Kasturirangan heads education policy panel

New Delhi, June 26

The HRD ministry has appointed a nine-member panel, headed by space scientist Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, to work on a New Education Policy (NEP), sources said.

The Prakash Javadekar-led HRD ministry has chosen experts and educationists from wide-ranging backgrounds to be part of the panel that is expected to recast India’s education policy.

Besides Kasturirangan, who headed India’s space agency ISRO, the panel includes former IAS officer KJ Alphonse Kanamthanam. He had played a key role in helping Kerala’s Kottayam and Ernakulam districts achieve 100 per cent literacy, sources said.

Ram Shanker Kureel, Vice-Chancellor of Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, who has a wide experience in the field of agriculture sciences and management, has also been appointed.

Dr MK Shridhar, former member secretary of the Karnataka State Innovation Council; Dr TV Kattimani, an expert on language communication; Dr Mazhar Asif, professor of Persian at Guwahati University; and former director of education, Uttar Pradesh, Krishan Mohan Tripathi also bring a wealth of experience to the panel, the sources said.

The committee also comprises mathematician Manjul Bhargava from Princeton University and Vasudha Kamat, former V-C of Mumbai’s SNDT University.

The HRD ministry had a couple of years ago formed a panel under former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian on the New Education Policy. Sources said inputs from the Subramanian panel report would also be utilised. PTI