Dr. Santosh Soans selected for ‘Outstanding Asian Pediatrician Award 2018’
Mangalore, July 25, 2018: Eminent city based pediatrician Dr. Santosh Soans has been selected as one of the recipients of the prestigious ‘Outstanding Asian Pediatrician Award 2018’. The award is given by the Asia Pacific Pediatric Association in recognition of the recipients’ outstanding contribution to the field of pediatrics.
Along with India, Asia Pacific Pediatric Association includes 26 countries such as Australia, Japan, China, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
Dr. Santosh Soans is only the third Indian so far to receive the award. He will receive the honour during the award distribution ceremony on August 28, 2018 at Peninsula lsland in Nusa Dua-Bali, Indonesia.
The award distribution coincides with 16th Asia Pacific Congress of Pediatrics 2018, 9th Annual Scientific Meeting of Indonesian Pediatric Society and the 6th Asia Pacific Congress of Pediatric Nursing, to be held from August 23-29, 2018 at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center, Nusa Dua-Bali, Indonesia.
A pioneer in Pediatric Intensive Care in this region, Dr Santosh Soans is an experienced academic and practicing pediatrician. He is a much sought after speaker for national and international medical conferences. He has authored two books, contributed chapters to several medical text books and published articles in various medical journals.
Dr. Santosh Soans is presently the National President of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP). He has been active in IAP for over three decades and has served as the National Vice President (2010), National Chairman, Intensive Care Chapter (2013) and Karnataka State President (2015).
A native of Kundapur, Dr. Santosh Soans is an alumnus of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore and Manipal. He is presently serving at AJ Institute of Medical Sciences, Mangalore as Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatrics as well as the Chief of NICU / PICU. He has earlier served as faculty at Father Muller Medical College too.
Responding to the award, Dr. Santosh Soans said: “I feel deeply humbled to be selected for this rare honour from Asia Pacific Pediatric Association. I am grateful to my family, colleagues and friends who have supported me in my life journey. I dedicate this award to the resilience of the Indian pediatrician community, which continues to inspire me every day.”
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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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