Sibal asks new central universities to have common entrance test

September 30th, 2009 CHENNAI - Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Wednesday urged the government to earmark 50 percent of the seats in central universities for students from rural areas.

September 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal Monday asked the Catholic clergy to help the government in shaping the three pillars of education - "expansion, inclusion and excellence". Inaugurating the five-day triennial national assembly of the Conference of Religious India (CRI) here in which more than 550 major superiors of about 360 Catholic religious orders are participating, Sibal said there was still a lot to be done for people's education.

September 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Public Private Partnership (PPP) model is being looked at for some of the Innovation Universities that are to be set up by the Government (the 11th Five Year Plan proposes the establishment of 14 such universities aimed at world class standards). The Government is already in the process of involving a PPP model in school education, said Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal while meeting with Minister for Trade, Investment and Business of the United Kingdom, Lord Mervyn Davies.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Centre has called upon States for support and partnership to ensure educational reforms in the country. Addressing the inaugural session of the 56th Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) meeting in the national capital on Monday, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal underlined expansion, inclusion and excellence as the three underlying principles for educational reforms.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Monday announced that vice-chancellors of universities in the country would be appointed by a collegium headed by an eminent person equivalent to a Nobel laureate, and not the central or state government. Sibal told reporters here: "The collegium will consist of 30 to 40 people headed by an eminent personality, lets say a Nobel laureate.

August 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday called on the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to create quality faculties in the field of technical education to match the growing demands. Speaking at the Convocation of IIT-Delhi, Sibal said despite growth in number of technical institutions, there had not been proportionate increase in quality graduates in the country.

August 1st, 2009 KOLKATA - Stating that the education system in India needs to undergo a thorough change, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal Saturday said his ministry would work towards freeing it up in the coming years. "We need to free up the education system.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday asked all state governments to provide a detailed report of their objectives in the field of higher education by 2020 within a three month deadline. "In the next three months...each state must give its vision as to what it wishes to do by 2020 in the filed of higher education," he said at a conference here attended by higher education secretaries of states," Sibal said.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Friday said the government is considering setting up autonomous colleges independent of universities. Addressing a meeting of principal secretaries and secretaries of higher education from various states here, Sibal said: "The government is thinking in terms of allowing the setting up of autonomous colleges." The minister's day-long interaction with the officials was his first initiative to evolve a consensus of the states for reforms in the education sector.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Friday said the government was considering allowing new autonomous colleges to be set up independent of universities but with stringent quality parameters. Addressing a meeting of principal secretaries and secretaries of higher education from various states here, Sibal said: "The government is thinking in terms of allowing the setting up of autonomous colleges." Elaborating on his idea, Sibal told IANS: "Right now, there is no institution that starts as an autonomous college.

July 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal says foreign universities like Harvard were welcome in India. He also clarified that the ministry wished to abolish the Class 10 board exams of only the central and not the state boards.

July 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government is probing the "spurt" in permissions granted for setting up deemed universities and examining whether they are following the norms laid down for them, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday. "We have set up a committee.

July 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The boy-girl student ratio in the undergraduate courses at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may soon see a positive turn. Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal Wednesday directed the IITs to admit more female students.

June 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - HRD Minister Kapil Sibal announced on Monday that the government has decided that it will not accept any further applications of aspiring deemed universities and would conduct a thorough review of the functioning of such universities. "The ministry will set up its own committee, which will visit the deemed universities.

January 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India will have one of the most modernised meteorological departments in the world by 2014, a central minister said here Thursday. Speaking at the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) 134th Foundation Day, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said: 'The central government has set in motion the process to make IMD one of the most modernised departments in the world and this could be achieved by 2014.' The IMD has taken up new initiatives for massive modernization and upgradation of equipment, computing facilities, technology, services and human resource development.