Education in India

The Manipal Education Brand

The Economic Times in a recent article, described the Manipal education brand. Manipal* is one of India's well established education brands, but not as well known as the other established Indian education brands like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Manipal Education and Medical Group are the custodians of the Manipal brand and are doing a much better job of growing their brand in volume terms than the IITs and IIMs. They are not only active in India, but are also exporting education from India and doing a far better job of it than the IITs and the IIMs, which are doing practically nothing to exploit their brands towards exporting education. Here are some excerpts from the Economic Times article.

Think education in India and you’ll think of the Indian Institutes of Technology or Management — two traditions that have blossomed and blundered under the patronage of the Indian government.

Beyond these, there’s little on the macro level that the country’s education landscape offers. One brand that for 50 years has fought to break this hegemony is a little hilltop destination that consistently draws students from over 30 countries to its southern climes — a feat even the famed IITs and IIMs fall short of. The town is called Manipal, the institution, Manipal.

There’s little to differentiate the two — over 50% of Manipal’s population is students. And it’s around this group that the folklore of Manipal generating the highest telecom revenues per kilometre in the country or accounting for the highest density per km of two-wheelers have grown.

Except this one, which the Malaysian minister of health stamped as true at the first convocation of the Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Melaka: one in five of the doctors registered with the Malaysian Medical Council are graduates from the Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, the country’s first private college.

Beginning in Manipal, the Manipal Education and Medical Group (Manipal Edu for short) is spread across Mangalore, Sikkim and Bangalore in India, with a presence in Nepal, Malaysia, Dubai and Muscat, and plans to enter Sri Lanka by year-end. “Wherever there is an Indian diaspora there is a huge opportunity,” says Ranjan Pai, executive VP of Manipal Edu. The group last year generated $14-16m in India and $20m at its Malaysian campus.

This year, they hope to increase their forex revenue in India by 20%. “Education could be a significant foreign exchange earner for India. Manipal is probably the largest forex earner in education today.” Given this logic, the US and UK markets are an obvious fit — and that’s where Manipal is headed next. The larger message: “It must really be Brand India rather than any specific institute. We need to spread the word that India is a safe, wonderful, multi-cultural and cost-effective education destination,” says Ranjan.

Its already significant reach makes Manipal the obvious front-runner. Or does it? For a brand already 50, and an umbrella label — Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) — with revenues of Rs 500 crore from its two universities and hospitals, Manipal isn’t even No. 1 in India.

This then — “Our global ambition is to be known as one of the world’s top 50-100 universities. That gives us a sense of the gap. The first step is to have a presence in all the major geographies of the world,” says DA Prasanna, CEO Manipal Enterprises — seems a bit of a stretch.

To push their engineering and management schools into the top 10, Manipal is planning some American-style poaching: “The challenge is attracting students.” The plan: To institute scholarships for the top 100 brains in the country from the coming academic year. If they can’t wean them away from the IITs, Manipal hopes to attack the National Institutes of Technology’s student base. In dental education, allied health and pharmacy, Pai says, Manipal has already made the cut.

If they succeed, Manipal will have achieved two things: It will be the only private educational initiative in the country to have taken on not one or two, but a slew of India’s government-sponsored all-stars — AIIMS in medicine; the IITs and NITs in engineering; and the IIMs in management.

And it would have done this while remaining, since its incorporation as the Academy of General Education in 1942, completely self-sufficient. “In the social sector, if you rely excessively on grants, you put tremendous energy into managing those, rather than running a good economic engine,” says Prasanna. “We run as a trust. We are only trying to function like a corporate for efficiency,” adds Ramdas Pai, president, MAHE.

Manipal is many steps down this track. However, its explosive growth — two universities, 21 professional colleges, 1,32,000 students for both campus and distance courses, plus 11 hospitals — meant that at some point complacency crept in. A few years ago, Manipal Edu decided to professionalise: Inducting more professional managers on board, including CEO Prasanna, the former CEO of Wipro GE Medical systems. In 1999-00 an effort to unify the brand was launched. At the time, the Manipal institutions were a chaotic bunch fielded under 30-40 different logos. “It was a nightmare to get all the institutes to agree to move to a single logo,” says Ranjan.

