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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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UGC Move Is Welcome

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-01-09 06:35:04

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

India is the world's second largest education market and with the aspirations of the younger generation skyrocketing, is growing at a fast rate. There is a huge gap between the demand for quality higher education and its supply. Hence, just a few world class Indian institutions have to cater to an ever growing demand for admission from meritorious students but they are not able to fulfil the same. Every year, thousands of Indian students go abroad for higher studies, sometimes in foreign institutions of questionable repute.

Hence, the draft rules that the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) has issued for allowing reputed foreign universities - ones that are either in the list of top 500 in the world or are highly reputed in their country) to set up satellite campuses in India is welcome. While it is true that just the setting up of campuses by these universities will not guarantee quality education or admission for all aspirants, if they can employ the same high standards they do in their home countries and are able to bring top notch faculty members as visiting lecturers for decent periods of time (while simultaneously training local educators), they will transform higher education in India and will usher in competition that will force all higher educational institutions in India to spruce up the courses they offer and employ better teaching methods . The UGC has done well to allow a good degree of autonomy to these foreign institutions and a long period of 10 years with the usual conditions that the courses should not be against India's interests and students must not suffer if a course is discontinued.

The criticism that these institutions will be elitist falls flat because in any case, a huge number of Indian students (over 4.5 lakh every year) go abroad for higher education. If there are students in India who desire foreign education and who have the funds to finance it (or obtain education loans or part or full merit scholarships), there is no harm in allowing such students to pursue these courses in foreign universities in India. But the fact remains that the heavy lifting in higher education will still be done by Indian institutions and the UGC will do well to keep on supporting them. In fact, after foreign institutions set up campuses in India, the UGC will have to support Indian institutions more to ensure that they do not fall short and continuously update their curriculum and teaching methods to remain relevant. 

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