Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to grant complete autonomy and statutory status to the elite business schools.

The Indian Institutes of Management Bill 2017 said the IIMs, being registered under the Societies Act, award their students Post-graduate Diploma in Management and Fellow Programme in Management and are not entitled to use the nomenclature of Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Ph.D. degree as issued by a university or institution of national importance.

"The bill seeks to provide the 20 existing IIMs independent statutory status with uniform governance structure and policy framework, as also to declare them as Institutes of National Importance and to enable them to grant degrees to their students in the academic courses conducted by these institutes," the bill said.

"While the post-graduate diploma in management programme was relatively unaffected by the absence of a formal degree, the Fellow Programme in Management (equivalent to Ph.D.), without the formal degree nomenclature, has not been able to attract enough students required to develop a strong research base in the country in the field of management education and also address the faculty shortage affecting the management institutions in the country," the bill said.

"IIMs having grown into institutions of global repute, it was felt that they may be enabled to award degree to their students through an act of Parliament, which would declare them as institute of national importance." it said.

The bill also said it is necessary to have a central legislation in the "larger interest of students" and the degree granting power to IIM would not only enhance the universal acceptability of degrees being awarded but also empower these institutions to attain standards of global excellence.

Once the bill is passed and the act is in place, all existing IIMs would become a body corporate.

The institutes would receive grants-in-aid, if required and their accounts would be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.