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HRD Ministry’s assurance to IIMA

Special Correspondent

Consultation and nomination being followed in appointing IIM directors
IIM-A director hopes conventions will continue to be honoured

AHMEDABAD: The Union Government has given an assurance that the due process of consultation and nomination is being followed in appointing the new directors of the Indian Institutes of Management where the terms of the present incumbents are coming to an end later this year.

The assurance was given by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to IIM Ahmedabad director Bakul Dholakia when he contacted the HRD secretary and other senior officials following an advertisement issued by the Ministry for applications for the appointment of a new director. Prof. Dholakia is among the three directors of the IIMs whose term is expiring in a couple of months.

Prof. Dholakia said he had been “misquoted” in a report appearing in a section of the press on Wednesday criticising the Union HRD Ministry for issuing the advertisement. The advertisement, he said, was part of the “normal procedure” followed by the Government in any appointment, including that of the appointment of the chairman of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and there was nothing wrong in it.

Consultation process

However, he said, his concern was over the possible abolition of the “process of consultation” in the appointment of the directors, as was being followed all these years, to which the HRD Ministry had given an assurance that though the “procedure” had been changed since 2002, the process of consultation and the option of nomination had not been dropped.

Pointing out that the change was effected during the NDA regime in 2002, when the Government withdrew the powers of the Board of Governors of the IIMs to appoint the “search committee” to look for a suitable candidate for the posts of directors, Prof. Dholakia said the present Government was following the same process adopted five years ago.

“There is nothing to feel aggrieved about the issuance of the advertisement,” he said.

Search committee

He said that as per the Memorandum of Association of the IIMA, and also other IIMs in the country, the power to appoint the chairman of the board of governors and the directors was vested in the Central Government, but since 1970 the Centre had “voluntarily” given the power to the respective boards. However, in 2002, the power was taken away from the board and the Centre appointed the five-member search committee for the appointment of the director.

He said it automatically did not mean that the Government would not follow the convention of appointing a director from amongst the academicians.

“No guiding norms”

He admitted that there were no guiding principles for the appointments and anyone could be appointed if approved by the Cabinet Committee of Appointments, but he hoped that the “conventions” of the IIMA would continued to be honoured.

He pointed out that since the inception of the IIMA in 1960, only academicians were appointed as the director and with the exception of the noted economist I.G. Patel, in 1982, all other directors were appointed from amongst the faculty members.

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