Friday, January 20 2006 18:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Setting in motion the process to go global, the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), today (Jan 20, 2006) gave its nod to amend the Memorandum of Association (MoA), to pave way for expansion of its activities overseas.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, the IIM-B Director Prakash G Apte said the MoA signed in 1973 at the time of establishing the institute, did not include a clause about expanding its activities outside the country.

"The MoA has to be modified and the board has approved that the amendment process should begin", he said.

The IIMB board meeting comes close on the heels of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry shooting down a proposal of the Institute to have a presence in Singapore, saying the prestigious institute should meet the domestic demand.

Apparently softening his stand, HRD Minister Arjun Singh had said on Wednesday that the IIMs should first amend their MoA if they opted to have campuses abroad. Singh has convened a meeting of IIMs in New Delhi on February one.

Apte said the Board of Governors (BoG) would hold a meeting with HRD ministry to thrash out the issue of extending the IIMB presence to Singapore by amending the MoA. However, before that the BoG would hold a preliminary meeting in Delhi on Jan 31, Apte said.

Establishing a presence abroad "as we have always envisaged will be a virtual presence in the near future and not physical presence in the form of a campus" he said, adding they would begin with a part-time MBA programme for executives.