India

Partners situated in India

None.

Members of IAC?

India in a nutshell

India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia.

It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi). It is bordered by Pakistan to the west; People's Republic of China (PRC), Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

The population of India is 1,147 million.

India is a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies; however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition.

A pluralistic, multilingual, and multi-ethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

Government

The preamble of the constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India has a bicameral parliament operating under a Westminster-style parliamentary system. Its form of government was traditionally described as being "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weaker states, but it has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic and social changes.

The President of India is the head of state, elected indirectly by an electoral college for a five-year term.

The Prime Minister is the head of government and exercises most executive powers. Appointed by the President, the Prime Minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament.

The executive branch consists of the President, Vice-President, and the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet being its executive committee) headed by the Prime Minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of either house of parliament. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature, with the Prime Minister and his Council being directly responsible to the lower house of the Parliament.

The Legislature of India is the bicameral Parliament, which consists of the upper house called the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the lower house called the Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha, a permanent body, has 245 members serving staggered six year terms. Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in proportion to the state's population. 543 of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote to represent individual constituencies for five year terms. The other two members are nominated by the President from the Anglo-Indian community if the President is of the opinion that the community is not adequately represented.

India has a unitary three-tier judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, twenty-one High Courts, and a large number of trial courts. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the Centre, and appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts. It is judicially independent, and has the power to declare the law and to strike down Union or State laws which contravene the Constitution. The role as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution is one of the most important functions of the Supreme Court.

States

India consists of twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories. All states, and the two union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments patterened on the Westminister model. The other five union territories have centrally appointed administrators and hence are under direct rule of the President. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were formed on a linguistic basis. Since then, this structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into 610 districts for basic governance and administration. The districts in turn are further divided into tehsils and eventually into villages.

The States are:

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Assam
4. Bihar
5. Chhattisgarh
6. Goa
7. Gujarat
8. Haryana
9. Himachal Pradesh
10. Jammu and Kashmir
11. Jharkhand
12. Karnataka
13. Kerala
14. Madhya Pradesh
15. Maharashtra
16. Manipur
17. Meghalaya
18. Mizoram
19. Nagaland
20. Orissa
21. Punjab
22. Rajasthan
23. Sikkim
24. Tamil Nadu
25. Tripura
26. Uttar Pradesh
27. Uttarakhand
28. West Bengal

Union Territories:

1. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
2. Chandigarh
3. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
4. Daman and Diu
5. Lakshadweep
6. National Capital Territory of Delhi
7. Puducherry

Demographics

With an estimated population of 1.17 billion, representing 17% of the world population, India is the world's second most populous country. The last 50 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity made by the green revolution.

Almost 70% of Indians reside in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to larger cities has led to a dramatic increase in the country's urban population. India's largest cities are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

India is the most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent. India is home to two major linguistic families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families.

Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the union.

English, which is extensively used in business and administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official language'; it is also important in education, especially as a medium of higher education.

In addition, every state and union territory has its own official languages, and the constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. While Sanskrit and Tamil have been studied as classical languages for many years, the Government of India, using its own criteria, has also accorded classical language status to Kannada and Telugu. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.

Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include

• Muslims (13.4%),
• Christians (2.3%),
• Sikhs (1.9%),
• Buddhists (0.8%),
• Jains (0.4%),
• Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others.

Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.

India has the third-highest Muslim population in the world and has the highest population of Muslims for a non-Muslim majority country.

India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males). The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate (91%); Bihar has the lowest (47%). The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males.

India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.

India education policy

Education in the Republic of India falls under the control of both the central government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the centre and the state having autonomy for others. The various articles of the Indian constitution provide for education as a fundamental right.

India has made huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. However, education is still far behind developing countries such as China or Thailand. Most children never attend secondary schools. An optimistic estimate is that only one in five job-seekers in India has ever had any sort of vocational training.

