IIM, IIT dons oppose HRD proposals on pay hike, autonomy

IIM and IIT professors are up in arms and have come together for the first time to reject the latest proposals of the Human Resource Development Ministry on pay scales and autonomy describing them as "infringement" on academic freedom.

IIM and IIT professors are up in arms and have come together for the first time to reject the latest proposals of the Human Resource Development Ministry on pay scales and autonomy describing them as "infringement" on academic freedom.

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The faculties of IITs and IIMs are working on a joint charter of demands to be handed to Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal that includes better hikes and more autonomy.

"It is for the first time that IIT professors and IIM professors are sitting down together to discuss what is there in the Sixth Pay Commission and how it is affecting us," according to Dr Bharat Sheth, a Professor at IIT Mumbai.

The IIM-A faculty council has already met in Ahmedabad yesterday and opposed the HRD ministry's order on pay structure and asked the institute director to delay its implementation by a month, before future course of action is decided by them.

"Faculty council has termed the recent Union HRD ministry orders on pay structure as infringement on academic freedom, and has asked the institute director to postpone its implementation by a month," a senior faculty council member and IIM-A professor said after the council's meeting voicing disappointment.