The long wait of over a year came to an end on Monday, when the Human Resource Development Ministry (HRD) has finally appointed a new nine-member panel to formulate a New Education Policy (NEP). Celebrated space scientist Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan has been selected to head the panel, comprising experts and educationists from wide-ranging backgrounds.
According to the HRD sources, besides Kasturirangan, who headed India's space agency ISRO, the panel also included former IAS officer KJ Alphonse Kanamthanam. Alphonse had played a key role in helping Kerala's Kottayam and Ernakulam districts achieve 100 per cent literacy. Besides, expert of agriculture sciences and management Ram Shanker Kureel, the vice-chancellor of the Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow in Madhya Pradesh had also been appointed.
Other members of the panel included Dr MK Shridhar, former member secretary of the Karnataka State Innovation Council; Dr TV Kattimani, an expert on language communication; Dr Mazhar Asif, professor of Persian at Guwahati University; and former director of education, Uttar Pradesh, Krishan Mohan Tripathi. The committee also comprised mathematician Manjul Bhargava from Princeton University and Vasudha Kamat, former Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai's SNDT University.
"The panel has been appointed keeping in mind that the members will bring expertise related to the diverse areas of education. Significantly, the panel also reflects the diversity of the country as the members belong to different sections as well as regions," an HRD official said.
This diversity, the ministry hopes, would help the committee understand the varied issues that have to be kept in mind for the formulation of such a key policy documents, the official said, adding, "The panelists belong to different age groups which should be helpful as they would be able to bring experience, innovation and also global exposure which are so vital for such an important policy formulation."
The HRD Ministry had a couple of years ago formed a panel under former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian on the New Education Policy. According to HRD ministry officials, the inputs from the Subramanian panel report would also be incorporated.