The Director of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), Dr. Uttam Kumar Sarkar, is learnt to have resigned over differences with the Board Chairperson Mr. Shrikrishna G Kulkarni, making him the second institute head in two years to leave before completing a five-year term.
Sarkar is learnt to have resigned on August 23, and his resignation letter was circulated among all members of the Board of Governors (BoG) last week. According to news reports, the resignation hasn’t been accepted yet and is likely to be discussed at the next Board meeting scheduled for this week, on September 8.
Prof. Sarkar was appointed director on August 18, 2021, and still had almost three years left of his term.
Reportedly, Prof. Sarkar, in his resignation letter, cited personal reasons for his decision, however it is “believed” that Prof. Sarkar was not very happy with “interference” of the board and Chair, in the institute’s affairs and in the implementation of key projects like the hostel expansion (project), which has come in the way of increasing the institute’s student capacity.
Incidentally, Sarkar’s predecessor, Prof. Anju Seth, who was the first woman Director of IIM-C, quit in March 2021, citing a “breakdown of confidence”. She had more than a year left of her term.
In her resignation letter, Prof. Seth, accused the Chairman of running a smear campaign against her and of “maligning and denigrating” her publicly with the support of the board. She also wrote that he had assumed executive powers to “diminish the role of the director and of the faculty by persistent intervention, although the post of the chairman is a non-executive part-time role”.
At that time, many in the IIM community had seen the confrontation between Seth and the Board as stemming from the shift in power dynamics brought by the new IIM Act of 2018. The 2018 law granted unbridled powers and autonomy to the Board of Governors of all 20 IIMs, and the government relinquished complete control.
Interferences of Board members in institutes in Indian is nothing new and has been a major reason why many Directors put down their papers mid way.
IIM Calcutta MBA Admission 2024
The Centre introduced a bill in Parliament in July 2023, seeking to take over the power of appointing the chairpersons and directors of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), stoking fears of dilution of the autonomy of the business schools and interference in their day-to-day affairs. Under the IIM (Amendment) Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha by education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the President will be the Visitor to the IIMs, like in the IITs and with similar powers.
Recently, during the monsoon session of Parliament, the education ministry introduced an amendment to the IIM Act, which takes back many of the powers from the Board, giving the government a greater say in auditing the functioning of IIMs, ordering probes, and appointing as well as removing directors.
Although the amendment was passed in both Houses during the monsoon session, and the changes have been notified in a gazette notification, the education ministry hasn’t framed new rules (under the amended Act) to make the changes effective. Until then, for practical purposes, the Board still remains powerful.
Prof. Sarkar, who specializes in information management systems, is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. He did his B.Tech (1987), M.Tech (1989), and PhD (1994) from IIT-Kharagpur’s computer science and engineering department. He’s been teaching at IIM-C since 1997 and also served as dean of new initiatives and external relations, from April 2015 to April 2018, at the institute.
Mr. Kulkarni has been the IIM C Chairman since 2017. Although his term finished in November last year, he’s currently on a one-year extension approved by the Board of Governors, on the instruction of the education ministry. The latter’s instruction had come amidst deliberations within the government on changes in the IIM Act, mainly on how the director and chairperson of IIMs should be appointed. He earlier served as a director at Cybernetic Research Labs Pvt Ltd in Bengaluru..
