Overview
- Speaking at the CII Global Higher Education Summit in New Delhi, Anantha Nageswaran said state governments must move from control to stewardship to translate policy into results.
- He called the persistent shortage of teachers in state universities the most urgent fix and backed hiring ‘professors of practice’ to plug gaps.
- The CEA pressed for outcome-based regulation, differentiated funding tied to institutional roles and performance, and a more entrepreneurial public administration.
- He urged deeper industry participation in curriculum design, credit-bearing internships, applied research, shared infrastructure, and governance to boost relevance and employability.
- The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 15 December, proposes a single umbrella regulator with single-window approvals, drawing both support for streamlining and criticism over centralisation, while a CII CSR study highlighted ongoing faculty vacancies and uneven regulatory capacity.