IIM Calcutta's first female director Anju Seth steps down

She had gone on sick leave two days before putting up her resignation, while on leave she left Prashant Mishra, Dean of New Initiatives and External Relations as in charge of acting director.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta's first women director Anju Seth has stepped down from her post a year before the end of her tenure. IIM’s Board of Governors (BoG) had clipped her powers as a director after she was accused of improper conduct by the board.

She had gone on sick leave two days before putting up her resignation, while on leave she left Prashant Mishra, Dean of New Initiatives and External Relations as in charge of acting director. Anju Seth’s tenure as director was to end next year (2022) in February.

The resignation move was made after there was a confrontation between the director and the Board of IIM. The Director of IIM Calcutta had accused the chairman of the institute, Shri Krishna Kulkarni of infringing on her powers.

On 4th March 2021, as the report stated, the confrontation between the director and Board led to an even messed up situation when the institute’s board passed a resolution and deprived the director’s power to make appointments and taking any disciplinary action. This resolution was made by the board of the institute against IIM Calcutta’s first women director Anju Seth.

There is an early search for IIM Calcutta’s new director by the board of the institute who will be replacing Anju Seth as her successor, an advertisement was posted for the same in the first week of March. The advertisement posted by the Board of Governors for a new director marked invalid as it violates the IIM act which states “The board shall only initiate a new director’s appointment 9 months before the post of a director getting vacant.”

Over 75 per cent of the institute’s faculty gave a letter to the Ministry of Education last year mentioning how Seth had centralised her powers and used them improperly in decision-making roles. Anju Seth dismissed all the allegations on her and marks it as a tactic to get rid of her by a group of individuals.

Anju Seth was appointed IIM Calcutta’s director in the year 2018, she herself is an alumnus of the same institute passed in the year 1978 who also has a doctorate degree from the University of Michigan. 

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