EMINENCE

•Eminence(noun) - important, influential, distinguished

•He was a man of great eminence.

सुप्रससद्ध, प्रख्यात___________________________

•Eminent (adjt) - famous and respected within a particular

sphere

After becoming a UPSC topper he met many eminent

people in India.

NOTES

• In a landmark decision, a Higher Education Commission of

India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act)

Bill 2018 which seeks to repeal UGC Act and provides for

setting up of Higher Education Commission of India has been

prepared by the Ministry of HRD and placed in public domain

for comments and suggestions.

• The focus of Higher Education Commission of India will be on

improving academic standards and the quality of Higher

Education.

NOTES

• Also government has granted Institute of Eminence status to 3

public and 3 private universities.

• They were selected by Empowered Expert Committee headed

by former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami.

•Private Sector: Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences,

Pilani (Rajashtan); Manipal Academy of Higher Education,

Manipal (Karnataka) and proposed Jio Institute of

Reliance Foundation in Pune (Maharashtra) under

Green Field Project.

•Public Sector: Indian Institute of Science (IISc),

Bengaluru (Karnataka); Indian Institute of Technology

(IIT), Bombay (Maharashtra) and IIT, Delhi.

INSTITUTIONS OF EMINENCE (IOE)•The scheme of IoE was rolled out by University Grants

Commission (UGC).

• It aims to help 20 higher education (10 public and 10

private) institutions from country break into top 500

global rankings in 10 years, and then eventually break

into top 100 over time.

BENEFITS

• These selected institutions will have greater autonomy compared

to other higher education institutions. They will be free to decide

their fee for domestic and foreign students and have flexible course

duration and structure.

• They will be exempted from approvals of government or UGC for

academic collaborations with foreign institutions, except

institutions in MEA and MHA’s list of negative countries. 10

government institutions selected will also get Rs 1,000 crore each

from HRD Ministry to achieve world-class status. There will be

no financial assistance to the private institutions.

NOTES

• Performance: Once identified, IoE are targeted must target

break into top 100 bracket in one internationally reputed

ranking framework in 10 years.

• Eligibility: Only higher education institutions, currently placed

in the top 500 of global rankings or top 50 of National

Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), are eligible to apply

for eminence tag. The private IoE can also come up as

greenfield ventures provided sponsoring organisation

submits convincing perspective plan for 15 years.

NOTES

•Brown-field: This is some project (generally in

infrastructure but used extensively for other projects as

well) which is already in existence and can be improved

or built upon further.

•Green-field: This is for an undeveloped project which

can be explored for potential development.

NOTES

•According to officials, 11 such institutions had applied

for the IoE tag and Jio was selected from among them.

•These included Airtel for Bharti Univeristy,

Vedanta for a university in Odisha and KREA

university (which has former RBI governor Raghuram

Rajan as an advisor), Indian School of Business,

Hyderabad, Indus Tech Univeristy in Delhi and Acharya

Institutes of Bangalore

HERE ARE THE FACTS ON HOW THE INSTITUTE MADE THE CUT.

• Applications were invited from both public and private entities for IoE under the greenfield and brownfield categories.

The panel took the following parameters into account for judging the applications received for setting up Greenfield institutions under IoE:-

1. Availability of land for construction of the institution.

2. Putting in place a core team with very high qualification and wide experience.

3. Making available funding for setting up the institution.

4. A strategic vision plan with clear annual milestones and action plan.