Education sector needs more flexible regulation: Montek

The higher education sector, in the country needs to remove dysfunctional regulation and bring in a more flexible one to raise standards, said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Speaking at the Ficci Higher Education Summit, Ahluwalia said, “The challenge before planners, policymakers and educationists, both in the public and private sector, is of producing world-class Indian universities that could be counted in the top 200 rating list. In the next 20 years, we must see a significant number of educational institutions in that category.”

Ahulwalia also underlined the need to lend an international flavour to Indian universities by inducting international faculty. “This would not happen unless the government removes the restriction on employment of international faculty,” he said.

For higher education, the 12th Plan objective is expansion, equality of access and excellence. The aim is to raise the gross enrolment ration from the current level of 15 per cent to 30 per cent over the next 15 years.

“Expansion of higher education should be balanced with equality of access, especially for those living in areas where educational institutes did not exist,” Ahluwalia said.

On monetary policy

Even as India Inc blames Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tight monetary policy for hampering industrial production, Ahluwalia said there is no connection between the two.

“I would not draw any connection. The rate today is roughly what it was when the economy was growing at nine per cent,” he said.

Ahluwalia, added that other global and domestic factors are affecting factory production.

Since March 2010, the Reserve Bank has raised interest rates by 3.75 per cent. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) slipped to a low of 1.9 per cent in September, the latest data released.

IIP was at 6.1 per cent in September 2010.

"We are concerned that the pace of growth in the economy has gone down. But IIP data is only a month’s affair. We have to make sure that in the next year the economy recovers from what is clearly a slower growth phase in the current year," Ahluwalia said.

Asked if RBI would look at another round of rate hike to tame inflation, he said, "As of now, actions taken have been with the objective of trying to bring inflation under control. Looking forward, I do not want to speculate."