The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), among the best business schools in India and, arguably, Asia, seem to finally have found a human resource development (HRD) minister who realizes their worth.

And so, they have been told that they can set up schools outside the country should they wish to (an archaic law prevented them from doing so until now); pay instructors on merit; and have their heads appointed by a collegium, which, in turn, will be set up by all of the IIMs together (the collegium will have just 13 members).

These changes indicate that HRD minister Kapil Sibal is willing to do things that his two predecessors wouldn’t even have considered. That holds hope for the education sector as a whole that’s in pressing need of reform.

While it will be far more difficult to effect reforms at the school and graduate levels than it is for the IIMs, Sibal, judging from his response to recent issues raised by the IIMs and the Indian Institutes of Technology, seems willing to listen. That’s a start.