Two days before he steps down as Director of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of the most prestigious B-Schools of the country, Professor Bakul Dholakia has charged that increasing control over institutes of higher learning by the Union HRD Ministry has been “counterproductive” in promoting and protecting their interests.

In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, Dholakia spoke on the fee cuts imposed on the IIMs and the fact that their hands are tied when it comes to retaining their faculty.

“As I step down as Director, this will be my greatest disappointment,” Dholakia said. “We could not take a lot of action because the Government would not let us. Even if we want, we cannot have Noble laureates and deans of foreign B-Schools on our board.”

During his tenure, Dholakia had numerous run-ins with the HRD Ministry on the same issues, and contrary to tradition, he hasn’t been given any extension by the Union Government to facilitate a handover to his successor. His predecessors got extensions up to three months.

Dholakia said that because of lack of autonomy, compensation packages for IIM-A faculties could not be restructured.

“With pay packages skyrocketing in the corporate world and in the foreign B-Schools, we have a possibility of losing our faculty to this,” he said.

“As it is, we are not able to attract the best faculty and retain them with the current pay package we offer them.”

Dholakia added that the same held true for other facilities that could be provided to the faculty, “if we were allowed to”.

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