Girl from Kodagu hoists Indian flag atop Mount Elbrus of Russia
Alumni of St. Agnes of Mangaluru scaled the peak
Madikeri, November 13: A girl from Kodagu became the cynosure of all eyes after she created a history by hoisting the tricolour atop Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia.
Bhavani, daughter of Tekkada Nanjundaswamy and Parvati of Perur village near Napoklu, scaled 5,642 meters height mountain. She has represented India along with three other climbers of Mexico, France and Romania. All the four were given training for three days in Russia.
Elbrus is the highest peak in Russia and among European countries, this is the 10th highest peak. But Bhavani has climbed the snowy mountain in eight hours and hoisted the flag. She was also known as the fastest climber. Bhavani climbed the peak first among four climbers. Interestingly, she climbed the mountain as a girl leaving three men behind.
She began her expedition bon October 18th midnight amidst chilling cold and continued her journey stepping on the ice and reached the summit on October 19 at 9.30 am.
Right from the beginning, she has passion for mountaineering. She has the ambition of climbing the Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. But it is not so easy. It requires preparation, training and financial assistance. If the government and organisations helped her in achieving her dream, she will climb the Everest, she said.
Already, she has climbed the mountain at Darjiling in North India.
Bhavani has completed her primary school at Srimangala JC School. Later, she has continued her study at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya of Galibeedu and completed her graduation at At. Agnes of Mangaluru. Now, she is working as a teacher at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute of Darjeeling.
She has more interest towards defence and adventure. She has joined NCC in high school level and continued it even in college. She had also participated in Republic Day parade held in New Delhi in 2016.
She has also participated in All India Air Force Sainik camp held at Jodhpur and appreciated by the chief minister Siddaramaiah, NCC director general Lt.Gen. Aniruddh Chakravarthy, Karnataka Goa NCC deputy director general air commander C Rajiv. Bhavani has got the primary training in mountaineering from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering Allied Sports of Manali. Higher level training was taken from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute of Darjeeling.
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute has already conducted various tough mountaineering activities successfully. Among them, she is the only girl who completed the mountaineering activities efficiently. She has already climbed the ice mountains like Rudugaira of Uttarakhand, Friendship of Manali, Renic and Stok Kangri in Leh. She has expertise in horse riding, swimming and various other trainings in defense sector.
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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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