Sibal pitches for FDI in education

Slamming the country's premier educational bodies like UGC and Medical Council of India (MCI) for 'destroying' the efforts to improve education system, Union science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said a bill permitting FDI in education would be tabled in the Parliament "not too far from now".

Making a strong pitch for FDI in education, he said though a bill in this regard has been prepared, there was no progress "because of obvious reasons", he said, apparently referring to Left parties' opposition to it.

"The bill is ready. At the appropriate time, it will happen. It is not going to be too far from now. It has not moved forward yet. This is going to happen come what may," he said in his address to China-India-US workshop on science, technology and innovation at National Institute of Advanced Studies here last night.

 

Asserting that in the western world, the university system was entirely independent of state control, Sibal questioned the very existence of bodies like UGC, MCI and All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) in the cause for promotion of education.

"There is not such a thing as UGC, there is not such a thing as AICTE, there is not such a thing as MCI (in the western world). They destroyed our entire efforts to take education forward," Sibal said, mincing no words to a group of Indian, Chinese and American scientists.

Underscoring the need for FDI in education, he said young children in India "" more than the population of Europe who are less than 35 years of age "" need schools, institutions of higher learning and excellence, institutions that impart skills and training.

Meanwhile, speaking on the nuclear deal with the US, Sibal said, was in fact about India collaborating with the international community in civil nuclear energy and should not be seen as an agreement between New Delhi and Washington only.

"When we talk of Indo-US deal, it is not about India and US; it is about India and international community collaborating in civil nuclear energy. We are trying to see the deal in the context of India and United States; it is not that at all," Sibal said at a China-India-US Science, Technology and Innovation workshop here yesterday.

"We are trying to get rid of the (technology) denial regime which we suffered from and because of this (technology denial) we are where we are today in technological terms", he said.