South Africa lose Markram in pursuit of tough 305-run target against India
Centurion(PTI): Indian batters struggled to cope with uneven bounce but did enough to set up a stiff 305-run victory target for South Africa as they managed to score 174 runs in their second innings on the fourth day of the opening Test, here on Wednesday.
On an ever-deteriorating surface, South Africa were 22 for 1 at the tea break. The hosts lost opener Aiden Markram (1) with Mohammed Shami drawing first blood when the batter failed to remove his blade only to be played on.
India's struggling senior troika of Cheteshwar Pujara (16), skipper Virat Kohli (18), Ajinkya Rahane (20) played some indiscreet shots while some of the others were done-in by widening cracks that led to deliveries rearing up awkwardly from short of length.
KL Rahul (23), Rishabh Pant (34) and Ravichandran Ashwin (14) got snorters that grew big on them as Kagiso Rabada (4/42), debutant Marco Jansen (4/55) and Lungi Ngidi (2/31) looked menacing during the one and half sessions that the Indians batted.
South Africa have more than 140 overs to score 305 but on this Supersport Park track, it will be a Herculean task to make a match of the target with highest successful chase here being 251 by England back in 2000-01.
For South Africa's batting line-up that distinctly lacks class of bygone era, facing Jasprit Bumrah, Shami and Mohammed Siraj will be more than a tall order.
Indian team certainly owes it to openers on Day one and the ever-consistent fast bowling unit that has helped them gain control of proceedings.
Otherwise the middle-order has cut a sorry picture and more so skipper Kohli, who is promising a lot with some delectable boundaries but the propensity to drive anything pitched fuller outside the off-stump is bringing about his downfall.
Young Jansen, who had impressed the India skipper as a net bowler during their last tour of 2018, would certainly remember his debut as he angled one across at fuller length enticing the skipper to go for a drive.
Pujara once again played a lot of dot deliveries and then tickled one down the leg-side to Quinton de Kock off Ngidi.
The most embarrassing of the dismissals was Rahane's after he had hooked and cover drove Jansen for a six and a four.
The first hook shot was off a bouncer above his left shoulder and the second one was over his right shoulder at a slightly lower height. He couldn't check his pull-shot and holed out at deep square leg.
Had it not been for Pant's counter-attacking run-a-ball 34, India wouldn't have gained the psychological advantage of a target of 300 plus.
India had scored 63 runs in the morning session with KL Rahul (23 off 74 balls) showing admirable patience during the first hour, leaving a lot of deliveries outside the off-stump before Ngidi softened him up with one that came in sharply and hit him on the knuckle.
A close look showed considerable swelling and Rahul needed medical treatment and there was a lapse of concentration as he fished at one outside the off-stump and skipper Dean Elgar at first slip took an overhead catch.
The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Shami also got hit on the knuckles as Rabada and Ngidi consistently hit one spot - short of good length with a widening crack. However that was certainly a welcome sign for Indian pacers.
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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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