New Delhi, 05 July 2019: Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman , has presented the Union Budget 2019-20 today. The budget proposes to set up Higher Education Commission and National Research Foundation (NSF).
The Finance Minister Informed that a draft legislation being prepared for setting up Higher Education Commission of India.
A new National Research Foundation (NRF) that will focus on funding research within the education system, primarily at colleges and universities. The Foundation will encompass the four broad areas of Sciences, Technology, Social Sciences, and Arts & Humanities. Besides strengthening the presently weak support that subjects such as the Social Sciences and the Humanities receive, NRF will also bring in cohesion among the various research endeavours of multidisciplinary character.
Besides providing funding, NRF will also take care of the need to seed and build research capacity in universities and colleges through a formal mechanism of mentoring that will be instituted. In enunciating the principles of the functioning of the NRF, the need to: i) bring in synergies between the
stakeholders and research groups, ii) create a mechanism for monitoring and mid-course corrections, and iii) strengthen the linkages between universities and their counterparts at the global level will all be addressed. The NRF will catalyse research in universities and colleges, institutions that have hitherto not been big players in the research scene of the country, and help build the capacity to do research through an institutionalised mentoring mechanism, involving expert researchers from premier institutions in the country.
To boost quality of teaching, the GYAN was started aimed to bring in the global pool of scientists and researchers. From no single Indian institute in top 200 universities ranking until 5 years ago, we now have three institutions in the top 200 global institutions bracket. To make India a hub of higher education the government proposes ‘Study in India’ to bring in foreign students to pursue education here, she says.
To popularize sports at all levels, National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under @kheloindia initiative, says Finance Minister.
An amount of 400 crores has been provided under the head ‘World Class Institutions’ for the year 2019-20.
