1,500 varsities, more pvt participation

The National Knowledge Commission pushes for big reforms to make India a superpower, writes Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Oct 12, 2006, 03:26:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

In order to make India a knowledge superpower, there has to be major reforms in the education system first. To this effect, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) will soon submit a set of 10 recommendations to the Prime Minister’s Office, including one on reforms in higher education.

According to NKC chairman Sam Pitroda, the Commission touched on issues like people-friendly portals; reforms in primary, secondary and higher education; protecting traditional knowledge base; and incentives to youngsters for innovations and entrepreneurship. "The recommendations will be finalised in 60 to 90 days and are at an advanced stage of discussion," he said at an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday.

Among the recommendations are GIS mapping of the country on a website; and setting up portals on water, energy, environment, knowledge network, higher education, intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge and health issues. "This will enhance our knowledge base and bring more transparency in government," Pitroda explained.

The chairman, however, said the recommendations on higher education may prove controversial. "When we spoke on reservations, there were all types of allegations against us. I anticipate a similar storm when we submit our recommendations. But we are not afraid to break barriers," he said.

The NKC is likely to suggest starting English lessons from an early stage, increasing the number of universities to over 1,500, more private participation in education, more regulatory mechanisms to improve the quality of education, and structural reforms in educational institutions. "Degrees issued in Bihar and Chhattisgarh are of no value whereas IIM and IIT graduates are considered the best in the world. Such anomalies need to be removed to realise India's true knowledge powerhouse," Pitroda said.

Pointing out that only seven per cent of children in the country go for higher education, Pitroda said: "We need to increase enrollment to 18 per cent in the next five years." He sought a target access to knowledge through eight main areas — "literacy, reservations, affirmatory programmes, libraries, languages, translation, networks and portals are the key areas". He said he felt India could create half a million translation jobs in three to four years if the government took the initiative.

Pitroda identified agriculture, health, small and medium industries, and traditional knowledge as areas for application of knowledge. Referring to the Foundation for Revitalization, set up in Bangalore to document 12,000 indigenous medical plants, he said: "More such independent efforts are required. We cannot leave everything to the government."

The Commission has five focus points — access to knowledge, concepts, knowledge creation, services and applications. "We intend to modernise these as per the needs of the 21st century, education being one little subset with the main focus on knowledge as a broader prospect."

India's foreign exchange reserves have risen to $ 150 billion from $ 2 billion in just two decades because it is seen as a knowledge powerhouse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.