As industry representatives with an emotional connection to
the prestigious business schools, the alumni are expected to guide the
decisions of the boards.
Harsha Bhogle, who is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, has been
nominated to the board of IIM, Udaipur. Anita Bhogle, who also studied in the
same institute, is now a member of the board of governors of IIM Jammu.
Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, speaker and author
Anita Bhogle, beauty products maker Nykaa’s founder and former investment
banker Falguni Nayar, and ReNew Power Limited chief Sumant Sinha are among the
graduates of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) who have
now been snapped up by various IIMs for board positions — in keeping with the
new IIM Act passed last year that mandated alumni from the IIMs on the boards.
“There is a requirement that up to five alumni should be
on the board of every IIM. Several IIM graduates who are now big names in
different fields are part of these boards,” said a government official who
asked not to be named.
To be sure, since there are 20 IIMs now, with many being
set up recently, the newer IIMs have been allowed to taken on alumni from other
IIMs on their board.
Harsha Bhogle, who is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, has been
nominated to the board of IIM, Udaipur. Anita Bhogle, who also studied in the
same institute, is now a member of the board of governors of IIM Jammu. Another
IIM Ahmedabad alumna, Falguni Nayak is also on the board of IIM Bodhgaya.
Sumant Sinha, who is the brother of Union minister Jayant Sinha, studied at IIT
Delhi and then IIM Calcutta. He is on the board of his own alma mater, IIM
Calcutta.
“Sinha was appointed as a member last year. His name
again figures in the reconstituted board,” the government official said.
The idea of getting alumni on the board isn’t new, but
the new IIM Act codified it. As industry representatives with an emotional
connection to the prestigious business schools, the alumni are expected to
guide the decisions of the boards.
Another eminent alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Sachit Jain,
the vice chairman and managing director of the Vardhaman group, is on the board
of IIM Amritsar. Sridevi Raghavan from Kozhikhode is a senior vice president of
HDFC. She is also a member of the board for IIM Kozhikhode.
Sanhjay Mukherjee, an IPS officer who graduated from IIM
Calcutta, is on the school’s board.
“Some of the members of the newly constituted boards have
also been repeated, especially in the older IIMs. However, many have been
appointed for the first time. The IIM boards are star-studded. And they will be
more so when the positions marked specially for eminent members are filled up,”
a senior human resource development (HRD) ministry official said on condition
of anonymity.
Following the passage of the IIM Act 2017, the HRD
ministry in consultation with the law and justice ministry, initiated the
process of re-constitution of boards for the IIMs. The process is underway.
Source: Hindustan Times dated January 14, 2019
