4 months ago
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Poet Tiruvalluvar successful his 140th Thirukkural says: “Education imparted is useless, unless 1 learns however to unrecorded with the society.”
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 intends to supply that holistic acquisition that teaches 1 to beryllium socially relevant.
To guarantee that the imaginativeness of Viksit Bharat 2047 is achieved, India needs citizens who tin pb from here. The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which was introduced successful the Lok Sabha connected December 15, 2025, aims to marque this a world and assistance reimagine India’s higher acquisition institutions.
Need for change
Why is determination a request for this? India’s higher acquisition strategy has expanded rapidly, spanning implicit a 1,000 universities, tens of thousands of institutions, and crores of learners. But, regularisation has not evolved astatine the aforesaid pace. Multiple statutory bodies with overlapping mandates person created a maze of approvals, inspections and compliance that often pulls institutions distant from teaching, probe and innovation. This has turned well-meaning oversight into over-regulation, forcing institutions to prioritise paperwork implicit outcomes and making it harder to collaborate, innovate oregon update curricula quickly. Institutions find themselves spending a disproportionate effort connected “process” alternatively than “purpose”.
NEP 2020 recognised this and called for a “light but tight” model — beardown connected transparency and standards, but minimal connected procedural burden, portion granting greater autonomy to well-performing institutions. The Bill is simply a structural measurement successful this direction, aiming to regenerate fragmented oversight with coordinated standards, streamlined regulation, and credible prime assurance. Anchored successful Entry 66 (Union List) of the Seventh Schedule, the Bill creates an apex umbrella body, the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan, with 3 abstracted councils for regulation, accreditation and standards. This wide part of roles aims to amended credibility and trim conflicts of interest. It besides proposes repealing 3 cardinal Acts — the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the All India Council For Technical Education Act 1987, and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 — to unify and modernise the regulatory architecture, bringing applicable higher acquisition institutions nether a azygous model for coordinated standard-setting and oversight.
Finally, it envisages a technology-enabled azygous model strategy built connected nationalist aforesaid disclosure, wherever institutions people cardinal accusation connected governance, finances, infrastructure, faculty, programmes and outcomes, frankincense enabling continuous transparency and forming the ground for accreditation and nationalist accountability.
The impact
The Bill could trigger 3 high-impact outcomes. First, it tin alteration younker empowerment astatine scale. A streamlined regulatory scenery tin grow entree to prime institutions and rise the Gross Enrolment Ratio by reducing bottlenecks that dilatory down capacity-building and programme expansion.
More importantly, it tin displacement organization vigor toward what genuinely matters: teaching that builds reasoning and values; learning that is interdisciplinary and flexible; and opportunities for reskilling and upskilling crossed a lifetime.
Students volition supply feedback connected world prime and the wide learning acquisition of the higher acquisition institutions. With robust grievance redress, they go progressive stakeholders and are capable to request quality, reward bully governance, and assistance institutions amended done structured feedback.
Second, it tin accelerate the adoption of planetary champion practices portion remaining rooted successful Indian priorities. International credibility is not achieved by copying overseas models, but by gathering planetary benchmarks of outcomes, ethics, probe civilization and pupil experience. A coherent standards model tin enactment mobility of learners and faculty, beforehand collaborative probe and assistance Indian institutions pull planetary students and module portion besides retaining Indian talent.
Third, it tin modernise governance done transparency and minimalistic, responsive regulation. A faceless, technology-enabled single-window strategy tin trim discretion and delays, promote integrity, and amended predictability for institutions. Public disclosure, erstwhile meaningful and audited, creates a civilization wherever spot is earned, not assumed. Autonomy for well-performing institutions and institutions of eminence tin past go a instrumentality for excellence; communal standards with differentiated autonomy tin let diverseness to thrive without compromising quality. The extremity end is smarter regulation: focused connected outcomes, learner payment and nationalist priorities.
In perspective
Atmanirbharta successful higher acquisition is achieved erstwhile India’s institutions tin acceptable ambitious goals, innovate responsibly and stay accountable to society. When the Bill succeeds successful aligning standards, regulation, and accreditation into a coherent and transparent system, it volition assistance physique precisely the benignant of citizens that Tiruvalluvar envisioned.
V. Kamakoti is Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras
