Shubhanshu Shukla returns to India to a warm welcome
New Delhi(PTI): Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla returned to India early Sunday after his historic visit to the International Space Station (ISS).
Shukla, who has been in the US training for the Axiom-4 mission to the ISS over the past year, was welcomed at the airport by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, and ISRO Chairman V Narayanan.
Shukla's backup astronaut, Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, also returned to the homeland.
Shukla is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and travel to his hometown, Lucknow He is also expected to return to the capital to participate in the National Space Day celebrations on August 22-23.
"India’s space glory touches Indian soil... as the iconic son of Mother India, #Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla, lands in Delhi in the early hours of this morning. Accompanying him, another equally accomplished Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, one of the astronauts selected for India’s first human mission Gaganyaan, who was India’s designated backup for the mission to the International Space Station #ISS," Singh said in a post on X.
Earlier on Saturday, Shukla had posted a smiling photograph of himself sitting in an aeroplane on Instagram, saying he was filled with mixed emotions as he left the US and looked forward to returning to India to share his experiences with everyone back home.
"As I sit on the plane to come back to India, I have a mix of emotions running through my heart. I feel sad leaving a fantastic group of people behind who were my friends and family for the past year during this mission. I am also excited about meeting all my friends, family, and everyone in the country for the first time post-mission. I guess this is what life is - everything all at once," Shukla said in the post.
"Having received incredible love and support from everyone during and after the mission, I can’t wait to come back to India to share my experiences with all of you. Goodbyes are hard, but we need to keep moving in life. As my commander Peggy Whitson fondly says, ‘The only constant in spaceflight is change.’ I believe that applies to life as well," he added.
Shukla also wrote, "I guess at the end of the day - 'Yun hi chala chal rahi - jeevan gaadi hai samay pahiya'," recalling the song from the Bollywood movie Swades, which was on his playlist just before he embarked on the Axiom-4 mission to the ISS on June 25 from the US.
Shukla and his backup astronaut Nair participated in the Independence Day celebrations at the Indian Consulate in Houston on Friday.
Addressing the 79th Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort, Prime Minister Modi on Friday said India was developing its own space station and noted that Group Captain Shukla had returned from a space mission.
"Our Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has returned from the space station. In the coming days, he is returning to India," Modi had said.
Shukla was part of the Axiom-4 private space mission that lifted off from Florida on June 25 and docked at the International Space Station on June 26. He returned to Earth on 15 July.
Along with three other astronauts - Peggy Whitson (US), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary) - Shukla conducted over 60 experiments and 20 outreach sessions during the 18-day mission.
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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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