Arshdeep Singh records career-best 4/9 as India restrict USA to 110/8 in T20 WC
New York, Jun 12: Arshdeep Singh hardly took his foot off the pedal enjoying career-best figures of 4/9 as India restricted co-hosts United States of America to a manageable 110 for 8 in a Group ‘A’ encounter of the T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.
After a couple of gallant batting performances in their back-to-back victories, the USA batters found Indian pace attack a few notches above in terms of class and quality.
There was hardly a phase of play when the hosts would have felt the noose being loosened around their necks.
However, after scoring 42 in the first 10, USA with useful contributions from Nitish Kumar (27), Steven Taylor (24) and former New Zealand international Corey Anderson (15) added another 68 in the back-10.
Once Arshdeep got a couple of breakthroughs in the opening over including a first-ball wicket of Shayan Jahangir, there was no looking back for the Indians.
They never had a slip up in terms of intensity, mixing up fuller deliveries with ones that were pitched on back of length.
The left-arm pacer was fantastic both at the start and at the death bowling an incredible 17 dot balls.
Arshdeep had a dream first delivery of the game as he got one that was pitched on a length and darted back enough to catch Jahangir (0) plumb in-front.
The last delivery of the same over accounted for Andries Gous (2), who was late on a pull-shot off a delivery that was dug in short.
The Powerplay yielded only 18 runs and skipper on the day Aaron Jones (11) could hit one six off Mohammed Siraj as he was forced to block most deliveries before
Hardik Pandya (2/14 in 4 overs) ended his misery with a short delivery which he top-edged to Siraj at deep fine leg.
The quality of opposition also gave skipper Rohit Sharma a chance to check out Shivam Dube (0/11 in 1 overs), the weakest link in both batting and bowling department.
Opener Taylor, who survived the Powerplay, hit a big six off Axar Patel only to drag the next one back to the stumps.
However, Nitish (27 off 23 balls) proved to be a thorn in India's flesh with some lusty hits including a picturesque straight drive after a maximum off Pandya while his able ally Anderson slog swept Axar for a maximum in the cow corner region.
But a superb catch by Siraj at the mid-wicket boundary brought Nitish's downfall as half of the side was back in pavilion for 81.
Once Nitish was gone, USA's dreams of scoring 120 were also dashed.
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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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