The Government of India, acting through the human resource development ministry, is actively considering a series of drastic changes to the governance structure and the role of faculty in the IIM system, based on the recommendations of two committees chaired by Ajit Balakrishnan and R C Bhargava. The proposed changes have potentially far-reaching consequences on the future of IIMs and raise important questions on the methodology followed, the lack of participation by key stakeholders, the lack of public consultation and, in general, a lack of professionalism in formulating such important policy recommendations. The present paper contains a discussion of some of these issues, with a view to promoting active participation by various stakeholders and improving the policymaking process.
