HRD panel framing new education policy seeks 3-month extension

An HRD Ministry-appointed panel tasked with drafting a new National Education Policy has sought an extension of three months till March 2018.
Headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan, the panel was set up by the human resource development (HRD) ministry in June and it was supposed to submit its report this month.
According to sources, the committee is still holding consultations with various stakeholders and has sought an extension of three months to come up with the draft policy.
The existing National Education Policy was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992. A new National Education Policy was part of the manifesto of the BJP, which now governs the country.

Apart from Kasturirangan, the committee has eight members including mathematician Manjul Bhargava and former IAS officer K J Alphonse.
Other members of the panel are Ram Shankar Kureel (VC of Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, MP), Vasudha Kamat (ex-VC of SNDT University, Mumbai), M K Shridhar (ex-member secretary of Karnataka Innovation Council and Karnataka Knowledge Commission), T V Kattimani (VC of Tribal University, Amarkantak), Mazhar Asif (professor at Guwahati University), and Krishan Mohan Tripathi (ex-director of education, Uttar Pradesh).

The panel will also take into account the report of a panel headed by former cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian, formed by the HRD ministry during the tenure of Smriti Irani.

The T S R Subramanian panel submitted its report to the government in May 2016, suggesting measures to strengthen the education sector that caters to over 300 million students.
However, the government decided to have more consultations and use it as an "input" for the future draft and not as a final draft report, and set up the panel headed by Kasturirangan.
Kasturirangan headed Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) between 1994 and 2003 and was awarded the country's second highest civilian honour -- Padma Vibhushan -- in 2000.