New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS): The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017, granting the institutions complete autonomy.

The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the bill, under which the IIMs would be declared as institutions of national importance and provided statutory powers. 

The bill enables the IIMs to award degrees instead of diplomas.

Being autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act, the IIMs so far were not authorised to award degrees and have been awarding Post-Graduate Diploma and Fellow Programme in Management.

While these awards are treated as equivalent to MBAs and Ph.D, respectively, the equivalence is not universally accepted, especially for the Fellow Programme.

The Bill also provides for adequate accountability by the IIMs.

The annual report of the institutions would be placed in Parliament and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) would audit their accounts.

The management of these institutions would now be board-driven.

A greater participation of experts and alumni in the 'board' is amongst other important features of the bill. Provision has also been made for inclusion of women and members from Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in the board. 

The bill also provides for periodic review of the performance of institutions by independent agencies, and placing the results of the same in public domain.