Not a single Indian university was in the top 300 of Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2006. However, six Indian Institutes of Technology and Birla Institute of Technology and Science - Pilani, were listed among the top 20 science and technology schools in Asia by Asiaweek. The Indian School of Business was ranked number 15 in global MBA rankings by the Financial Times of London in 2009 while the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has been recognized as a global leader in medical research and treatment. Similarly, the National Law School of India University situated in Bangalore is often considered to be the best law school in South Asia and a pioneer in legal education in India.

India education system

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is the apex body for school education in India. The NCERT provides support and technical assistance to a number of schools in India and oversees many aspects of enforcement of education policies.

In India, the various bodies governing the school education system are:

• The state government boards, in which the majority of Indian children are enrolled.
• The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board.
• The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) board.
• The National Institute of Open Schooling.
• International schools affiliated to the International Baccalaureate Programme and/or the Cambridge International Examinations.
• Islamic Madrasah schools, whose boards are controlled by local state governments, or autonomous, or affiliated with Darul Uloom Deoband.
• Autonomous schools like Woodstock School, Auroville, Patha Bhavan and Ananda Marga Gurukula.

Primary education

The Indian government lays emphasis to primary education up to the age of fourteen years. The Indian government has also banned child labor in order to ensure that the children do not enter unsafe working conditions. However, both free education and the ban on child labor are difficult to enforce due to economic disparity and social conditions.

The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched in 1994 with an aim to universalize primary education in India by reforming and vitalizing the existing primary education system. 85% of the DPEP is funded by the central government and the remaining 15 percent is funded by the state. The DPEP, which has opened 160000 new schools including 84000 alternative education schools delivering alternative education to approximately 3.5 million children, is also supported by UNICEF and other international programmes. This primary education scheme has also shown a high Gross Enrollment Ratio of 93–95% for the last three years in some states. Significant improvement in staffing and enrollment of girls has also been made as a part of this scheme. The overall primary school conditions in India as a whole continued to remain lag behind internationally due to understaffing coupled with lack of developed infrastructure and sufficient financing.Education has also been made free for children up to the age of 14 or class IX[18]

Secondary education

The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, has provided for environment awareness, science and technology education, and introduction of traditional elements such as Yoga into the Indian secondary school system. A significant feature of India's secondary school system is the emphasis on inclusion of the disadvantaged sections of the society Professionals from established institutes are often called to support in vocational training. Another feature of India's secondary school system is its emphasis on profession based vocational training to help students attain skills for finding a vocation of his/her choosing.

A special Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) programme was started in 1974. Another notable special programme, the Kendriya Vidyalaya project, was started for the employees of the central government of India, who are distributed throughout the country. The government started the Kendriya Vidyalaya project in 1965 to provide uniform education in institutions following the same syllabus at the same pace regardless of the location to which the employee's family has been transferred.

Higher education

India's higher education system is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States.

The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission (India), which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state. Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 12 autonomous agencies established by the University Grants Commission.

As of 2009, India has 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 13 institutes which are of national importance.

Other institutions include 16000 colleges, including 1800 exclusive women's colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions.[24] The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology. Indian educational institutions by 2004 consisted of a large number of technology institutes. As of 2006 some 1200 engineering colleges awarded degrees in India and approximately 380000 students were admitted in them.[28] Distance learning is also a feature of the Indian higher education system.

Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education. The IITs enroll about 4000 students annually and the alumni have contributed to both the growth of the private sector and the public sectors of India. IIT graduates of India have also contributed significantly to the global software industry, with an estimated 30000 graduates employed in the United States as of 2006.<

Universities in India

Central Universities

(sourced from http://www.indiaedu.com/universities/central-universities/)

While other universities in the country are established by the State Governments, a Central University in India is formed by the Government of India, by an Act of Parliament.

The Government of India is responsible for arranging, allocating and distributing financial resources required by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the establishment of Central Universities in India. Currently there are 20 Central Universities in India.

