahead and proliferate but even defended the policy shift by saying that the IIMs should be “a global brand”. He also said that though their prime responsibility was national, they could become an international brand. “Both can go hand in hand,’’ he said.

The HRD minister said the while it was for the IIMs to take the final decision on how they want to set up campuses abroad, he suggested that they should come together to do it. It may be recalled that Mr Arjun Singh had created a big noise when IIM-Bangalore wanted to set up a campus in Singapore.

Asserting that there would not be any interference with the autonomy of the IIMs, Sibal said the directors of the seven IIMs have been asked to prepare a vision document for affirmative action so as to increase the representation of women on the campus.

The ministry also approved an IIM proposal to allow the institutes to start student hostels through public-private partnerships.

“The IIM directors will submit their vision document on expansion plans keeping in mind quality and inclusiveness.

They will submit their vision document next year,” he said. When asked to comment on the decisions, IIM Bangalore director Pankaj Chandra said : “It is a good idea. We will see how it can be implemented.”.

IIM Kozhikode director Debasis Chatterjee said the directors were happy with the discussions at the meeting. “The minister said there will be no interference from government in the functioning of the IIMs. We are happy,” he said. There was no discussion on salary issue.

The minister said the IIM faculty was happy with the government pay structure. His Ministry would also offer a performance-based incentive scheme for the teachers. 

Cabinet okays 7 new IIMs, bonanza for Rajasthan

By Sanjiv Dube
NEW DELHI : On August 27 the Union cabinet approved the setting up of seven new Indian Institutes of Management in the country, paving the way for government plans to launch four of them later this year.

Briefing reporters here on the Cabinet decision, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said that the new IIMs will be set up in Trichy (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Rohtak (Haryana), Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. None of them, however, will offer the flagship postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) this year and will instead offer short-term courses in mid-career skills for working executives.

The government had initially promised six new IIMs — one each in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir. But Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s speech during the interim budget on February 25 this year erroneously promised an IIM to Rajasthan, too.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the government decided to take on the extra burden of starting an additional IIM instead of risking voter anger.

The IIMs at Trichy, Ranchi, Raipur and Rohtak will come up in the first phase and the classes would start from the 2010-11 academic year. The other three in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will get operational from 2011-12. The exact locations in these states are yet to be decided.

Ambika Soni said an allocation of Rs 451 crore as non-recurring expenditure and Rs.118 crore as recurring expenditure has been sanctioned for the first phase. The total requirement of funds for establishment of seven new IIMs during the 11th Five Year Plan is Rs 1,057 crores, she revealed.