Reports Says No Institute Of Eminence Tag For Pvt Universities Critical of Govt; Govt Denies Claim

Based on the note sent by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), the central government reportedly is hesitant to give institute of eminence (IoE) tag to several top private universities — including Ashoka University, Krea University and Azim Premji University — as the universities and their associates have been critical of the Modi government, reported The Print on January 28, Monday.

According to the report, the IB had sent the note in December 2018, highlighting that the officials who are associated with these universities have been critical of the Centre. The Logical Indian could not independently verify the report.

‘Raghuram Rajan is critical of the Centre’

The Intelligence Bureau’s note has claimed that the former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who is on the board of Krea University, is critical of the government. It further said that the Krea university which is located in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and has not even begin its first batch is also critical of the government.

The note has claimed that the Ashoka University, located in Sonepat, Haryana is also anti-government and it funds “anti-government propaganda sites”. It said that Pratap Bhanu Mehta, vice chancellor of Ashoka University is an “unrelenting critic of the government”. The note by the IB also named university’s founder-chairperson Ashish Dhawan and said that he “also funds anti-government propaganda sites like The Wire”.

The Print reported that Dhawan who is on the board of directors of the Independent Public Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF), which funds The Wire, and also the Print, for the purpose of reporting and publishing stories of public interest.

Azim Premji University criticized the Modi’s smart city project

While mentioning about the Azim Premji University, located in Bangalore the note said that the Wipro Ltd Chairperson Azim Premji in 2016, made a speech in which it said that the smart city projects today is more talk than action. It added that the smart city project has got a lot of traction from the Prime Minister, but its implementation has been very shallow. The Intelligence Bureau also said that Wipro’s philanthropic arm, the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives Ltd, has been funding The Wire.

It added that the university in a previous study had highlighted the growing fund crunch in the MGNREGA scheme.

Other universities also named

The agency in its note has also named other university, including Jamia Hamdard (New Delhi), Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (Bhubaneswar), Indian Institute of Public Health (Gandhinagar), OP Jindal Global University (Sonepat), and the Vellore Institute of Technology.

The Print spoke to HRD ministry, R. Subrahmanyam, who told the publication that “The report of the EEC (Empowered Expert Committee) would be considered in the UGC meeting on 29 January.” However, he later denied the existence of such a report through a tweet.

There is no such IB report on these Institutions received by the Ministry.
The matter will be examined by the UGC in it's meeting tomorrow purely based on merits.

— R. Subrahmanyam (@subrahyd) January 28, 2019

Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javedakar on July 9, 2018, had awarded ‘Institute of Eminence’ (IoE) status to three public institutes, two private institutes and one Greenfield institute, the proposed Jio Institute. Prakash Javadekar had said, “This status would give them unprecedented administrative and academic autonomy,” reported Economic Times.

What is an Institute of Eminence?

According to Financial Express, last year, no Indian Educational Institute had found a place in World University Rankings. Following this, the Modi Government proposed to confer the status of ‘Institute of Eminence’ to some institutions to improve their worldwide ranking. Under this proposal, there will be 20 such institutions which will have world-class education and status. These IoEs will include ten private and 10 government institutions.

These IoEs will be committed to delivering quality education irrespective of the financial background of the students. While the government institutes will be provided with a grant of Rs 1000 crore for the next five years, the private institutes will receive no such funds.

Also Read: Clauses Introduced In 2017 Likely Helped Non-Existent Jio Institute Bag ‘Institute Of Eminence’ Status