I've 10 months to decide whether I want to play one more year: Dhoni on IPL future
New Delhi(PTI): The legendary MS Dhoni stayed immune to the growing clamour around his future in the IPL, saying the decision to bring curtains on his career depends on how his body reacts to the demands of top-flight cricket and he has "10 months" to take a call.
In this IPL, Dhoni has not been able to make the kind of impact that he usually does while batting in the lower middle-order.
His lack of timing and ineffectiveness, evidenced in the 76 runs that he made from four matches, have prompted several experts to urge the multiple World Cup-winning skipper to move on.
"I am still playing the IPL and it is one year at a time for me. I am 43 now and by the end of this IPL season, I will be 44," Dhoni said on entrepreneur Raj Shamani's podcast recently.
"So, I have 10 months to decide whether I want to play one more year and it's not me to decide as it is my body that decides whether I can play or not," he added.
However, the former Chennai Super Kings skipper, who led CSK to five IPL titles, said he is quite content with his achievements on the field.
"It is not about whether I am happy or unhappy. Whatever has happened has happened. It cannot be changed. It's about accepting all of it. You know, whatever happens I will not be able to add one more run to my international runs, and no one will be able to reduce them," he said.
Dhoni has always been a man of the present. But, for once, he set aside that pragmatic side to reveal his wish of seeing legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh assemble in the same team once again.
"I will stick to Indian players. Viru pa opening the innings, Sachin, Dada… and now you imagine everyone at their prime. Then you will get this feeling that there can't be anyone better than them.
"It's tough to pick an all-time eleven. Now, when you see Yuvi hitting six sixes, you will feel that I don't want to watch any other batsman. It's all about enjoying what they have done for India. Some of those talents we have seen are mind blowing," he added.
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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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