Then in 2001, Manipal went a step further and set up a corporate office, to support and co-ordinate the activities of various institutions. “The main idea is to help MAHE institutions run efficiently. Not-for-profit institutions have a tendency to run inefficiently,” admits Ranjan. Now, the corporate group handles central purchasing, campus-wide licensing agreements, infrastructure developments and international tie-ups. “We will also look at new areas of business interest,” says Ranjan. Non-core tasks like facilities management, hospital management and housekeeping are being outsourced.

Today, ‘Manipal: Inspired By Life’ is the mother brand. A modern avatar of the ancient seat of learning, Nalanda (from Nalma or lotus), Manipal has come to symbolise the quest for knowledge.

I had known about the Manipal Group earlier, but this recent article has got me thinking. I hope to learn more about the Manipal Group in the coming weeks.

*Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is a deemed university in India.

Thane Municipal corporation declares 20 schools illegal. But schools and parents seem to think otherwise. What is going on?

Mid Day reports,

The Thane Municipal Corporation’s education committee has declared 20 private schools operating in Thane municipal limits as illegal. There are approximately 7,000 students going to these 20 schools, of which 11 are English medium, three Marathi medium, three Hindi medium and three Urdu medium.

Says Chintamani Karkhanis, chairman of the education committee, “The schools that operate privately should have a sanction from the education committee.They should operate as per the norms of the government, namely, a proper building structure, space management, staff management, legal construction, certificate from the architect and most important of all, the education should be as per the norms of the education committee.”

These private schools do not get any funds or support from the government.

According to Karkhanis, parents blindly admit their children into schools without checking their legal status. They also pay huge amounts of money as fees, which ultimately turn out to be a waste.

“The schools continue to function even after being declared illegal as parents continue to admit their children. Many of these schools function till SSC and they get their students forms processed through legal schools,” he says.

These schools may actually be innovating by working around all the various bureaucratic regulations and rules required for gaining recognition/legal status, without putting their students at a disadvantage. They get their students to take the relevant recognised exams (through other schools - see quote in italics at the bottom of this post) to get a recognised school leaving certificate, which is must to go to college.

The list of illegal schools has been compiled by a special committee, which comprised members of the education department. “Our committee visited every school before declaring them illegal.

The people who are denying this are certainly lying,” says Karkhanis. The schools have been given notices and their names have been forwarded to the police. However, action against them can be taken only if parents stop admitting them into these schools.

Why are parents not voting with their feet and running away from the schools declared as illegal? On the contrary, are the parents actually voting with their hard earned money (by continuing to put their children in these so called illegal schools,despite the municipal corporation claiming they are illegal) and saying that these schools effectively deliver what the parents and the children want? Is this just a case of the Municipal Corporation getting upset with the fact that these schools are actually succeeding in fulfilling the needs of the parents without kowtowing to the Municipal Corporation? I think that might well be the case here.

Mr. Karkhanis must pay a bit more attention to what parents' are doing when the make conscious decisions about the right choice for their children's education, rather than assuming that the Municipal Corporation knows best.

Mukhtar Patel, Trustee, National Urdu School, Kausa Mumbra (one of the schools declared illegal) says, “Our school has more than 1,000 students on the rolls and has been functioning since 1993. The legalisation process is on and it might take another year. We have liaisons with legal schools, which allow our students to sit for board exams.”

The current model of the National Urdu School is akin to the Centre for Learning (CFL) model that I had written about earlier - CFL haven't or don't want to get recognition, but get their students to take the recognised exams through a recognised school like the National Institute of Open Schooling.

Implications of the proposed new cess on Central taxes for funding education

According to the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the UPA government will introduce a cess on all central taxes to finance the commitment to universalise access to quality basic education. So how much will this cess generate, how much will an average tax payer have to pay and how will the funds collected through the cess be accounted and utilised?

Business Line provides an overview of the implications of the proposed cess on Central taxes for funding education.

