Government for Group Discussion to Appoint IIM Directors

Group Discussion, a tool used by IIMs to evaluate candidates for admission to their two-year Masters in Business Management (PGP) courses might soon be the tool of choice to evaluate academicians hoping to become IIM Directors. Academicians have termed Human Resources Department minister Smriti Irani’s decision ‘humiliating’ and say this could lead to a flight of talent.

The government has sparked a controversy by breaking from academic traditions with an order that candidates for IIM director posts will have to clear group discussions, much like prospective students to the two-year PGP courses at the prestigious management institutes – a move that educationists have dubbed “insulting”.

The step was introduced by a selection panel constituted by the union HRD ministry to pick the director for IIM Lucknow. 17 applicants are in the fray for the post and appeared for the discussion and interview on Saturday.

The HRD ministry plans to make the group discussion process a norm for hiring any IIM director in future.

The new move has drawn sharp criticism from academicians. They say the a group discussion for aspiring IIM directors is unusual and uncalled for.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Pritam Singh, former director of IIM Lucknow said, “I have tremendous reservation for this selection method. The director position at IIMs is equivalent to the post of a senior government officer and subjecting candidates applying for it to group discussions is a public insult to them. They are after all not MBA aspirants.” 

This is not the first time the govt. and IIMs have locked horns. The ministry has been in a string of disagreements with top academics and bureaucrats over appointments to India’s leading institutions with the Opposition accusing minister Smriti Irani of destroying the educational establishments.

Nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar quit as the chairman of IIT Bombay’s governing body in March following reports of differences with Irani over the selection of three IIT directors.

So far, the IIM selection committee invited applications for vacant director posts, shortlisted eligible candidates, called them for interviews and then recommended a panel of names to the ministry which forwarded it to the President, the visitor of the institutes. 

Sources in the ministry said the new step is in line with the one applied during the selection of directors for three IITs—Ropar, Bhubaneswar and Patna—in February. “The candidates called for the IIT director selection also had to go through GD and interview and it looks like it will be a norm for every selection,” an official said. (Source: Hindutan Times)