Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Have the IIMs taken themselves private?


It does appear so. In a news story, the Economic Times reported that the three original IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta) have decided not to submit their financials for audit by the office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Here is the key quote [with emphasis added by me]:

According to sources, in early January IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) had informed the HRD ministry that it wouldn’t submit to a CAG audit as it doesn’t get government funds. IIM-A along with its counterparts at Bangalore and Kolkata haven’t received government funding since ’04.

However, I don't understand the last two sentences in the following quote:

IIM sources said that by law the CAG can audit only those institutions which receive government grants. This means that as per law, the older IIMs will fall outside the purview of the CAG audit. Sources said the government hasn’t taken to this proposal kindly. Especially because a large part of IIM earnings originate in government grants.

This news plug from ET also indicates that the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which originally opposed the move by IIM-B to set up a satellite campus, has finally given its approval for the move. While we wait for the details, what this news item implies is that the Directors of IIMs, who met the Ministry officials (and the Minister himself) yesterday, have been able to convince the latter of the need to go global.

1 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    I think it might have to do something with Research Grants, or money to establish various chairs (or whatever they call them in IIMs). Not to mention the huge consultancy contracts that the IIMs get from the Government.