Retirement age of IIM Directors to be increased by the Government

Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are going to raise the Retirement age of their directors by five years and impose a restriction on the superannuation age of their chairpersons. The retirement age might shoot up to 70 for the directors of these prestigious business schools. Also, it is speculated that there might be a ceiling set imposed on the retirement age of the chairpersons on the boards of governors to an age of 74 years, which earlier had no age restrictions. This decision, by the Union Government, was taken in order to expand the search for appropriate candidates to fill up the top posts in these B-Schools. The implementation of age restriction on the retirement of chairpersons is in order to ensure that the board of governors consists of industry leaders or active academics. IIT’s and even Central Universities’ Directors and Vice Chancellors have had the window of working up to the age of 70 and the IIMs have been demanding parity on this situation. The increase in the retirement age will further enhance quality leadership and will open prospects of employing people outside India This problem gained attention in 2015 when Sushil Vachani, former IIM-Bangalore director, left the B-school without completing his full 5-year term because of age constraints. Ashish Nanda and Sushil Vachani were the first set of foreign professors roped in the to head as the directors of IIM-A and IIM-B respectively. Nanda was an alumnus of Harvard University while Vachani was from Boston University. Neither of them completed their term and while Vachani explicitly stated his issues with age constraints, Nanda left due to “personal reasons”. An Offical said,

“As the IIM Act has come into force, and rules to implement the act are being framed, it is better to think broader in terms of IIMs’ development,”

The official also said that the government may notify the changes in the retirement age in the next few weeks.