ESIC to provide cash benefit during job loss
New Delhi, Sep 19: Taking cognizance of lack of long-term jobs, the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Wednesday said it has rolled out a scheme to financially support those who lost their jobs even as it relaxed norms for its other benefits.
The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), in its 175th meeting on Tuesday here, approved 'Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojna' for insured persons covered under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, the Ministry said in a statement.
"The current scenario of employment in India which has transformed from a long-term employment to fixed short-term engagement in the form of contract and temping... This scheme is a relief payable in cash directly to their bank account in case of unemployment and while they search for new engagement," it said.
Detailed instructions including eligibility conditions and application format will be issued separately, it added.
The corporation further approved reimbursement of Rs 10 per person to employers for seeding of Aadhar (UID) in ESIC database of their workers and their family members for enabling the insured with benefits that require longer contribution.
"It will curtail the multiple registrations of same Insured Persons and thus enable them to avail the benefits requiring longer contributory conditions," it said.
For super specialty treatment, the ESIC relaxed the eligibility condition by reducing the requirement of insurable employment of two years to six months with contribution requirement of only 78 days.
For availing super specialty treatment for dependents of Insured Person, the eligibility has now been relaxed to insurable employment of one year with 156 days of contributions.
"This relaxation will immensely help the Insured Persons and their beneficiaries to avail super specialty treatment free of cost as per revised eligibility," the Ministry said.
Further, the corporation approved the proposal to increase the funeral expenses from existing Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 being paid on the death of Insured Person.
The ESIC is for establishments having more than 10 workers with monthly wage ceiling of Rs 21,000.
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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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