“Green Visionary” of India Dr. Prem C. Jain passes away
New Delhi : Dr. Prem C. Jain, famous for decades of service to the environment, earning him a reputation as a “green visionary” has passed away on early Thursday. He was aged 82 years.
Dr. Jain has served as adviser to the President and to the Prime Minister of India; has chaired the International Green Building Congress in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai from 2006 to 2011; and since 2007, has chaired the Indian Green Building Council. He founded the Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers in 1980, and the India Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers in 1989. He also rewrote the section on air conditioning, heating and ventilation for the National Building Code of India-NBC 2005, bringing it up to the international level of codes, standards and practices.
Dr Jain who had a master’s degree and a doctorate in mechanical engineering. Upon returning to India in 1970 after post-graduate studies in the U.S., he served as a visiting professor at IIT Kanpur, where he taught post-graduate studies and set up a laboratory for environmental engineering. He has also been on the visiting faculty for the School of Planning and Architecture at Delhi University since 1973.He is known as the most admired teacher par excellence. He has been awarded the best visiting faculty award in 1990.
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Dr Jain was a business entrepreneur, founding Spectral Services Consultants Private Limited (now an AECOM company) in 1980 with the mission of providing energy-efficient, fire safe, fully-coordinated Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing (MEP) services design for all varieties of planned buildings in India. The firm grew from four employees to a staff of more than 600 in 10 offices.
His name is synonymous with the science of air-conditioning and he is known as one of the most outstanding consulting engineers with design experience spanning more than 45 years. He was a Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME-USA), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA-USA), Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES-USA), International Solar Energy Society (ISES-GERMANY) and Consulting Engineers Association of India (CEAI-India). He has been listed in Marquis 'Who's Who in the World' from 1997 and in Marquis 'Who's Who in Science & Engineering' since 2000. He has also featured in Baron's 'Who's Who (USA)', 'The Asia 500 Leaders for the New Century' published in the USA in 2000, and in Marquis 'Who's Who in Asia' 1997. Furthermore, he has been honoured with the Rashtriya Gaurav Award at the All India Achievers' Conference in 1997. For his special merits and numerous contributions to the society, he was awarded ASHRAE's highest honour - Louise and Bill Holladay 'Distinguished Fellow' award. He is the Fellow of a large number of International Societies, namely, Institute of Refrigeration (IR-London), Institution of Engineers (IE-India), Institution of Energy Engineers (IEE India) and Indian Society of Lighting Engineers (ISLE-India).
Syed Mohamed Beary, Chairman of IGBC Bengaluru Chapter and Bearys Group has expressed shock over the demise of Dr Prem Jain. He said " Dr Jain was
the most respected Green Building figure in Asia . With his passing away, the green building movement of India has been orphaned. Now the rest of us have to work so much more harder in his absence to make his dreams to make Bharat as the world leader in green buildings".
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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