India will offer all kinds of educational institutions, no monopoly allowed: Dharmendra Pradhan
India Today
Welcoming foreign universities to the country, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that India would offer all kinds of educational institutions and that no monopoly would be allowed.
India will offer all kinds of educational institutions public, private and foreign. Regulatory curbs will not hinder any of them, but monopolies will not be allowed, Minister for Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan said at the Business Today India@100 Economy Summit ‘Achieving Global Leadership’ in Delhi on Friday.
Speaking at the session titled ‘Jobs: Laying the Path for the Demographic Dividend to Bloom’, he said: “It is the state’s responsibility to create a level playing field. One section of the society will be protected by government intervention. Those who can afford to pay from their own pocket should pay.”
He added that was the recommendation of the government’s National Education Policy (NEP) rolled out in 2020.
“That is why we are inviting all foreign universities to our country with Indian regulations and curriculum. Certain minimum regulation will be there, but we are open and want to de-bottleneck our education system. Nobody’s monopoly should be there,” he said in response to a query on regulatory curbs hindering foreign institutions from diversifying in India.
Addressing the issue of the glaring difference in the qualities of Indian and foreign education systems, evident from the first Indian university (The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru) appearance only at rank 155 on QS World University Rankings 2023, he pointed out that India’s challenge is multifold, choosing to focus on two aspects quantity and quality.
“One hundred and thirty million students are in the marketplace without any formal education or skilling. If they are skilled, capacitated and given knowledge, their productivity will increase," Pradhan said.
Giving examples of Google-parent Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former PepsiCo top boss Indra Nooyi, he said we should also appreciate our education system.