• How much can the cess raise and how will it affect us tax payers?
  According to a report in Business Line,

  to get an idea of the amount that can be raised through the proposed cess, it may be noted that the Centre's gross annual tax revenues are in the region of Rs 2,50,000 crore. A cess is basically a tax on a tax, similar to a surcharge, though the monies raised from the former are earmarked for designated purposes. A one per cent cess, therefore, could potentially raise Rs 2,500 crore, while two per cent - the figure that is generally being talked about - would mobilise double that amount.

  For income tax assesses who are being charged a marginal rate of 30 per cent, the effective rate after imposition of a two per cent cess would work out to 30.6 per cent. If his annual taxable income is, say Rs 2 lakh, his additional burden on account of the cess would be Rs 500. A small price to pay, perhaps, especially when he is assured that the revenues raised from the cess would go to finance universal primary education, rather than the salaries of government employees!

  But then, the cess is to be imposed not only on personal income tax, but also on other central taxes, including on excise and customs duties and even on central sales tax and service tax. This would, in turn, entail, higher prices for the commodities - whether imported or domestically manufactured - that are consumed directly or indirectly. The effective tax burden on the individual from the proposed would, therefore, be definitely higher than Rs 500 per year.

  
  
• How will the money raised by the cess be accounted and utilised?
  
  According to another report in Business Line,
  

  the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said that the funds collected should not be lost in the Consolidated Fund of India, but be utilised for the specific purpose for which it is being levied. ``The proposal will put a very marginal burden on the individual. If the intention for which it is being levied is met then neither any industry nor any Indian should have a problem,''

  Mr M.K. Sanghi, President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), said ``An emphasis on education is required, but the entire aspect has to be looked into carefully. It should be decided in advance how the cess is to be implemented and subsequently >utilised.''

In principle, the proposed cess is a very good idea to generate funds for universalising primary education. But the devil will be in the details. The intention is very good, but will the implementation live up to the promise? As the CII says, the funds should not go into the Consolidate Fund of India. It should be accounted separately and the details of the amounts disbursed out of the cess funds should be made transparent and published on the Internet in full detail, including how the funds will be used by each party that gets it and how progress will be tracked on a monthly basis. In any case, we must try this out.

If the Government is able to set high standards of transparency and show some results, that would be a major boost to universalisation of primary education in India. Let's hope for the best, but keep our ears and eyes open and closely track the implementation.

Implications of the proposed new cess on Central taxes for funding education

According to the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the UPA government will introduce a cess on all central taxes to finance the commitment to universalise access to quality basic education. So how much will this cess generate, how much will an average tax payer have to pay and how will the funds collected through the cess be accounted and utilised?

Business Line provides an overview of the implications of the proposed cess on Central taxes for funding education.

• How much can the cess raise and how will it affect us tax payers?
  According to a report in Business Line,

  to get an idea of the amount that can be raised through the proposed cess, it may be noted that the Centre's gross annual tax revenues are in the region of Rs 2,50,000 crore. A cess is basically a tax on a tax, similar to a surcharge, though the monies raised from the former are earmarked for designated purposes. A one per cent cess, therefore, could potentially raise Rs 2,500 crore, while two per cent - the figure that is generally being talked about - would mobilise double that amount.

  For income tax assesses who are being charged a marginal rate of 30 per cent, the effective rate after imposition of a two per cent cess would work out to 30.6 per cent. If his annual taxable income is, say Rs 2 lakh, his additional burden on account of the cess would be Rs 500. A small price to pay, perhaps, especially when he is assured that the revenues raised from the cess would go to finance universal primary education, rather than the salaries of government employees!

  But then, the cess is to be imposed not only on personal income tax, but also on other central taxes, including on excise and customs duties and even on central sales tax and service tax. This would, in turn, entail, higher prices for the commodities - whether imported or domestically manufactured - that are consumed directly or indirectly. The effective tax burden on the individual from the proposed would, therefore, be definitely higher than Rs 500 per year.

  
  
• How will the money raised by the cess be accounted and utilised?
  
