Let love and affection unite world: President Ramanath Kovind
President visits Pejawara Mutt, Sri Krishna Mutt
Udupi, December 27: President Ramanath Kovind stressed the need to unite the people in the world through love and affection.
The President was speaking after visiting the Pejawara Mutt and Sri Krishna Mutt here on Thursday.
The God has created many beings in the world. Among them, man was the best creation. Nowadays, there should be love and affection among them. Though the God was called in different names and different shapes, the God was one, he said.
"I was planning to visit the Sri Krishna Mutt since many days. I am happy that I have visited today. Union Minister Uma Bharathi told me many things about Pejawara Swamiji. At the age of 89, the Swamiji is active and I am happy to see his activeness. Let him complete hundred years. Let him do more religious and social works", the President said.
Rama Rajya was a model state. It was a model on how to rule and treat the subjects. If the model was followed, the world would be happy, he said.
Vishveshwara Thirtha Swamiji of Pejawara Mutt said that he was happy that the President visited the Sri Krishna Mutt, established by Madhwacharya.
Vidyadeesha Thirtha Swamiji of Paryaya Palimaru Mutt felicitated the President with the idol of Lord Sri Krishna on the occasion.
Savitha Kovind, wife of President Ramanath Kovind, Governor Vajubhai Vala, Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya, Udupi District Minister Dr Jayamala, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLA Raghupathi Bhat, ZP president Dinakar Babu, former minister Pramod Madhwaraj, Dakshina Kannada district Kannada Sahitya Parishat Pradeep Kalkura, Mysure Division Regional Commissioner Yashwanth, Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis, ADGP Kamal Panth, IGP Arun Chakravarthy, SP Lakshman Nimbaragi and other senior officers were present.
Ramanath Kovind’s first visit to Udupi
For the first time, President Ramanath Kovind visited Udupi district on Thursday to pay his respect to Vishvesha Thirtha Swamiji of Pejawar Mutt who completed 80 years of his coronation.
President Ramanath Kovind, along with his wife Savitha Kovind, arrived at Adi Udupi helipad from Mangaluru airport at 11.20 am. Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya, District Minister Dr Jayamala, ZP president Dinakar Babu and others welcomed the President at the helipad. Later, the President reached Pejawar Mutt at 11.40 am and Mutt Diwan Raghuram Acharya received the President and took him into the Pejawar Mutt, where Vishvesha Thirtha Swamiji, junior pontiff Vishwaprasanna Thirtha and Vidyadeesha Thirtha of Paryaya Palimaru Mutt who were waiting for the President inside the Mutt, received Kovind and explained the history of the Mutt.
Later, the Pejawar Swamiji offered special pooja to Rama Vittala, mooladevaru of the Mutt and the President also participated in the ritual. Swamiji honoured the President with the idol of Lord Sri Krishna and the President also felicitated the Pejawar swamiji on the occasion.
At 12.20 pm, the President left the Pejawar Mutt for Sri Krishna Mutt, where the first citizen of the country was received with the chanting of hymns and Mangala Vadya and took him into the Sri Krishna Mutt.
The President had the darshan of Lord Sri Krishna and sat at the Chandrashale along with other dignitaries. Along with Pejawar swamiji and Palimaru Swamiji, the swamijis of Sode, Kaniyur and Adamaru mutts were also present on the occasion. Paryaya Vidyadeesh Thirtha Swamiji welcomed the President and expressed his pleasure for the President’s visit to Sri Krishna Mutt.
Paryaya Swamiji also felicitated the President with shawl, the idol of Lord Sri Krishna.
Speaking on the occasion, President Ramanath Kovind said that he was happy that Pejawar Swamiji was travelling across the country at this age and invited him to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan once.
At 12.45 pm, the President left for helipad from Sri Krishna Mutt and from there, he reached Mangaluru airport.
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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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