Preview of Bhargava committee report on IIMs

Apparently, the ministry of HRD is close to making available the report of the R C Bhargava committee report on the IIMs. Indian Express carried a story yesterday which offered a preview of key recommendations. The report is right in suggesting that these are unlikely to go down well with the IIMs:

• Creation of a Pan-IIM board
• Reducing the size of IIM boards to more manageable proportions (from 24 or so to 11)
• Initial appointments of boards to be done by a committee comprising Secretary, MHRD, and three professionals
• Annual intake of PGP to rise to 750
• IIMs operating for more than five years to limit their operational surplus to provide for infrastructure and scholarships
• IIMs to go slow on executive training and consulting
• Separation of administrative and teaching functions of faculty

I would not like to comment on the report until I have read it myself. Just a few quick repsonses to the story.

One, what would be the role of the pan-IIM board? Two, chairmen of IIM boards are even now made by the MHRD, so what is proposed would not be much of a departure. Reducing the size of IIM boards makes sense- indeed, I had suggested this myself to the Bhargava committee. No point in having boards where half the members fail to show up for meetings.