  According to another report in Business Line,
  

  the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said that the funds collected should not be lost in the Consolidated Fund of India, but be utilised for the specific purpose for which it is being levied. ``The proposal will put a very marginal burden on the individual. If the intention for which it is being levied is met then neither any industry nor any Indian should have a problem,''

  Mr M.K. Sanghi, President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), said ``An emphasis on education is required, but the entire aspect has to be looked into carefully. It should be decided in advance how the cess is to be implemented and subsequently >utilised.''

In principle, the proposed cess is a very good idea to generate funds for universalising primary education. But the devil will be in the details. The intention is very good, but will the implementation live up to the promise? As the CII says, the funds should not go into the Consolidate Fund of India. It should be accounted separately and the details of the amounts disbursed out of the cess funds should be made transparent and published on the Internet in full detail, including how the funds will be used by each party that gets it and how progress will be tracked on a monthly basis. In any case, we must try this out.

If the Government is able to set high standards of transparency and show some results, that would be a major boost to universalisation of primary education in India. Let's hope for the best, but keep our ears and eyes open and closely track the implementation.

The ICFAI University in Dehra Dun challenges the UGC

The Hindu reported on March 22 2003,

The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Union Ministry for Human Resources Development, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Uttaranchal Government on a petition by a private university challenging the powers of the UGC to regulate its functioning.

The petitioner, the Institute of Chartered Financial Analyst of India (ICFAI), owner of the university called "The ICFAI University'' in Dehra Dun in Uttranchal, challenged a notification of the UGC intending to regulate and control the university.

The petitioner alleged that it was beyond the powers of the Commission as provided under Section 26 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.

The ICFAI said that it was aggrieved by the notification of the University Grants Commission (Establishment and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities), Regulations 2003, to regulate the university, saying that it was arbitrary and unconstitutional.

It further said that the subject of incorporation and regulation of universities was covered entirely by List II of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.

The ICFAI is an Andhra Pradesh-based non-governmental organisation, and the university was established in July 2003.

It is a self-financing university, and the Uttaranchal Government had notified its establishment in September 2003, the petition said.

The university was, therefore, duly incorporated by an enactment of the Uttaranchal Government and was functioning from the date of its incorporation, the petition said, adding that the legislative competence of the State in establishing a university was not in dispute in view of Entry 32 of List II of Schedule VII of the Constitution.

A Division Bench comprising Justice B.C. Patel and Justice B.D. Ahmed asked the respondents to file replies to the petition by April 27.

Outlook reporting on the same issues adds,

A Division Bench of Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice B D Ahmed also issued notices to the states of Uttaranchal and Chhatisgarh where petitioners - Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) University and Dr C V Raman University - are located respectively.

Refusing to stay the operation of the UGC (Establishment and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003, the Bench asked the three respondents to file their replies by April 27, the next date of hearing.

In case the private universities failed to meet the norms prescribed under the Regulations notified in the official Gazette on December 27 last within three months, the UGC will not recognise any degree/Diploma awarded by them and they shall also invite penalty as prescribed under UGC Act.

The petitioners claimed that since they were established under state enactments and did not receive any grant from UGC, only the states where they were located could regulate their functioning and not the UGC.

Pointing out that education was a state subject under Entry 25 of List II under VIIth Schedule of the Constitution, they sought quashing of the impuged regulations.

However, Government Counsel Sanjay Jain submitted that the Centre had a constitutional mandate under Entry-66 of List-I of VIIth Schedule for co-ordination and determination of the standards in insttitutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical instutions.

I have not been able to find anything yet about the replies filed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the UGC and the Uttaranchal Government and the Court's response to the replies filed.

Public expenditure on education in comparison to India's total government expenditure and GDP

Detailed data on public expenditure on education, in comparison to the total expenditure of the government and India's GDP is available at the Education Ministry's web site. Analysing the data by looking at it in graphical form, throws up some interesting points.

Figure 1: Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP (blue) and as a percentage of expenditure on all sectors together.

Figure 2: Public expenditure on education (green), on all sectors (blue) and India's GDP (red).

