Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill, 2025: A backbone for higher educational institutions

India is marching and making bold moves towards Amrit Kaal, especially by discovering innovative, objective, flexible, simplified and light educational reforms through the introduction of Bharat’s educational revolutionary Bill called Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan. The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill, 2025, in short called VBSA, is a 21st-century educational reformist system that enforces positive and more competent unified standards, regulations and accreditation through an autonomous entity and thereby makes Bharat’s educational system unique and sets transformational benchmarks, leading to meeting global educational standards.

VBSA meets the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi: “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”.

A Gateway to Academic Excellence

The Hon’ble Union Minister of Education, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, stated that VBSA will act as a coordinating, advisory and philanthropic body, and it would create a flexible platform for different stakeholders of educational institutions that is expected to enhance research, innovation and entrepreneurship, which will lead to the introduction of higher quality education and will set universal benchmarks among higher educational institutions. Most importantly, VBSA will open critical and innovative thinking qualities among students and Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). VBSA is expected to reskill and upskill students’ knowledge, thereby making education more outcome-based. The primary focus of VBSA is innovation-based education that paves the way for youth empowerment. VBSA makes a paradigm shift from conventional subjective education to emerging objective-based education. VBSA will enhance research and innovation in educational institutions and adds paramount importance to the ease of access to mega research funding schemes like the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF).

A Flexible and Simplified, Objective Approach

VBSA foresees a ‘light but tight’ based approach. VBSA will enhance Indian educational systems to meet global and universal educational standards, thereby making education more multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in Higher Educational Institutions. VBSA will constitute members from expert committees and representatives from industry, thereby bringing educational quality among institutions. It also includes and makes a uniform way for public access to educational data.

VBSA will bring Indian educational systems to global standards and thereby will create a unique and frugal platform for outreach enhancement, gross enrolment ratio improvement, and a robust holistic approach, thereby meeting the objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Credit Framework (NCrF).

VBSA will form a fulcrum and has the following educational architecture under one umbrella of autonomy:

• Viksit Bharat Shiksha Manak Parishad (Standards Council)
• Viksit Bharat Shiksha Viniyaman Parishad (Regulatory Council)
• Viksit Bharat Shiksha Gunvatta Parishad (Accreditation Council)

Case Study in Educational Systems

VBSA has successful case studies and best practices in MedTech education in India, which are successfully implemented at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu; All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jammu; and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Jammu. These make students capable of learning technology, medical and management disciplines, leading to nurturing innovation and start-ups, thereby contributing to the growth of the medical start-up ecosystem in India.

Additionally, the “AMZ Science and Technology Cluster”, known as the Vizag Science and Technology (S&T) Cluster, and AMTZ-India’s premier medical technology park based at the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) in Visakhapatnam-showcase the growth of Indian MSMEs and medical start-ups in the medical sector. Another successful case study is the undergraduate medical technology course offered by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, which introduces

medical technology to undergraduate engineering students.

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors, space and critical minerals have emerged as the fastest-growing disruptive technologies in India in the current decade of the 21st century. Today, there is a need for science, technology and economic collaboration within educational systems, which will be met through the best practices of VBSA.

In today’s era of digitalisation, the launch of Digital India has created a revolution in the educational system, facilitating teachers across every corner of the nation to reach students in remote locations. MOOC platforms such as NPTEL and SWAYAM create unique opportunities for students and faculty members to reskill and upskill knowledge in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics-management (STEAMM). Another successful case of digitalisation is the best practices of Jigyasa by CSIR and Virtual Labs under the Ministry of Education, which enable students to perform remote-based experiments and provide ease of access to software tools and techniques. Additionally, the I-STEM-Indian Science, Technology and Engineering Facilities Map-an initiative of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, brings enormous value for students and researchers to access equipment and hardware, tools such as MATLAB, available at nearby educational institutions, thereby enabling research and development activities.

A Vision for Viksit Bharat@2047

VBSA will set benchmarks among institutions, leading to enhancement of the quality of education among different stakeholders-students, faculty, staff and overall Higher Educational Institutions. VBSA will have a vital component of discrete student feedback that forms the primary constituent to meet standards, regulations and accreditation in Indian educational systems. VBSA will bring a paradigm shift in educational systems, thereby making them more flexible, simplified and objective.

VBSA will make Indian educational systems self-reliant, thereby enabling them to achieve Aatmanirbhar Bharat, leading to the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047.

The writer is the Head of the Institute–Industry Interface Programme, Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Mathura; views are personal