The Hindu ⁽³⁾

Read full article Abstract: The stage is set for a long overdue overhaul of higher education in India The Prime Minister’s vision to create 20 institutions of eminence and the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s reforms push have set the stage for an overhaul of higher education in India that is long overdue. The HRD Ministry first saw the passage of the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017, which will extend greater autonomy to the IIMs. It followed this up with reforms in the rules and regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC), giving autonomy to India’s best-ranked universities and colleges. Subsequently, the Union Cabinet approved the continuation of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, which has been working quietly to improve the quality of higher educational institutions in the States through outcome-based grants. The time is now ripe for another change: to replace the UGC Act, 1956, with a new law that should respond to the current needs of higher education. Such an Act will take forward the reforms adopted until now, remove the clutter of regulatory agencies under the…

Read full article The Modi government’s social sector strategy has aimed to make existing programmes more efficient, and give priority to empowerment over entitlement. In broad terms, two features distinguish social sector strategy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. First, it endeavours to make the existing programs more efficient by cutting leakages. And second, it gives priority to empowerment over entitlement. Early in its tenure, the government achieved a major success in financial inclusion with empowerment through Prime >Minister’s Jana Dhana Yojana. This scheme proposed to give a bank account to every family. The program entered the Guinness Book of Records for opening 1.8 crore accounts in one week from 23 to 29 August 2014. By May 2016, the scheme had opened 21.74 crore accounts with Rs. 37,445 crore in deposits. Alongside, the Prime Minister not only took the pragmatic decision of retaining and rapidly expanding the Aadhaar biometric identification program but also accelerated its deployment for cutting wasteful expenditure in the delivery of social programs. Recently, legislation has been passed that empowers the government to require the beneficiary of services financed…

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