Note: All figures above are in crores of rupees. A crore equals 10,000,000 (ten million)

The government's education expenditure as a percentage of GDP (blue line in Figure 1) has never ever risen above 4.3% of GDP, despite the target of 6% having been set as far back as 1968 by the Kothari Commission. Looking at Figure 2 above, the GDP (red line) seems to be rising at a much much faster pace than the government's education expenditure (green line) to be able to reach the 6% target. Finding the money to bridge this gap will be quite a challenge. Though the 6% target finds mention in the manifestos of all parties, I've not seen any mention in any of the manifestos on how they plan to raise the funds to be able to meet this target.

Using 2001-02 figures, public expenditure on education was Rs. 84,179 Crores (at 4.02% of GDP). So to have achieved the 6% target, we would have had to spend Rs. 125,641 crores, an additional Rs. 41,461 crores over what was spent, about a 50% increase. The GDP has been growing much faster over the past 2 years than before, so it will be so much harder to achieve the 6% target.

But the public expenditure on education as a percentage of government expenditure across all sectors (red line in Figure 1 above) has been as high as 14.6% and averages 13.5% over the past few years. (It would be interesting to find out what fraction of government expenditure across all sectors goes towards interest payments, salaries and pensions, defence and other major expenditure heads, to put the education spending in perspective.)

What does the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance have to say on Education?

Here're the extracts relating to education from the draft of the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance Government (UPA) led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which has just been sworn in. Arjun Singh is the Minister in charge of Education.

1. The UPA government pledges to raise public spending in education to least 6 per cent of GDP with at least half this amount being spent on primary and secondary schools.
   It has never gone beyond 4.3% of GDP till 2001-02, despite an official target of 6% being set as far back as 1968. So it will be a tall order to achieve.
   
2. The UPA government will introduce a cess on all central taxes to finance the commitment to universalise access to quality basic education.
   
3. A National Commission on Education will be set up to allocate resources and monitor programmes.
   
4. The UPA will take immediate steps to reverse the trend of communalisation of education that had set in the past five years. It will also ensure that all institutions of higher learning and professional education retain their autonomy.
   
5. The UPA will ensure that nobody is denied professional education because he or she is poor.
   Presumably, this will happen through the EDFC proposed in the Congress' manifesto.
   
6. Academic excellence and professional competence would be the sole criteria for all appointments to bodies like the ICHR, ICSSR, UGC, NCERT.
   
7. A national cooked nutritious mid-day meal scheme will be introduced in primary and secondary schools.

An earlier post summarised the education-related points of the 2004 Manifestos of various parties.

Education - what did the 2004 Manifestos of the various political parties have to say?

The Bharitya Janata Party (BJP) details their plans on education in their 2004 Manifesto, with some specific targets. Here're the relevant extracts from their manifesto, relating to education.

