Epsilon Advanced Materials plans Rs 9,000-cr anode facility in Karnataka: MD
New Delhi: Battery materials manufacturer Epsilon Advanced Materials is planning to set up a Rs 9,000-crore anode plant in Karnataka with an annual production capacity of 90,000 tonne, a top official of the company said.
The investment in the plant would be made in two phases. In the first phase, Rs 4,000 crore would be invested and the remaining Rs 5,000 crore would be pumped in the second phase, Epsilon Group Managing Director Vikram Handa said.
"So, we are looking to build a 30,000-tonne anode plant in India by Q4 2026, which will entail an investment of about Rs 4,000 crore. The plant will be scaled up to 90,000 tonne (capacity) by 2031. The total capex outlay is Rs 9,000 crore for our annual business in the next eight years," Handa explained.
With increasing demand of electric vehicles in India, there is a need for Indian cell manufacturing companies to set up battery plants in the country. Epsilon products will act as a sustainable and reliable supplier of anode and cathode material to these cell companies.
This way, Epsilon is playing a key role in the raw material processing ecosystem within the country and even for global demand.
The company plans the groundbreaking ceremony for the plant in the next six to eight months, Handa said, adding that the construction of the plant will take a year and a half.
"The idea is to have supply in the market by 2026-end or 2027 beginning," he explained.
The company plans to partly fund the project in the first phase by customer advance, debt and project financing as well because it is a big amount, he said.
"There is a lot of stickiness of the customer with this product. Today, we need a customer, but once acquired they will remain with us for next seven to eight years because the cost to replace the battery material is too high," Handa added.
The parent entity, Epsilon Carbon, is into the production of speciality carbon and carbon black that goes into tyres. Today, the company has about 1,100 people on-roll and off-roll operating at its plant in Karnataka.
The company is also building a new project in Odisha and announced an investment of Rs 10,000 crore in phases. The first phase is under construction.
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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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