More funds for central varsities

NEW DELHI: Central universities like the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Hyderabad may soon have more funds at their disposal.

The HRD ministry is pushing for a change in the financing norms for central universities, which will incentivise universities to mobilise resources without incurring a reduction in their grants-in-aid.

The HRD ministry has asked the finance ministry to allow central universities to retain revenues that they generate as well as receive the full allocation of their grants-in-aid from the government. This, the ministry argues, would give the central universities the financial ability to expand, modernise and upgrade facilities.

A similar financial dispensation was allowed for the three older IIMs — Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore. This allowed the IIMs to build their capacities and amass a corpus. Under the existing system, central universities can retain a maximum of Rs 25 lakh from resources it generates and a matching amount is deducted from the grants in aid it receives from the University Grants Commission.

In effect the university could raise say Rs 1 crore or Rs 100 crore, but it would only be able to retain Rs 25 lakh, and it would receive Rs 25 lakh less from the UGC. Such a system has proved to be a disincentive for universities to mobilise revenues.

Since raising funds is disincentivised, the universities become solely dependent on the annual grants-in-aid from the UGC, which in turn severely limits their ability to spend on various activities and infrastructure needs.