Overhaul of Higher Education The Government is committed to improve the quality of education and it is a continuous ongoing process. The Government is committed to provide equitable access to quality education to all sections of the society. Several initiatives are currently being undertaken in this direction such as in higher education, various schemes, namely, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) which seeks to strengthen the state higher education sector, Global Initiative for Academics Network (GIAN), Impacting Research, Innovation & Technology (IMPRINT), Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT), Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), National Digital Library, campus connect programme etc. are being implemented to improve the quality of higher education. To promote objective assessment of performance annually, Government has also launched the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). A number of initiatives are also undertaken by UGC and AICTE for quality improvement in higher and technical education. SWAYAM is an indigenous IT platform for hosting the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) by providing best quality online education covering a wide range of subjects and courses being taught in the high schools, colleges and universities and which can be accessed by students even in the remotest corner of the country. The Government of India launched the Global Initiative for Academic Network (GIAN) with an objective to garner the best international experience into our system of education by bringing in foreign academicians to teach courses in higher education institutions in India. The National Digital Library (NDL) is a recent imitative aimed at providing access to online educational resources by providing online access to all Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) within the country, by linking all digital library resources in the country and abroad. It is likely to evolve into the largest repository in the country. Currently, NDL has over 64.23 lakh books/journals/audio-books in 70 languages including Indian and foreign, 18,000 e-journals and 3617 institutions are linked with around 5.75 lakh students registered. These initiatives are aimed at addressing the shortage of faculty and library resources integral to providing quality education. This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.
