The people of India have time till June 24, 2015, to suggest changes and express their views on the proposed IIM Bill 2015 that seeks to grant statutory status to thirteen existing Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

The government wants to declare them as institutions of national importance, to enable them to grant degrees to their students. The 13 IIMs are at Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode, Shillong, Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Kashipur, Tiruchirapalli and Udaipur

The proposed bill is also looking at the issue of making IIMs education relevant to the global standards. Currently, these Institutions could award only certificate, post graduate diploma and fellow programme in management certificate, which lacked universal acceptability in the field of academia and research.

The government feels that some of these issues are affecting recruitment and suitable placements in job market.

In fact, the fellow programme in management (equivalent to Ph.D), without the formal degree stamp, has not been able to attract talented students and this in turn is showing in lack of research in the field of management education. This also means shortage of quality of teaching faculty.

Meanwhile, hundreds of alumni members and students of these prestigious business schools have petitioned prime minister Narendra Modi to make changes in the criteria for awarding of MBA degrees in the country.

To ensure that the degrees awarded to IIM students are at par with the global standards, they have said that masters in business administration (MBA) degree should be given only for one-year programmes and the two-year courses should be for the masters in business management (MBM).

The petition made through 'oneyearMBA.co.in' asks the government to "ensure that MBA degree at IIMs is awarded to one-year MBA while MBM degrees is awarded to two-year post graduate programmes".

The petitioners have said that continuing to award MBA degrees for two-year programmes would have multiple negative ramifications including on the competitiveness of IIMs.

"If the IIMs now award an MBA for a course that does not meet international criteria for being called one, they will be compromising their credibility," the petition said.

The last date to share your views is June, 24, 2015: Click here

The Bill: Click Here