Investors and startup executives are calling for extending the period for an entity to be recognised as a startup from 10 to 15 years for deep-tech companies.
Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
The government on Sunday gave a strong push to upgradation and expansion of healthcare infrastructure, medical education and pharma sector with the Union Budget 2026-27 announcing a slew of steps, including those aimed at making India a global hub for allied healthcare professionals and biopharma manufacturing.
'Our problem is not a budget deficit but a trust deficit. We need to trust our institutions and industries to innovate and lead. That is the way forward for India.'
Across all sectors, the future of work depends on adaptability.
'We kept importing educational models from outside that had no connection to our cultural and intellectual strengths.'
Initially, we will look to take a small batch of a few hundred students, with a plan to increase this to 5,000 students in the next five years, and eventually 10,000 by 2036.'
If he cannot do it this term by using his bureaucracy and experts from different fields, it will be a tragedy, asserts Ramesh Menon.
inaugural address at the 'Conclave on Transformational Reforms in Higher Education under National Education Policy'.
"The policy draft has been approved. The ministry has been renamed as education ministry," a senior HRD ministry official said. The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992. A new education policy was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto ahead of the 2014 general election.
Jaitley said the government proposes to establish a National Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.
'Returning Indians can leverage their international skills and the strong funding environment for start-ups here.'
"NEP has given rise to a healthy debate and the more we discuss and debate the more it will benefit the education department. It is palpable that questions will arise on how this huge plan will be implemented. "We all will together do this implementation. Each one of you is directly involved in implementation of the NEP. In terms of political will, I am totally committed and with you," he said.
The role of the youth is very important in achieving the goal of 'ease of living' to give a better life to the poor, he told students.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the most pertinent question playing on the mind of every youngster -- will these sweeping changes being brought in the education system create better employment opportunity?
The latest biopic on Jyotibai Phule has come at a time when the Department of Taking Offence is super-active. Utkarsh Mishra feels it will be interesting to see if it portrays his attack on Brahminism in the same 'no holds barred' manner-- and, if it does, what reaction it provokes.
'When manufacturing or even services cannot generate the kind of employment they are looking for, they prefer to be unemployed rather than under-employed.'
Dr Talat Ahmad, vice chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia suggests important reforms in the Indian education system.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday unveiled 'transformative' tax reforms that ranged from a simpler income tax law to higher TCS threshold for remittances and income tax benefits for middle class.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar outlined his ideas to turn Thiruvananthapuram not only into a hub for higher education, but also a knowledge city, points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
He was speaking at the 101st anniversary event of Lokmanya Seva Sangh, a Mumbai-based organisation set up to build a 'socially vigilant, disciplined, cultured and progressive society'.
"We have to collectively address all doubts. The vision of flexibility with which this policy was brought... We will have to show in a similar way maximum flexibility in implementing it," Modi said while addressing the 'Governors' Conference on the Role of NEP in Transforming Higher Education'.
'Today, let us reaffirm our commitment to strive to realise Gandhiji's dreams. His watchwords, truth and nonviolence, will continue to remain relevant for the whole world. He also taught us that rights and duties are but the two sides of the coin - indeed, the true source of rights is duty. Today we recall his lessons in compassion too - compassion not only for our human neighbours but also for our other neighbours, namely, flora and fauna, rivers and mountains.'
By June 2025, financial freedom will be just an ATM away. Pleasantly surprised? But there's more, says Ramalingam Kalirajan
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away at the age of 92 on Thursday. He will be given a state funeral with full state honors at Nigambodh Ghat on Saturday. Singh served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014 and was known for his role in India's economic reforms. Leaders from across the political spectrum paid their respects to the departed leader, highlighting his contributions to the nation.
The climate for 'doing business' remains forbidding, taxtortion is still rife, corruption at state and district levels has increased, oil prices remain extortive with high taxation, and the continued red tape has kept the enterprise system as stifled as before, points out Debashis Basu.
"Only time will tell us about that but I am quite sure that if a youngster who has, as you said, got brainwashed (into terrorism), joins the services under the scheme and stays with us for four years, I am sure he will be a different person and probably more of an Indian than a radical as you brought out," the air marshal told reporters.
Questions that the state had come to recognise over time but consistently delayed treating seriously because doing so requires an overhaul of perspective and lifestyle, notes Shyam G Menon.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
'For Muslims, India is now a Hindu Rashtra, no matter what kind of Constitution is still in place,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Adapting to an inevitable digital intervention is India's only hope at beating a long-standing job crisis. To do so, focus on quality education and better skill development is fundamental, says Dr Yogesh Kumar Bhatt.
Education, jobs, health and more: Experts share their wishlist.
The chapters were dropped by the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) for the 2020-21 session, as part of the 30 per cent reduction of the syllabus, keeping in mind the loss of academic schedule that the students had to face because of the pandemic.
The AAP leader, who has been recently in the news for supposedly dropping her second name, has been active in reforming the education and health sector.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry, heading a high-powered delegation of his cabinet colleagues and top military commanders, today left for India as part of his 10-day seven nation Asia trip.
Every twist and turn in KMC's civil service career is attributed to serendipity, an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. He plays down his capabilities, which took him to the top of the civil service as the Cabinet Secretary or his misfortune in losing a daughter in her prime and suggests that his career was indeed serendipitous, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'What is unusual about the current period of slow growth is that it has come without an external driver -- high oil prices and/or successive monsoon failures -- as was the case with all previous periods of slowdown, going back 50 years, notes T N Ninan.
'There is an insistence that the government bring about reforms if India is to succeed. The fact is that many nations have done reforms, but are not Great Powers,' says Aakar Patel.
Trump to sign an executive order aimed at achieving a more skills-based and merit-based immigration system.
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