Death toll in coronavirus crosses 2,900 in China, global toll surges past 3,000
Beijing: China has reported 42 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus outbreak, taking the death toll in the country to 2,912, Chinese health officials said on Monday, as the rapid spread of the epidemic wreaks havoc globally causing over 3,000 deaths and infecting more than 88,000 people.
The deadly virus that first emerged in China in December last year has spread to more than 70 countries and has infected more than 88,000 people, including over 80,000 in China.
China's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Sunday it received reports of 202 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Sunday, taking the total number of cases in the mainland to 80,026.
The new cases are the lowest since January 22 when Beijing initiated emergency measures, including placing the worst-hit Wuhan city and 17 other cities with over 50 million people under lockdown.
Forty-two deaths were reported on Sunday in the virus-hit Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan, the NHC said in its daily report.
The overall cases included 2,912 people, died of the disease, 32,652 patients who were still being treated and 44,462 patients discharged after recovery, it said.
The commission said that 715 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.
Hubei province and its capital Wuhan which remained the epicentres of the coronavirus outbreak reported 196 new confirmed cases.
The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 67,103 and that of total deaths to 2,803, including 2,227 fatalities in Wuhan, local health commission said.
Wuhan reported 193 confirmed cases and 32 deaths on Sunday. In total, the city has registered 49,315 confirmed cases.
The province also saw 2,570 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Sunday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 33,757.
Among the 26,901 hospitalised patients, 5,646 were still in severe condition and another 1,226 in critical condition.
The commission also said 80 new suspected cases were reported on Sunday.
All over China 2,837 people were discharged from hospital after recovery on Sunday, while the number of severe cases decreased by 255 to 7,110, the NHC said.
By the end of Sunday, 98 confirmed cases including two deaths had been reported in Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 40 in Taiwan, including one death.
The deadly coronavirus is wreaking havoc globally, killing over 50 people in Iran, 34 in Italy and 22 in South Korea. Australia and the US reported their first deaths on Sunday.
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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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