1. Total spending on education will be raised to 6% of the GDP in five years, with enlarged public-private partnership at every level of the educational pyramid.
2. Literacy rate of 85% will be achieved in five years. Our vision is to see that Indian society becomes fully literate by 2015. For this, we will launch a multi-pronged campaign to ensure that every child goes to school, every school is made accountable to the community, and every village and town is made accountable for its quality education status. Appropriate resources both from Government and non-government sources will be mobilized to match our ambitious goals. Innovative tools like computer-based and TV-promoted functional literacy will be employed. The 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' will be made into a people's movement.
3. Spread of education among SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities, and activities aimed at removing gender disparities in education at all levels, will receive increased support.
4. A special fund of Rs. 1,000 crore a year will be created, partially through a cess on all non-needy students, to improve all primary school buildings in rural areas in five years.
5. "Akshaya Patra", as a national mid-day meal program, will be made operational.
6. The entire school and college education system will be overhauled and made employment-oriented. Opportunities for skill development and vocational training will be maximized.
7. A Standards Improvement Campaign, to be named after Dr. Syama Prasad Mookherjee (who became the youngest ever vice-chancellor of the prestigious Calcutta University), will be launched to raise the quality of education in colleges and universities. Institutions that perform well will be suitably recognized.
8. No student would be deprived of access to higher education for lack of resources. Scholarships and soft loans would be made widely available to all needy students. A National Education Development Fund will be established for this purpose.
9. While encouraging private investment, effective steps will be taken to curb commercialization of education.
10. The focus on Indian culture, heritage, and ethical values in syllabi will be strengthened. Character-building and all-round development of the student's personality will be emphasized. Sports, physical training, and social service will be mainstreamed into the educational system.
11. The growing de-emphasis of Bharatiya languages in school and college education will be checked. Teaching in the mother tongue will be encouraged.
12. Efforts will be intensified for the propagation of Sanskrit.
13. Establishment of hostels, especially for women's education, will be encouraged.
14. Administration of our educational institutions will be freed of bureacratism. Community participation in managing their activities and monitoring their performance will be encouraged.
15. Centers of excellence in higher education are India's pride. They will have requisite autonomy to become the best in the world.
16. Five new IITs will be established before 2005.
17. Our vision is to make India a global hub for higher education and regain the glory of the Nalanda era. For this, an action plan will be prepared to elevate at least 25 Indian universities and 100 colleges to international standards in every respect. All our IITs, NITs, IIMs, IIScs, AIIMS-like medical institutes, and other reputed higher educational institutions (both existing and proposed) will be further supported. Public-private participation will be fully activated to realize the above vision, which would not only raise India's stature globally but also enable our country to earn significant foreign exchange.

Here're the extracts from the 2004 Manifesto of the Indian National Congress, relating to education.

1. The Congress pledges to raise public spending in education to at least 6% of GDP with at least half of this amount being spent in primary and secondary schools.
2. A cess will he proposed on all central taxes to finance the commitment to universalize access to quality basic education.
3. A National Commission on Education will be set up to allocate resources and monitor programmes for compliance with national priorities.
4. The Congress will ensure that all institutions of higher learning in science, technology, social sciences and management will retain the sense of autonomy that they have enjoyed in previous Congress regimes. Academic excellence and professional competence would be the sole criteria for all appointments to bodies like the ICHR, ICSSR, UGC, NCERT etc.
5. Apart from increasing the supply of loan scholarships and refinance through banks, it will also establish a Education Development Finance Company along the lines of HDFC to provide loans at affordable rates to all those who cannot afford the costs of college and university education in science, engineering and medicine.
   This would help to boost disbursal of education loans which are relatively safe lending options for the financial institutions, in terms of recovery. But in addition to an EDFC, what may also be needed is a National Education Bank charged with promoting the growth of education credit and finance, akin to the National Housing Bank, which is charged with promoting the growth of housing credit and finance.
6. Education at all stages would be free in all respects for boys and girls belonging to dalit and adivasi communities.
7. A national cooked nutritious mid-day meal scheme will be introduced in primary and secondary schools across the country.
8. To enhance the employability of our youth, systematic efforts will be made to vocationalise secondary education and to establish at least one industrial training institute in each development block of the country through creative public-private partnerships.
9. The Congress commits itself to amending the Constitution to establish a Commission for Minority Educational Institutions that will provide direct affiliation for minority professional institutions to central universities. Special steps will be taken to spread modern and technical education among women in minority communities particularly.
   I don't understand what the first part of this means. Is the intention to free minority professional institutions from having to affiliate with any state university?

Here're the extracts from the 2004 Manifesto of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), relating to education.

1. The 93rd Constitutional amendment promising free and compulsory education for children till the elementary stage must be amended to ensure the State fulfills its commitment to make education a basic right for children upto the age of 14 by providing financial backing. Free and compulsory school education can be attained only if it is accompanied by free mid-day meals, provision of textbooks and other education materials.
2. Upgradation of the salaries of elementary school teachers and providing schools equipped with basic facilities.
3. Syllabus and curriculum to inculcate secularism, progressive values, scientific temper and national unity.
4. Ensure social control over private educational institutions for regulation of admissions, fees and content of education. Central legislation to empower the states to regulate self-financing institutions.
   This is a complex issue. The recent Judgement of the Supreme Court on commercialisation of education in Delhi's schools has brought this issue to the forefront and it needs to be debated at length.
5. Allocation of 10 per cent of union budget for education.
   This figure has been 13% or higher for the past 10 years, so this is very much achievable.
6. Support to mass literacy programmes.
7. Democratisation of the higher education system and development of vocational education.
   Democratisation is too generic a word. It is unclear what they have in mind.

