35 new UP govt degree colleges to get ₹4.90 cr for furniture, equipment
The budget, approved at ₹14 lakh per college, is aimed at preparing these institutions for students before academic activities commence. The furniture and equipment will be purchased through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal. The 35 colleges include Government Degree College at Sirathu in Kaushambi, Government Degree College at Barki Sevapuri in Varanasi and Government Degree College at Majhawan in Mirzapur.
These 35 colleges are part of the 71 new government degree colleges under construction in the state. Sixty-nine of these are expected to be fully ready to start academic activities from July 1 for the academic session 2025-26. On May 26, the state government also released ₹1.38 crore for books, laboratory equipment, and other essentials for 46 of these new colleges slated to begin operations from July 1.
In addition to arranging furniture and lab equipment, officers of the Directorate of Higher Education are also busy sending requisitions for approved Assistant Professor posts in these colleges to the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission. In-principle approval has been given for a total of 1,562 posts to be filled through direct recruitment in these 71 new colleges, including 1,065 posts for assistant professors.
Until regular appointments are completed, classes in these new institutions will be managed by deputing teachers from other colleges. Notably, in accordance with the new National Education Policy (NEP)-2020, all three streams — science, commerce, and arts — will be taught in these colleges. Most of the existing 172 government degree colleges in the state currently offer only one or two streams. However, to promote inter-disciplinary studies as provisioned in NEP-2020, all three streams will be offered in the new colleges.
More than 40 of these new degree colleges have already been formally transferred to the UP Directorate of Higher Education by the implementing agencies. Officials are now focused on ensuring requisite resources, including furniture and equipment, for these colleges.
SUGGESTED BOX
Order of affiliation with state universities issued
PRAYAGRAJ: Orders for the affiliation of the newly constructed and under-construction 71 government degree colleges, including 69 expected to start functioning from July 1, were issued on Wednesday. Girijesh Kumar Tyagi, Special Secretary (higher education), has directed Registrars of the State Universities to ensure necessary actions for the smooth functioning of colleges in their respective areas from the 2025-26 academic session.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
PM Modi seeks Starmer's help to bring economic offenders to justice
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sought the UK's cooperation to bring to justice economic offenders and fugitives from India who are currently living in England. India and the UK also agreed to ramp up joint efforts against organised crime, serious fraud, and illegal migration with a new framework signed between the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the UK. On the matter of extradition of economic offenders, 'our agencies' will continue to work together in close coordination and cooperation, Modi said at a joint press briefing with his UK counterpart Keir Starmer in London. The agreement seeks to increase cooperation in tackling corruption, serious fraud, organised crime, and irregular migration through enhanced intelligence-sharing and operational collaboration. Economic offenders such as Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya are currently fugitives in the UK. On Tuesday, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said that New Delhi has continued to make the case for some of the fugitives to be rendered to India. 'Obviously, there is a legal process that such requests and such issues go through in the other country, and we continue to follow up very closely with our partners in the UK on these matters,' Misri had said. Earlier, Modi and Starmer had a one-on-one meeting as well as delegation-level talks at the UK PM's country residence at Chequers in Buckinghamshire. The talks lasted three hours. Apart from the signing of the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the two sides agreed to negotiate a Double Contribution Convention, which will come into effect along with the CETA. The Convention will facilitate professionals and the service industry in both countries by promoting competitiveness and reducing the cost of doing business for commercial entities, Misri said at a press briefing in London. The two leaders called for accelerated implementation of the Technology and Security Initiative (TSI), which focuses on telecom, critical minerals, artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology and health technology, semiconductors, advanced materials, and quantum. The TSI completed one year on Thursday. Modi and Starmer noted that five more UK universities were working to open campuses in India under the New Education Policy (NEP). Southampton University opened its campus in Gurugram on June 16, the first foreign university to open its campus in India under the NEP. Referring to the India-England test cricket series, Modi said: 'I would be remiss not to mention cricket when India and the UK are coming together, especially during a Test series.' He said that for both India and England, cricket is not just a game but a passion, and also a 'great metaphor for our partnership'. 'There may be a swing and a miss at times. But we always play with a straight bat. We are committed to building a high-scoring solid partnership,' he said in the context of the India-UK Vision 2035 document and other agreements signed on Thursday. On the TSI, the two sides have in the past year, since it was inked, completed several initiatives, including the successful first phase of the world's first UK-India Critical Minerals Supply Chain Observatory. Phase-II, supported by £1.8 million of new funding, will deliver the world's largest digital data infrastructure on the critical minerals value chain, and establish a new satellite campus at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad. The future agenda includes establishing a UK-India Critical Minerals Guild to transform financing standards and innovation.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
A.P. Cabinet approves ₹80,000 crore investment proposals
