Knowledge panel wanted red tape cut, Arjun adds bureaucratic layer

The National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda wanted to cut the red tape in the higher education sector.

The National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda wanted to cut the red tape in the higher education sector. Having gone through the NKC’s recommendations, the Human Resource Development Ministry has come up with its own measure: another layer of bureaucracy to “coordinate” higher education regulatory bodies.

In January, the NKC had proposed an Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE) that would improve on the current regulatory system in higher education, which it said was flawed, with “barriers to entry too high, system of authorising entry is cumbersome, there is a multiplicity of regulatory agencies where mandates are both confusing and overlapping—the system, as a whole, is over-regulated but under-governed”.

Proposing that the new IRAHE should be “at an arm’s-length from the Government and independent of all stakeholders, including the concerned Ministries of the Government”, the NKC said this body could take on the regulatory functions currently undertaken by the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education, Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India, among others.

The NKC’s recommendations were forwarded to the HRD Ministry. Six months down the line, the HRD ministry has chosen to shoot down the proposal and instead come up with a measure that is likely to aggravate the problem of multiplicity of regulatory bodies. The ministry has argued against the NKC’s single regulatory agency, saying that the current bodies are “different in scope and activity”.

Instead, it feels, there should be a “National Commission on Higher Education”, which will be an over-arching organisation to coordinate the regulatory organisations.

The HRD Ministry has circulated a cabinet note to the ministries concerned with higher education—Health and Agriculture—for their views on the matter. The ministry has proposed that the commission should be established through an act of legislation, mirroring the suggestion of the NKC that the IRAHE be established through an Act of Parliament.

Sources told The Indian Express that HRD Minister Arjun Singh approved the proposal before it was circulated among other ministries for consideration.