A bill to include the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Guwahati in the schedule of the Indian Institutes of Management Act to make it an institution of national importance was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the bill amid din created by the opposition over the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. According to the draft law, the central government, the Assam government and representatives of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) signed a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) for all-round development of the state.
According to the MoS, a number of developmental projects are to be implemented by the Union government under a Special Development Package (SDP).
Establishment of an IIM at Guwahati as an institution of national importance is one of the projects under the SDP.
At present, there are 21 IIMs that are declared as institutions of national importance and each of those are specified in the Schedule to the IIM Act.
The Assam government has requested for establishment of an IIM in the state, keeping in view the geographical location of the state and its all-round development.
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“Assam is one of the very few states with more than three crore population which does not have an IIM,” the bill noted.