Proposals involving over ₹80,000 crore worth of investments were ratified, with the potential to generate more than 1.5 lakh new jobs across sectors, in a landmark e-Cabinet meeting chaired by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at the State Secretariat here on Thursday. The State government approved a series of investment, infrastructure, and policy decisions aimed at rapid industrial growth and inclusive development, informed Kolusu Parthasarathy, Minister for Information & Public Relations, at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting. He said that the resolutions reflected the coalition government's dual commitment to welfare and development, laying strong policy foundations for the State's economic future. Electronic Components Policy A major highlight was the approval of the Andhra Pradesh Electronic Components Manufacturing Policy 4.0 (2025–30), which aims to attract significant domestic and global investments in the electronics ecosystem. The State will offer a host of incentives including upfront and matching subsidies, interim support, and plug-and-play manufacturing facilities in identified zones such as Sri City, Orvakal, Kopparthi, and Hindupur. Land allotments Several land allotments and incentive packages were cleared for IT and infrastructure development in Visakhapatnam. These include: 0.45 acres to Phenom People Pvt. Ltd. for an IT campus at Rushikonda with ₹207 crore investment and 2,500 job potential, 3.6 acres to Sify Infinit Spaces Ltd. at Madhurawada and 50 acres at Paradesipalem for a ₹16,466 crore project, employing 600, an extent of 30 acres to Sattva Developers Pvt. Ltd. for a ₹1,500 crore IT park to create 25,000 jobs, 10.29 acres to ANSR Global Corporation Pvt. Ltd. for a ₹1,000 crore campus promising 10,000 jobs, and 30 acres to BVM Energy and Residency Pvt. Ltd. for a ₹1,250 crore project generating 15,000 jobs. Land Regularisation Scheme The Cabinet also approved amendments to the Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS-2020) and sanctioned further land pooling up to 1,941 acres in Anakapalli and across the Visakhapatnam-Vizianagaram-Anakapalli region under the 2016 land pooling regulations. Water infrastructure and septage management projects under AIIB funding were also cleared. Several key industrial investment proposals were ratified, including those from Sreeja Mahila Producer Company Ltd., JSW AP Steel Ltd., Greenlam Ltd., Axxelent Pharma Science Pvt. Ltd., Agastya Energy Industries Private Limited (AEIPL), Renew Photovoltaics, Laurus Labs, and Ace International. Power projects Energy sector decisions involved approvals for biogas, solar, wind, and pumped storage power projects, including cancellations of delayed ones and project reallocations. In a notable green energy push, the Cabinet cleared the Amaravati Green Hydrogen Valley declaration. In Kadapa district, JSW Neo Energy Ltd. received the approval to shift 400 MW of its sanctioned solar capacity to Sunnapuralapalle and nearby villages. Urban development gained momentum with approvals for Phase-1 of metro rail projects in Visakhapatnam worth ₹11,498 crore and Vijayawada amounting to ₹10,118 crore, with tenders for 40% of the project cost set to be floated.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
AI ethics & employability
In today's Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered world, a silent transformation is underway. From automating mundane tasks to predicting human behaviour, artificial intelligence is reshaping how we live, work, and lead. And as industries adapt at breakneck speed, the question before us is no longer whether AI will shape the future of work—it's how prepared we are to shape it responsibly. AI (Unsplash) For business schools, this isn't just a curriculum challenge—it's a moral and strategic imperative. Machines now write emails, analyse markets, and even diagnose diseases. But while we celebrate these efficiencies, we must also confront a more sobering reality—our reliance on AI is growing faster than our understanding of its ethical boundaries. Many students entering the workforce today can prompt ChatGPT with ease, yet struggle to question the fairness of an algorithm or recognise when automation replaces empathy. This is where business education must evolve—not just to teach how AI works, but to ask why it should be used, who it serves, and what it might displace. At institutions like the University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Colorado Boulder, business schools are already taking bold steps—launching dedicated courses on AI ethics, building multi-stakeholder committees, and embedding GenAI tools into foundational coursework. At FIIB, we too are reflecting deeply on how AI integration must be as much about critical thinking and conscience as it is about technical proficiency. Because at the heart of this revolution lies a powerful truth: AI is created by humans—and it inherits our flaws. From insurance companies using opaque algorithms to deny claims, to marketing departments unknowingly lifting copyrighted content, the ethical dilemmas are real and rising. Bias in datasets, lack of transparency, and the black-box nature of AI decision-making demand that we teach students not just to use these tools—but to challenge them, audit them, and lead ethically through them. Historically, universities have been centres of knowledge transmission. But in the AI age, they must also become centres of knowledge navigation—places where students learn how to live and lead in a world where human and machine intelligence coexist, often contentiously. We need to expand the traditional triad of teaching, research, and service into a more dynamic ecosystem—one that fuses academic rigor with industry relevance and social responsibility. AI shouldn't just be a vertical within IT electives; it should become a horizontal theme cutting across marketing, operations, finance, and strategy. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in India provides a timely foundation for this shift. By encouraging multidisciplinary thinking, innovation labs, and industry-academia collaboration, the NEP invites institutions to evolve beyond silos and reimagine themselves as hubs of real-world problem-solving. India is at a critical inflection point. With declining university-age demographics, rapid industrial shifts, and growing global competition, universities cannot afford to stand still. They must embed AI thinking across disciplines, establish centres of excellence, collaborate with industry to shape demand-driven curricula, and foster faculty development programmes that ensure educators are as AI-aware as their students. This transformation need not be expensive—it must be intentional. We've already seen industry giants like Microsoft and Google partner with Indian institutions to create AI upskilling initiatives. But what we need next is a coordinated national strategy—one that recognises business schools not just as talent factories, but as ethics incubators and policy influencers. Amid all this change, one thing must remain clear: AI should not be used to replace human intelligence—it should enhance it. And that enhancement must include empathy, diversity, fairness, and inclusion. We must teach our students that while AI may accelerate analysis, it cannot replace curiosity. It may automate tasks, but not trust. And it may generate content, but not character. Let us not create a generation of professionals who can code without conscience or automate without accountability. Let us instead nurture responsible leaders who understand that the future of business is not just digital—it's deeply human. In the race to keep up with AI, business schools must not just adapt—they must lead. And they must do so with boldness, foresight, and a renewed commitment to building a world where technology serves humanity—not the other way around. This article is authored by Radhika Shrivastava, CEO and president, FIIB.
