Now, there will be no more cakewalks. IIT-Directors will have to prove their worthiness to continue for a 2nd term as Director. The government has decided to make their selection competitive if they want a second term, four years after the previous UPA government’s decision which gave the serving Directors a chance to head the institute for a second term without going into the competition. Under the rule, the government would know from the incumbent Director of an IIT about his continuation for the second term, a few months before the end of his term. If the designate is interested, then his/her first term performance will be evaluated by a search-cum-selection committee which is the deciding factor. In this case, the post is not advertised as vacant and the Director does not have to go into competition for the job.
Now, it has been learnt that the government wants to change the prevailing structure of selection process and fill up the Director’s post only through advertisements, which was prevalent before September 2013. A proposal to this effect has been forwarded to the HRD Ministry. “The current selection process is not objective,” said a ministry source.
HRD MINISTER TO DECIDE ON THEIR FAITH
This proposal will have to get the approval of HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and would also ha ve to tabled before the next IIT Council meeting for approval. Javadekar is also the chairman of the council, the highest decision making body for all 23 IITs. After September 2013, the government has reappointed Directors of five IITs —- Bombay (Devang Khakhar), Hyderabad (U B Desai), Gandhinagar (S K Jain), Madras (Bhaskar Ramamurthi) and Indore (Pradeep Mathur) — for a second term without going in for applications. This move of the government was justified with the fact that it will bring in more stability to the institutes.
The change in the selection process has come at such a time when the government has gone ahead with the appointment process for IIT-Dhanbad (formerly ISM Dhanbad) and IIT Kanpur. IIT Dhanbad Director D C Panigrahi and Kanpur Director Indranil Manna had expressed their interest in continuing for the 2nd term.
