The Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to withdraw the Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011, from Parliament in view of the reservations expressed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on certain provisions of the draft legislation. The Bill — which was pending in the Rajya Sabha — sought to determine, coordinate, maintain and promote standards of higher education and research, and subsume existing regulatory bodies in higher education including the University Grants Commission, the All India Council for Technical Education, the National Council for Teaching Education and the Distance Education Council (DEC)
The Cabinet cleared a number of agreements to be signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s U.S. visit. One of them is a Joint Declaration of Intent between the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the U.S. Department of State for cooperation in the field of higher education for Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), a programme for online education. The SWAYAM platform server will be based in India and U.S. universities will be invited to offer postgraduate academic programmes with certification on the SWAYAM platform.
Besides, the Cabinet approved signing of a Joint Declaration between the HRD Ministry and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the U.S. to launch the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) in Higher Education. It aims at tapping the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs to engage with the institutes of higher education in India to augment the country’s existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reforms, and further strengthen India’s scientific and technological capabilities.
