In accordance with the decision of the Prime Minister for finalizing a five-year vision plan for each Ministry, the Department of Higher Education of HRD Ministry has finalized and released a five-year vision plan named Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP). This report has been prepared after a detailed exercise done by the Experts covering the following ten areas:
Group Number |
Group Focus |
Chairperson |
Group 1 |
Strategies for expanding access |
Shri Hasmukh Adhia, Chancellor, Central University Gujarat |
Group 2 |
Towards global best teaching/learning process |
Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan & former Secretary, Dept of Space; former Chairman - ISRO |
Group 3 |
Promoting Excellence |
Shri Pawan Goenka, Chairman, BoG, IIT Madras |
Group 4 |
Governance reforms |
Prof M S Ananth, Chairman, National Testing Agency (NTA) |
Group 5 |
Assessment, Accreditation & Ranking systems |
Prof Surendra Prasad, former Director, IIT Delhi |
Group 6 |
Promotion of research & innovation |
Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to PM |
Group 7 |
Employability & entrepreneurship |
Shri Ajit Balakrishnan, former Chairman, IIM Kolkata |
Group 8 |
Using Technology for better reach |
Prof Deepak Pathak, Chairman, NIT Goa & Prof IIT Bombay |
Group 9 |
Internationalisation |
Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog |
Group 10 |
Financing higher education |
Shri. Kris Gopalakrishnan, former CEO, Infosys. |
2. The ten Expert Groups drawn from senior academicians, administrators and industrialists, have suggested more than 50 initiatives that would transform the higher education sector completely. The Groups have set the following goals for higher education sector:
3. For each initiative, the Groups have recommended modalities for implementation, investments and timelines. The proposal would now be taken for inter-departmental consultations and appraisal through the EFC mechanism before being taken to Cabinet for approval.