Part - I

The news about the various steps proposed to be taken by the MHRD to regulate the functioning of our great institutions such as IIM's etc, is very disturbing. This is a good occasion for all sections of our society, the academia, the intelligentsia, and the court system to take concerted action so that 50 years of hard work in building some of our world-class institutions, which are National assets, is not destroyed by unthinking actions of bureaucrats, self-serving politicians and meek Boards of Governors.

Relationship between IIM's and the Ministry of HRD

The IIM's have been organized as Societies, promoted initially with government aid and support. A Society is formed so that it can manage it's own affairs and not be a department or wing of the Government. Hence, it cannot be overlooked that the Society has a constitution and a governing structure. Any decisions, which are to be taken, are to be taken by the society in a governing board meeting, and if it is warranted, the decisions have to be confirmed in a general meeting of the society. Here the leverage that the government has comes from two sources: -

1. Nominations to the Board of Governors have been done exclusively by the Government. Eminent persons regard a seat in the Board of Governors as a mark of honor, and having been so nominated are reluctant to exercise their right to manage the IIM Society in the manner, which keeps the interest of the Society paramount.

2. Most new institutions, specially those funded by the government, are born rich, and incur quarters, and many other perquisites not available to other comparable institutions in the private sector, leading to unmanageable overhead. This leads to dependency on subsidy and grant from the government. huge non-operational expenses in terms of lands and gardens, huge buildings quite disproportional to the task at hand, guest houses, hosting of VIP's, housing, staff.

As the institution grows older, and prompted by an urge to practice even in a small way what they preach, it begins to seek other income and to save surpluses in a corpus fund, which will eventually free it of support and the control which the support brings along with it inevitably. Since the ultimate control is in political hands, and not from academicians, the control is resisted and rightly so.

Next

* Contributed by: -
Prof. P. V. Ramana; BE (Hons) Elec. Engg. from Andhra University, Waltair, India; MBA (Accounting & Finance) from Washington State University, USA; Prof. Engr. (Thermal Power), USA (equiv. to a Doctoral qualification); Receiver of Life Time Achievement award in 2003 for service to Management Education given by World HRD Congress, Boston, USA; Dr. P. N. Singh Foundation has instituted the "Prof. P. V. Ramana" for Corporate Governance; he has also founded ITM in 1991.