India to have four new central varsities

New Delhi, July 24: The government has decided to set up four new central universities in the country, parliament was told Wednesday.

"The ministry of human resource development (HRD) has decided to set up four new central universities, viz. one Central Tribal University each in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, one central university in Andhra Pradesh and Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Bihar," HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. No new Central University is proposed in the State of Rajasthan.

At present, there are 40 central universities under the purview of the ministry. To increase access and improve the quality of higher education in the country and also to remove the regional imbalances in higher education sector, the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) approved by the National Development Council (NDC) envisaged setting up of one Central University each in States which did not have any Central University till then.

Accordingly, 16 Central Universities were established by the Central Universities Act, 2009 in different un-served States. In the 12th Five Year Plan as approved by NDC, the focus is on scaling up of capacity in existing institutions rather than increasing the number of institutions, with exception of new institutions needed to address critical regional and social gaps.

IANS