Overview

• Speaking Monday in New Delhi, the education minister called the $100,000 H‑1B application fee a periodic geopolitical shock and said Indian institutions can meet global standards.
• At IIT Madras on Sunday, he said he did not want “anybody’s visa” or model and rejected China as a template for bringing back overseas students.
• He urged students to seek overseas exposure for learning rather than comfort and cautioned against leaving the country solely for higher pay.
• Citing Chandrayaan, he noted that key engineers were not from IITs or NITs, arguing that innovation is not confined to elite campuses.
• He highlighted scale and outreach—about 50 million in higher education with roughly one million studying abroad—and pointed to IIT and IIM campuses abroad while reiterating support for NEP implementation and defending draft UGC rules on vice-chancellor appointments.