Foreign varsities bill on anvil, says Kapil Sibal

NEW DELHI: Putting to rest speculation that the government was withdrawing the legislation to regulate foreign universities in India, minister for science & technology Kapil Sibal said the relevant legislation was on the anvil. “We are going to open up our educational sector to the foreign universities and it is going to be one of the largest FDI earners,” Mr Sibal said.
HRD minister Arjun Singh has also expressed hope that all the UPA partners’ reservations will be addressed and the legislation will be enacted soon. The Left parties have preferred an alternative proposal for linking up foreign educational institutions with the Indian educational system.

The Regulation of Foreign University Entry and Operation (Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation) Bill, 2007, was listed to be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament. But with the Left parties finding some fundamental problems with the legislation it had to be withdrawn.

In a last minute move, the minister for state for HRD D Purandeswari Devi informed the vice chairman of the Rajya Sabha that the government would like to withdraw the bill and would reintroduce after making suitable amendments.