One more U-Turn...why didn't you think before throwing....Mr. Minster?

Final decision on NCHER rests with Centre, says Kapil Sibal

Aarti Dhar - The Hindu

NEW DELHI: Under criticism from his Cabinet colleagues, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday sought to clarify that the final decision on the proposed National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER) remained with the government at the “highest level” and that the decision would be “acceptable” to the Ministry.

Speaking to journalists at the end of a daylong consultation organised by the task force on the draft NCHER bill with academics from across the country, Mr. Sibal said the bill was the property of the task force. The government could change its title and take the final call.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and the Bar Council of India oppose the idea of transferring medical and legal education to the Human Resource Development Ministry, which is piloting the legislation and which has set up the task force.

The task force decided to set up an ‘informal' committee of four eminent persons. It will study the drafts of the NCHER and National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH) bills to ensure there was no overlap. The committee will comprise Srinath Reddy and Ranjit Roy Choudhary (both members of the HCHRH task force) and M.K. Bhan and Syeda Hamid, both members of the NCHER task force. Mr. Sibal said the inputs received at the consultation would be taken into account while finalising the draft NCHER bill before it was placed before the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) next month. After the CABE approved it, the draft Bill would be sent to the government.

Task force member N.R. Madhava Menon said the legislation was aimed at granting more autonomy and academic freedom to universities, and this would lead to more accountability. The government would have no role in the setting up of the commission, and there were mechanisms to check its misuse. “We also want medical, legal and agricultural higher education to be under the purview of the commission,” he said. The task force would recommend to the government to amend the Constitution for bringing agriculture education to the Concurrent List. Another member M.K. Bhan said the second draft of the Bill — discussed at the consultation — was more consistent with the federal structure, as it had representation for the States, and for a wide spectrum of areas. The participants also agreed with the new draft that had a provision for setting up a general council that allowed for wider discussions. Of the newly constituted Board of Governors that replaced the Medical Council of India, one member turned up for the consultation.

IIT, IIM staff crunch: Increase in vacancies in 2009-10 : Mr HRD Minister what your "Task Force" is doing?

IIT, IIM staff crunch

New Delhi, April 21 (PTI): The IITs and IIMs are facing a shortage of faculty members despite an attractive pay structure, good accommodation and other perks, the Lok Sabha was told today.

IIT Kharagpur has a maximum vacancy of 299 posts, followed by 222 in IIT Bombay, 194 in IIT Roorkee, 138 in IIT Madras, 78 in IIT Delhi, 69 in IIT Kanpur and 65 in IIT Guwahati, HRD minister of state D. Purandeswari said in a written reply.

The number of vacancies have increased from 877 in the seven old IITs in 2008-09 to 1,065 in 2009-10, the minister said.

The vacancies in these institutions in 2007-08 was 971.

There are 95 vacanies in the seven IIMs. IIM-Bangalore has a maximum vacancy of 35 posts followed by 29 in IIM-Ahmedabad.

“Recruitment of faculty is a continuous process and all efforts are being made by the institutes to fill up vacant posts. Institutions have been employing suitable strategies to attract and retain quality faculty which include attractive pay structure, provisions of good residential accommodation, medical facilities and initial research grants,” Purandeswari said.

Babus Rule The Roost: Another U-Turn of Kapil Sibal

Pasted from - (http://binupramod.posterous.com/babus-rule-the-roost)
A former private secretary to Kapil Sibal is set to head India’s largest central government school chain less than a year after the human resource development minister objected to bureaucrats occupying top education posts.
The HRD ministry has recommended Avinash Dikshit, a 1986 batch officer of the Indian Defence Accounts Service, for the post of commissioner, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, lying vacant since October 31, top government officials told The Telegraph.

Dikshit was a private secretary to Sibal between 2004 and 2006 when the Congress leader was the minister for science and technology in the first UPA government.

The HRD ministry has asked the appointments committee of the cabinet headed by the Prime Minister to approve Dikhsit’s nomination. The committee is the apex panel for top government appointments and is likely to clear Dikshit’s name soon, sources said.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan runs over 1,000 schools across the country and in a few foreign countries. Over a million students study in the Kendriya Vidyalayas.

Dikshit’s name was recommended by the ministry after a search-cum-selection panel set up by Sibal found him most appropriate for the post.

No one, including other contenders for the post, is known to have either formally voiced criticism of the manner in which the selection was conducted or questioned Dikshit’s record as an official.

But Sibal’s stamp of approval for the appointment of his own former aide suggests that he has backtracked on a stand he had taken last year.

Last year, Sibal had indicated to his officials that he did not want a career bureaucrat or police officer to head any educational body.

Academicians across the country had for several years criticised the government’s education appointments policy, blaming it for the increased bureaucratisation and politicisation of education.

A bureaucrat or policeman, dependent on his political masters for career promotions is unlikely to challenge politicians on matters of academic autonomy, these academicians had argued.

In official file notings, Sibal had questioned the practice of appointing officials removed from education to top posts at academic bodies or institutions — a practice common under his predecessors Arjun Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi.

Sibal’s comments to his officials appeared to finally indicate a shift towards academicians governing educational institutions and bodies.

But the ministry’s decision to pick Dikshit suggests that the minister has decided to abandon his opposition to the appointment of career bureaucrats to top education posts.