FYUP: Hidden Agenda of Dismantling India’s Higher Education

25 June 2013, New Delhi. Third US–India Higher Education Dialogue, co-chaired by US Secretary of State John Kerry and India’s Minister of Human Resource Development M.M. Pallam Raju. Apart from the senior policy makers and heads of regulatory bodies (e.g. UGC, AICTE) and selected universities from both sides, the participants of the Dialogue notably included corporations and NGOs engaged in education-related business, especially business organisations such as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and US–India Business Council (USIBC), attracted by the lucrative market being opened by India for global capital. After glorifying the US cooperation India has been receiving since this process started two years ago, Government of India’s Higher Education Secretary apologetically informed, ‘unfortunately, the foreign education providers bill is still with the Parliament which is refusing to oblige us,but we have been working outside it laterally and we had come out last year with a twinning arrangement[through UGC]’ (emphasis added).