Some of the special features of Central Universities are-

• The President of India acts as the "Visitor" for all the Central Universities
• The President has the power to nominate a few members to the Executive Committee/Board of Management/Court/Selection Committees of the University in terms of the various statutes and provisions laid down in the University Act.
• The Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) assists the President of India in the appointment of Vice Chancellors, Court Nominees and Selection Committee Nominees.

The following are the Central Universities in India:

1. Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh
2. Assam University, Silchar
3. Banaras Hindu University (BHU)
4. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University,Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
5. English and Foreign Languages University
6. Indraprastha University
7. Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi
8. Manipur University
9. Maulana Azad National Urdu University
10. Delhi University (DU)
11. Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Maharashtra
12. Mizoram University
13. Nagaland University, Lumami
14. North Eastern Hill University
15. Pondicherry University
16. Tezpur University,Assam
17. University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
18. University of Hyderabad
19. Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal
20. Jawaharlal Nehru University

Other universities

India has several hundred other public universities, supported by the Government of India and the state governments. Apart from these there are private universities supported by various bodies and societies.

For long list arranged by state see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_India

India's HEIs in the information society

Towards the information society

One of the key drivers towards the information society is the National Knowledge Commission. This is a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, with the objective of transforming India into a knowledge society. It covers sectors ranging from education to e-governance in the five focus areas of the knowledge paradigm, including education.

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives

Open Universities

Open universities in India are regulated by the Distance Education Council of India (DEC). It is an organization based in New Delhi which maintains the standards, encourages and organizes the activities of Open and Distance learning in India (ODL).

There are 15 Open Universities in India at present, which are mentioned hereunder according to their yearwise establishment:

Year	Open University Name and City
1982	Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad
1985	Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi - the main open university and the one best known outside India - see also wikipedia entry
1987	Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, Rajasthan - see also wikipedia entry
	Nalanda Open University, Patna, Bihar
1989	Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nasik, Maharastra - see also wikipedia entry
1991	Madhya Pradesh Bhoj Open University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh - see also wikipedia entry
1994	Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat - see also wikipedia entry
1996	Karnataka State Open University, Mysore, Karnataka - see also wikipedia entry
1997	Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata, West Bengal - see also wikipedia entry
1998	Uttar Pradesh RajRishi Tandon Open University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
2002	Tamil Nadu Open University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu - see also wikipedia entry
2005	Pandit Sundarlal Sharma Open University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh
2006	The Global Open University, Nagaland
2007	K K Handique Open University, Guwahati, Assam
	Uttranchal Open University, Dehradun, UttraKhand

• Of Kota Open University, founded in 1987, we have no data on the current existence or activity. - see http://www.indiaeducation.ernet.in/insitutions/PROFILENEW.ASP?no=U00577

Private Sector Initiatives

Various Privately owned Non Profit's have forayed into Distance and Open Learning over the past decade. Very few of these have succeeded in extending these initiatives over the Virtual Mode. Such few notable exceptions are below.

University18 : A non profit private-sector initiative University18, in partnership with the Karnataka State Open University has made substantial progress, delivering MBA Programs in a Virtual Learning Environment. see also [1] .

NetVarsity : The private-sector operation NetVarsity (part of NIIT) is also interesting.

Re.ViCa Case-study

None.

Lessons learnt

• Is there sometimes more chance of innovation from provincial initiatives than from national?

References

1. A study on Possibilities Of Virtual Campus For Distance Learners of Diploma Engineering Programmes In India - see http://www.formatex.org/micte2006/virtual/pdf/58.pdf
2. National Knowledge Commission, Report to the Nation 2006-2009, Full Report - see http://www.knowledgecommission.gov.in/downloads/report2009/eng/report09.pdf
3. National Knowledge Commission, Report to the Nation 2006-2009, Baseline (Annexure 1) - see http://www.knowledgecommission.gov.in/downloads/report2009/eng/5_Baseline.pdf

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