IIM boards can grip e-meetings

Welcome to the new-age board meetings at India's elite B-schools. Reliance CMD Mukesh Ambani need not snake through Bangalore's chaotic traffic to make it on time for the board meeting at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B), where he is the chairman (board of governors). Next time, he can click-start the meeting from any corner of the world.

Paving the way for e-board meetings at all Indian Institutes of Management, the HRD Ministry headed by Kapil Sibal has approved participation in board and society meetings through videoconferencing. 

Several IIMs have been reporting non-participation by high-profile corporate members and officials during board of governors meetings due to the fact that they are members of several other boards simultaneously, and it becomes impossible for them to attend the meetings of IIMs which are located in different states. In fact, 50% of the members did not turn up for the IIM-B board meeting on September 7. 

Some of the members and chairpersons of IIM boards include Kris Gopalkrishnan (Infosys), Jamshed J Irani (Tata Sons), A C Muthiah (SPIC), R C Bharvaga (Maruti Suzuki), Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Biocon) and L N Jhunjhunwala (Bhilware Group). 

With the HRD ministry giving its green signal, board members can now participate in discussions and even cast their votes through videoconferencing. The ministry of law and justice, which examined the issue, has held participation in e-board meetings legally valid. 

Just last month, HRD minister Kapil Sibal asked the IIMs to reduce the size of their board of governors to 12-14. IIM-B has 26 members on its board. 

A five-member committee headed by R C Bhargava, chairman, IIM Ranchi board, has said that allowing members to participate in board meetings by video/telephonic conferencing would ensure greater participation and also enable "the best minds, including those living abroad, become members of the board."

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