Education in India is primarily managed by state-run public education system, which fall under the command of the government at three levels: Central, state and local. Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. The approximate ratio of public schools to private schools in India is 7:5. Major policy initiatives in Indian education are numerous. Up until 1976, education policies and implementation were determined legally by each of India’s constitutional states. The 42nd amendment to the constitution in 1976 made education a ‘concurrent subject’. From this point on the central and state governments shared formal responsibility for funding and administration of education. In a country as large as India, now with 28 states and eight union territories, this means that the potential for variations between states in the policies, plans, programs and initiatives for elementary education is vast. Periodically, national policy frameworks are created to guide states in their creation of state-level programs and policies. State governments and local government bodies manage the majority of primary and upper primary schools and the number of government-managed elementary schools is growing. Simultaneously the number and proportion managed by private bodies is growing. In 2005-6 83.13% of schools offering elementary education were managed by government and 16.86% of schools were under private management. Of those schools managed privately, one third are ‘aided’ and two thirds are ‘unaided’. Enrolment in Grades 1-8 is shared between government and privately managed schools in the ratio 73:27. However in rural areas this ratio is higher (80:20) and in urban areas much lower (36:66).
Smriti Zubin Irani is an Indian politician and a former television actress and producer. She is the Minister of Women and Child Development in the Union Cabinet of India since May 2019. A prominent leader within the Bharatiya Janata Party, she is a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing Amethi.
Banasthali Vidyapith is a university located in the Tonk district of the Rajasthan state in India. It is a deemed university offering programs at the secondary, senior secondary, undergraduate, and postgraduate degree levels.
The University of Delhi, informally known as Delhi University (DU), is a collegiate public central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) by the University Grants Commission (UGC). As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and constituent colleges. Consisting of three colleges, two faculties, and 750 students at its founding, the University of Delhi has since become India's largest institution of higher learning and among the largest in the world. The university has 16 faculties and 86 departments distributed across its North and South campuses. It has 77 constituent colleges and five other institutes. The Vice President of India serves as the university chancellor.
The University Grants Commission of India is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education. It provides recognition to universities in India, and disbursements of funds to such recognized universities and colleges. The headquarters are in New Delhi, and it has six regional centres in Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bangalore. A proposal to replace it with another new regulatory body called HECI is under consideration by the Government of India. The UGC provides doctoral scholarships to all those who clear JRF in the National Eligibility Test. On an average, each year ₹725 crore (US$96 million) is spent on doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships by the commission.
Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad is a public technical university located in Dhanbad, India. It has main campus of 218 acres in Sardar Patel Nagar area of Dhanbad and recently Jharkhand Cabinet approved 226.98 acres of land in Nirsa for its second campus, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad administration has plans to open more than 29 academic centers in this upcoming campus in Nirsa, Dhanbad. It is an Institute of National Importance. IIT (ISM) has 18 academic departments covering Engineering, Applied Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences and Management programs. It was formerly known as Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad before its conversion into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Annamalai University is a public state university located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. It is spread across 950 acres (3.8 km2) in Chidambaram and offers courses of higher education in Arts, Science, Engineering, Medical, Management (MBA), Humanities, Agriculture, and Physical Education. The university also provides more than 500 courses through distance education. With over 32,480 students residing on campus, it is among one of the largest unitary, teaching, and residential universities in Asia.
Previously a neglected aspect of the Indian Central government, Education in Odisha is witnessing a rapid transformation. Its capital city, Bhubaneswar, is emerging as a knowledge hub in India with several new public and private universities, including the establishment of an Indian Institute of Technology after five decades of demand.
Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research (BIHER) also known as Bharath Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), informally Bharath University, and formerly Bharath Engineering College is a private and deemed university and an Indian institute of higher education located in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. It is recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and is accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with the highest grade of A. It is also approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Abhay Bang and Rani Bang are Indian social activists and researchers working in the field of community health in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. They have revolutionized healthcare for the poorest people in India and have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates in one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have endorsed their approach to treating newborn babies and the programme is currently being rolled out across India and in parts of Africa. Abhay and Rani Bang founded the Society For Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) – a non-profit organisation, which is involved in rural health service and research. The couple is the winner of the Maharashtra Bhushan Award. Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow has conferred honorary doctorates on Abhay and Rani Bang. SNDT Women's University, Mumbai has also awarded honoris causa to Rani Bang. The Lancet has honoured the couple as "the pioneers of health care in rural India". Abhay and Rani Bang are the first recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They were also inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. The Bangs are honoured for their leadership in community-based health care that is now helping to save the lives of millions of the most vulnerable newborns and children. During their careers, the Bangs have helped foster a renaissance in community-based primary health care. In 2016, Johns Hopkins University conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award upon them.
The Ministry of Education (MoE), formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development (1985–2020), is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further divided into two departments: the Department of School Education and Literacy, which deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and the Department of Higher Education, which deals with university level education, technical education, scholarships, etc.
India has a publicly funded higher education system, that is the third largest in the world, next to the United States and China. The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission, which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state. Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 15 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The Framework was approved by the MHRD and launched by Minister of Human Resource Development on 29 September 2015. Depending on their areas of operation, institutions have been ranked under 11 different categories – overall, university, colleges, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, dental and research. The Framework uses several parameters for ranking purposes like resources, research, and stakeholder perception. These parameters have been grouped into five clusters and these clusters were assigned certain weightages. The weightages depend on the type of institution. About 3500 institutions voluntarily participated in the first round of rankings.
National Medical Commission (NMC) is an Indian regulatory body of 33 members which regulates medical education and medical professionals. It replaced the Medical Council of India on 25 September 2020. The Commission grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical schools, grants registration to medical practitioners, and monitors medical practice and assesses the medical infrastructure in India.
The National Education Policy of India 2020, which was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July 2020, outlines the vision of new education system of India. The new policy replaces the previous National Policy on Education, 1986. The policy is a comprehensive framework for elementary education to higher education as well as vocational training in both rural and urban India. The policy aims to transform India's education system by 2040.
