The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a bill to establish an integrated higher education regulatory body to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
Several decisions were approved in the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The UGC oversees university-level higher education, while the AICTE monitors technical education, and the NCTE is the regulatory body for teacher education. The government intends to introduce a new higher education regulatory bill, which will replace the UGC, in Parliament during this winter session. The new regulator will take the place of institutions like the UGC. According to the ‘Indian Higher Education Commission Bill’, such a commission, as proposed in the new National Education Policy, will replace the UGC and the other two higher education institutions.
71 outdated laws to be repealed: The Cabinet also approved a bill to repeal 71 outdated laws. Since 2014, 1,562 old, outdated laws have been repealed. Of these 71 laws, 65 are amendments to major laws and six are independent laws. According to officials, the proposed repeal and amendment bill for the 71 laws is not aimed at repealing colonial-era laws, but rather at removing laws whose usefulness has ended.
