ED slaps over Rs 9,300 cr FEMA notice against BYJU's, main promoter Raveendran
New Delhi, Nov 21: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said it has issued a foreign exchange violation show cause notice of more than Rs 9,300 crore against edtech major BYJU's and its CEO and co-founder Raveendran Bjyu.
The federal probe agency mentioned multiple grounds for charging the company and its chief promoter that included charges of "failing" to submit documents of imports against advance remittances made outside India; failing to realise proceeds of exports made outside India by delayed filing of documents against the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received into the company, among others.
It said in a statement that a show cause notice has been issued to the registered company of BYJU's--Think & Learn Private Limited-- and Raveendran with respect to the contraventions of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to the tune of Rs 9,362.35 crore.
Post final adjudication, the ED has powers to penalise FEMA violators up to three times the value of the amount mentioned in the show cause notice.
The agency said statements of Raveendran and BYJU's chief financial officer were recorded after it carried out searches in this case at three premises, including at Raveendran's house, at Bengaluru in April.
It said the action was undertaken after complaints were received regarding the foreign investment received by Think & Learn Private Limited and the "business conduct" of the company.
The company, in the complaint, was stated to have made significant foreign remittances outside India and investments abroad which were allegedly in contravention of provisions of FEMA, 1999 and caused loss of revenue to the government of India, the ED said.
On conclusion of the investigation, the ED said, it was found that Think & Learn Private Limited and Raveendran have "contravened" the provisions of FEMA by failing to submit documents of imports against advance remittances made outside India; by failing to realise proceeds of exports made outside India; by delayed filing of documents against the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received into the company; by failing to file documents against the remittances made by the company outside India and by failing to allot shares against FDI received into the company.
After the April searches, the ED had said that "the company (Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd.) has not prepared its financial statements since 2020-21 fiscal and has not got the accounts, audited which is mandatory."
The searches found that the company received foreign direct investment (FDI) to the tune of about Rs 28,000 crore during 2011-2023.
"The company also remitted about Rs 9,754 crore to various foreign jurisdictions during the same period in the name of overseas direct investment," the agency had said.
The company booked around Rs 944 crore in the name of advertisement and marketing expenses including the amount remitted to foreign jurisdiction, the ED alleged.
The Bengaluru-based company provides early learning, middle school education and test preparation, among others and Raveendran Bjyu co-founded the e-learning company with his wife Divya Gokulnath.
The company earlier this month reported narrowing of operational losses in core business to Rs 2,253 crore for the 2021-22 fiscal.
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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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