In the final year of its three-year term, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has something to cheer about. Several of its recommendations on higher education reform have somewhat belatedly been accepted by New Delhi. Among them: oblique acknowledgement of its plea to establish an independent regulatory authority for higher education by constituting the Prof. Yash Pal review committee for assessing the role of the UGC and other statutory bodies including AICTE and Medical Council of India; rolling out of four new IITs and one IIM this year together with proposed 14 world-class universities; and promoting 16 additional universities and four IITs and six IIMs during the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) period. This is some solace for NKC and its high-profile chairman, the Chicago-based telecom switches tycoon Sam Pitroda whose education reform recommendations have been consistently blocked by Left-leaning Union human resource development minister Arjun Singh who resents NKCs intrusions into education, which he regards as his private turf.
Therefore at a crowded press conference held in Delhi on March 28, the HRD minister didnt acknowledge NKC while announcing the sites of the four IITs, one IIM and proposed 14 Central universities. He repeatedly emphasised that these decisions were taken by the PMO (prime ministers office).

According to HRD ministry sources, of the proposed four IITs, three — in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar — will become operational this year with an initial intake of 120 students while IIM Shillong will also admit its first batch of 60 students this year. The proposed IIT in Himachal Pradesh — the fourth — is unlikely to become operational this year. Other states which will inaugurate their first IITs during the Eleventh Plan period are Orissa, MP, Gujarat and Punjab. States offered new IIMs are Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

Quite obviously all this will cost a pretty penny with the total outlay for each new IIT with an intake capacity of 860 students projected at Rs.760 crore, and for each IIM with an intake capacity of 180 students, Rs.210.25 crore. This year Rs.50 crore for IITs and Rs.10 crore for an IIM have been provided. For this year, IIT Kota, Rajasthan will function from the IIT-Delhi campus, says R.P. Agarwal, higher education secretary in the HRD ministry. Moreover two IISERs (Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research) will be sited in Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram with a first batch intake of 75 students each admitted in June. A sum of Rs.150 crore has been provided for each of these institutions. The estimated cost for infrastructure of each Central university with a school of medicine, and an intake capacity of about 12,700 students, is estimated at Rs. 720 crore spread over a period of nine years. All these new institutes/ universities will be funded by the Central government (excluding land cost).

According to Agarwal, the ministry has also drawn up a 20-point plan to ensure faculty shortages dont stymie the Congress-led UPA governments higher education capacity expansion plan. Weve thought about it and have drawn a comprehensive plan. The retirement age of faculty has been raised to 65 years; lectures and pedagogies developed by IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore will be videographed and distributed free of cost to faculty of the new institutions under NPTEL (National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning) and NRI professors will be attracted with Ramanujan Fellowships of Rs.5 lakh per annum for research projects besides a salary package of Rs.50,000-plus per month. Similarly Indian professors will be given an additional Rs.20,000 as salary and grant of Rs.5 lakh for research under the Bose Fellowship scheme, he says.

Towards the end of its term in New Delhi, the UPA government has finally become energised about higher education. But whether this will translate into votes for the Congress and its allies in the forthcoming general election is a moot point.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)