Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill 2025

• 30 Dec 2025

For Prelims: Lok Sabha, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Council of Architecture (CoA), University Grants Commission (UGC, 1956), Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), G20, World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Index, Global Innovation Index, India Skills Report, National Research Foundation (NRF), GIFT City, Atal Innovation Mission, Startup India.             

For Mains: Key provisions of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 and its significance, Challenges facing India's higher education system and remedial measures needed. 

Source: IE

Why in News?

The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025 was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the Winter Session of Parliament and referred to a joint parliamentary committee.

• The Bill aims to revamp India's higher education regulation to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Summary

• The Bill unifies fragmented regulatory bodies into a single, technology-driven framework with three independent councils for standards, regulation, and accreditation to implement NEP 2020 reforms. 
• It aims to enhance GER, research, employability, and global competitiveness while promoting interdisciplinary, flexible, and student-centric higher education.

What is the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025?

• About: It is a proposed new law to create a unified regulatory architecture for higher education in India, framed under Entry 66 (determination of standards for higher education) of the Union List of the Constitution. 
  • Its core purpose is to empower Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) to achieve excellence through effective coordination and the determination of standards.
• Need of the Bill: To overhaul the higher education regulatory framework in line with NEP 2020 by eliminating overlapping authorities, simplifying regulation, and reducing compliance burdens so institutions can focus on academic excellence.
• Proposed Major Changes: 
  • Establishes a New Apex Body: The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan will be set up as the overarching authority. The Council of Architecture (CoA) will function as a Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB), as envisaged in NEP 2020.
  • Creates Three Specialized Councils:
    • Viksit Bharat Shiksha Viniyaman Parishad: The Regulatory Council for coordination and maintenance of standards.
    • Viksit Bharat Shiksha Gunvatta Parishad: The independent Accreditation Council.
    • Viksit Bharat Shiksha Manak Parishad: The Standards Council for specifying minimum academic standards.
  • Replaces Existing Bodies: The Bill provides for repealing the acts governing the University Grants Commission (UGC, 1956), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE, 1987), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE, 1993).
    • All HEIs currently under these bodies will come under the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan for standard-setting.

What is the Significance of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025?

• Regulatory Consolidation and Simplification: By repealing the UGC (1956), AICTE (1987), and NCTE (1993) Acts, the Bill ends fragmented, contradictory regulation, replacing it with a single, unified regulatory architecture. This will drastically reduce compliance complexity, shifting the focus to academic excellence and implementing Single Window Interactive Systems for ease of operation.
• Operational Clarity: The Bill separates standard-setting, regulation, and accreditation into three independent councils under one apex body. This structural division enhances objectivity, reduces conflicts of interest, and improves the credibility and effectiveness of quality governance.
• Transparency and Trust-Based Governance: A public digital disclosure portal forms the cornerstone of the new framework, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions based on accessible data. This move toward public self-disclosure strengthens accountability and promotes peer competition on quality metrics, creating strong incentives for continuous improvement.
• Alignment with NEP 2020 & Viksit Bharat: The Bill is the primary legislative vehicle to implement the NEP 2020 higher education vision by embodying its principles of autonomy, multidisciplinarity, and Indian knowledge systems. It contributes to the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision by aiming to create a high-quality knowledge economy through boosting research, innovation, and the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER).
• Enhancing Global Competitiveness: The Bill mandates adapting global best practices to create globally benchmarked institutions and a credible accreditation system, aiming to elevate India’s global education standing. It seeks to reverse brain drain by offering world-class domestic opportunities and attracting international talent, thereby boosting India’s soft power.

What are the Primary Challenges Facing India's Higher Education System?

