Page 26 - EW October 2025

Education News

a 17-year-old NEET aspirant in Vizag, The Rs.1.8 lakh crore
the apex court mandated comprehen- project, according to
sive mental health safeguards, includ- some economists will
ing counsellors, in all higher education impose a heavy bur-
institutions and coaching centres. But den on the already
to little avail. deeply indebted
Moreover, in the new age of AI state’s finances.
and mind-boggling new technologies, “Building a knowl-
ham-fisted government interference edge city is a great
with syllabuses and curriculums is an- idea. But this huge
other downer. Instead of contemporis- amount mobilised by
ing curricula urgently, the University way of debt, would
Grants Commission (UGC) and edu- be better spent on
cation ministry are aggressively pro- upgrading existing
moting Indian Knowledge Systems schools, universities,
(IKS), described as pseudoscientific CM Revanth Reddy: new knowledge capital and building teacher
and historically inaccurate. Last year, capacity across
IIT-Mandi introduced courses on “re- The project, to be developed over the Telangana. Moreover this project
incarnation” and “out-of-body experi- next decade, will comprise dedicated will widen the rural-urban educa-
ences,” sparking apprehension about zones for higher education, health tion gap,” warns Dr. Prabhakar
legitimisation of pseudosciences. And sciences, artificial intelligence, Reddy, professor of education at
earlier this year, the education min- climate innovation, and digital Osmania University.
istry permitted “gurukul” scholars manufacturing. With a projected in- Supporters of the initiative argue
without formal degrees to conduct vestment of Rs.1.8 lakh crore under that the education-focused BFC is an
research in IITs. a public-private partnership model, extension of the new state govern-
Evidently life is not a bed of roses BFC is scheduled to be completed by ment’s commendable focus on edu-
for highly-subsidised and much-en- 2028. cation. Since assuming office a year
vied IIT students. At the BFC launch event, Reddy ago the state government’s budget-
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) declared that the rising city will be ary outlay for education has in-
“a knowledge capital for new India, creased by 4.3 percent to Rs.23,108
TELANGANA where education and innovation crore in Budget 2025-26 with larger
New education city drive every aspect of development,” allocations for school infrastructure,
adding that the government intends
digital classrooms, and teacher
to make Telangana “a global class- training under the government’s
elangana’s congress govern- room for technology, research, and Mana Ooru-Mana Badi programme.
ment, headed by first-term sustainability.” Moreover, initiatives like TASK
TChief Minister A. Revanth Under the city’s blueprint, a Glob- (Telangana Academy for Skill and
Reddy which completed one year in al Education and Research District Knowledge) and T-Hub 2.0 have
office in December 2024, is betting will host international university positioned Hyderabad as a centre for
big on education. campuses, national universities, education innovation.
On September 19, Reddy an- skill academies, and think tanks, all It’s also noteworthy that the
nounced Bharat Future City (BFC) focused on next-generation learn- record of post-independence gov-
in Rangareddy district, 35 km from ing. The proposed zone will also ernments at the Centre and in the
Hyderabad. The foundation-stone include residential schools, teacher states for establishing new cities
for the city’s administrative complex training centres, and incubation has been poor. As a result, India’s
and key infrastructure was laid nine labs connected by a unified digital metros and large cities are over-
days later on September 28, in a grid. According to the Telangana crowded, heavily polluted, overrun
high-profile ceremony attended by Department of Education and Skill with vehicular traffic and on brink of
senior officials, global investors, and Development, discussions have been collapse. Against this backdrop, the
education leaders. initiated with top ranked universi- new Congress government and Chief
Spread across 30,000 acres, BFC ties in Finland, Singapore, and the Minister Reddy’s Kg-Ph D focused
is envisaged as India’s first pollution- UK, as also with IIIT-Hyderabad, BFC initiative serves a two-fold
free education-centric smart city, ISB, and NALSAR to establish satel- socially beneficial purpose.
integrating education, research, lite campuses within the city. “Our greatest infrastructure is not
innovation and entrepreneurship. But not everybody is persuaded. glass and concrete but intellect and

26 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2025