The manifestos of other parties like the DMK and the Nationalist Congress Party address education in either very general and superficial terms or in very narrow terms

According to the DMK's Manifesto,

1. DMK will demand the withdrawal of the text books produced by the NCERT which contain derogatory myths on minorities and Dravidians.
   
2. DMK will demand the allocation of 6% of GDP for education as recommended by the Kothari commission. The present allocation of 3.2% to education in the 10th plan need to be raised to 6%

and the Nationalist Congress Party's Manifesto,

1. Equal educational facilities would be provided for the rich and the poor alike.
   
2. Better implementation would be ensured of Universalisation of Primary Education, vocationalisation of secondary education and modernisation of Higher Education.
   
3. Sufficient funds would be provided for infrastructure for imparting universal and compulsory primary education.
   
4. Facility for quality education would be provided to the less privileged sections of society.
   
5. Eradication of illiteracy would be given top priority. Computer Education would be encouraged.

The ideas and policies common to most of the manifestos include

• Allocation of funds upto 6% of GDP towards expenditure on education.
  It has never gone beyond 4.3% of GDP till 2001-02, despite an official target of 6% being set as far back as 1968, when the Kothari Commission first recommended the 6% target. So it will be a tall order to achieve.
• A national noon meal program to be introduced
• A special cess to be imposed (the BJP says on non-needy students and the Congress says on taxes) to raise funds
• A special vehicle to be created to provide education funding for students (the BJP proposes a National Education Fund and the Congress proposes an Education Development Finance Corporation)

Aptech University's revenues part of Aptech's revenues?

CIOL reports that Aptech University will go live by June-July this year.

The University which would start its courses and take its first batch from this academic year, has already set up a college under its aegis in Chennai and would set up two more in Delhi and one in Central or Eastern India by the end of the year.

The campus would initially enroll 500-600 students, while the different Aptech centers across the country would function as study centers. This marks the entry of a private training player into a full-fledged university, though NIIT is soon expected to follow suit.

Said Aptech, Managing Director, Pramod Khera, "Though Aptech University would offer normal Bachelors and Masters courses. We would be offering some innovative subjects like embedded training, multimedia and networking amongst others. And apart from students across the country, we are also targeting people from abroad."

On being asked about the choice of Raipur as a venue, Khera revealed that the three newly formed states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal had passed the Act for having private university courses. Within the three, Raipur was selected because of its central location.

After two dull years for the training sector, Aptech is expecting a turnaround this year and might end up crossing the Rs 400 crore barrier. According to Khera, at least 10 percent of the total revenues would come from its new businesses, which include the University as well as online software testing and content management BPO.

Does the statement by Aptech's Managing Director mean that Aptech will be treating revenues from the University as part of the revenues of its publicly listed company? I wish the reporter had probed this a bit more. (See my earlier post on Aptech University, the implications of it being a non-profit and its relation to Aptech the publicly listed commercial company).

Construction of educational institutions now termed as infrastructure activity

According to the Annual Monetary and Credit Policy for the year 2004-2005 announced by Dr. Y. Venugopal Reddy, Governor, Reserve Bank of India on May 18, 2004,

Credit Delivery Mechanism
(e) Widening the Scope of Infrastructure Lending
90. The critical importance of the infrastructure sector was indicated in the annual policy Statement of April 2003. On a review, it is proposed:

* To expand the scope of definition of infrastructure lending to include the following projects/sectors: (i) construction relating to projects involving agro-processing and supply of inputs to agriculture; (ii) construction for preservation and storage of processed agro-products, perishable goods such as fruits, vegetables and flowers including testing facilities for quality; and (iii) construction of educational institutions and hospitals.

This presumably means that schools and colleges can now tap banks for debt finance.