• Low Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER): India has the world’s 3rd-largest higher education system, yet its GER of approximately 28% is the lowest among G20 nations. Furthermore, it ranks 129th out of 146 countries for tertiary education enrollment in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2024.
• Faculty Shortage and Vacancy Crisis: Even prestigious institutions face major faculty shortages, with IITs having 40% and IIMs 31% vacancies. Furthermore, only 36.7% of Indian HEIs offer postgraduate programs and a mere 3.6% run PhD programs, severely limiting the pipeline of qualified teachers.
  • While IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay secured places within the top 150, no Indian university featured in the top 100 of the QS Rankings 2024.
• Inadequate R&D Investment: India’s research spending is approximately 0.7% of GDP, trailing nations like China (2.4%) and the US (3.5%). It also lags in research quality, as measured by H-index scores (for productivity and impact) and citation counts, and ranks 38th in the Global Innovation Index 2025.
• Poor Graduate Employability and Industry Disconnect: India’s overall employability was 50.8% in 2023, while the India Skills Report 2024 shows a 60–73% demand-supply gap for key roles like ML engineer, data scientist, DevOps engineer, and data architect. In the Global Employability University Ranking and Survey 2025, only 10 Indian institutions rank among the top 250 universities globally for graduate employability.
• Outdated and Inflexible Curriculum: India’s higher education curriculum is outdated, rigid, and disconnected from 21st-century interdisciplinary skills. Most universities lack syllabi for fields like AI and data science, and less than 5% of students are exposed to vocational education—a stark contrast to the NEP 2020’s 50% target by 2025.

How can India’s Higher Education System be Revitalized?

• Enhancing Access and GER: India should scale the Multiple Entry and Exit (MEME) framework, now in 153 universities for entry and 74 for exit, to enhance student flexibility and reduce dropout rates. It must also implement the Academic Bank of Credits and UGC’s Biannual Admissions to boost academic mobility.
• Faculty Development and Research Ecosystem: To address faculty shortages and boost quality, India should launch a National Mission for Faculty Development, aligned with global benchmarks like the Academic Performance Indicator (API). 
  • Simultaneously, it must increase R&D investment from ~0.7% to at least 2% of GDP, with strategic focus on National Research Foundation (NRF)-led projects in areas such as AI, clean energy, and biotechnology.
• Equity, Access, and Inclusion: Equity should be advanced through digital access and literacy, supported by the NEP 2020’s Gender Inclusion Fund, Special Education Zones, and a strengthened National Scholarship Portal for SC, ST, OBC, and SEDG (Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Group) students.
• Internationalization and Global Competitiveness: Facilitate entry of World-Class Foreign Universities under the GIFT City model and through MOUs under NEP 2020. Promote joint degrees, faculty exchanges, and cross-border research initiatives via programs like SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration).
• Skill Integration and Employability: To enhance employability, curricula must be aligned with Industry 4.0 skills, while innovation clusters and start-up cells are established in every university, linked to the Atal Innovation Mission and Startup India. Furthermore, a National Graduate Tracking System should be created to monitor employment outcomes and inform timely curriculum updates.

Conclusion

The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, is a transformative step to replace fragmented regulation with a unified, transparent system. It aims to actualize NEP 2020’s vision, boost research and employability, and enhance global competitiveness, thereby revitalizing India’s higher education to meet 21st-century demands.

Drishti Mains Question:

Q. Critically analyse the structural and systemic challenges confronting Indian higher education and propose holistic strategies for its revitalisation

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the purpose of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025?
To unify higher education regulation, empower HEIs, and implement NEP 2020 reforms for quality, autonomy, and global competitiveness.

2. Which existing regulatory bodies will the Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 replace?
It repealed UGC (1956), AICTE (1987), and NCTE (1993), consolidating their functions under the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.

3. What are the three proposed councils under the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025?
Viniyaman Parishad (Regulation), Gunvatta Parishad (Accreditation), and Manak Parishad (Standards).

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Question (PYQ) 

Prelims 

Q. Which of the following provisions of the Constitution does India have a bearing on Education? (2012)

1. Directive Principles of State Policy 
2. Rural and Urban Local Bodies 
3. Fifth Schedule 
4. Sixth Schedule 
5. Seventh Schedule 

Select the correct answer using the codes given below: 

(a) 1 and 2 only 

(b) 3, 4 and 5 only 

(c) 1, 2 and 5 only 

(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 

Ans- (d)

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Mains 

Q1. How have digital initiatives in India contributed to the functioning of the education system in the country? Elaborate on your answer. (2020) 

Q2. Discuss the main objectives of Population Education and point out the measures to achieve them in India in detail. (2021)