• The Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission (UGC) launched a project to develop 22,000 books in Indian languages in the next five years.

• The project, titled ASMITA (Augmenting Study Materials in Indian Languages through Translation and Academic Writing), was launched on July 16. 

• It is a collaborative effort of the UGC and the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, a high-powered committee under the ministry, to promote Indian languages in education.

• The project aims at creating a robust ecosystem for translation and original book writing in Indian languages across various disciplines within higher education.

• The goal is to produce 1,000 books in 22 languages within five years, resulting in 22,000 books in Indian languages.

• As many as 13 nodal universities have been identified to lead the project, along with member universities from various regions.

• The UGC has also created a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the book-writing process in each assigned language. The SOP includes the identification of nodal officers, authors, allocation of title, subject and programme, writing and editing, submission of the manuscript, review and plagiarism check, finalisation, designing, proof-reading and e-publication.

Bahubhasha Shabdakosh

• The ministry also launched ‘Bahubhasha Shabdakosh’, a single-point reference for all the words in all Indian languages and their meanings.

• This initiative will be developed by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in collaboration with the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti. 

• This Shabdakosh will help in using Indian words, phrases and sentences for various new-age domains like IT, industry, research, education.

Genesis of UGC

• The first attempt to formulate a national system of education in India came In 1944, with the Report of the Central Advisory Board of Education on Post War Educational Development in India, also known as the Sargeant Report. 

• It recommended the formation of a University Grants Committee, which was formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three central universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi.

• In 1947, the Committee was entrusted with the responsibility of dealing with all the then existing universities.

• Soon after Independence, the University Education Commission was set up in 1948 under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions that might be desirable to suit the present and future needs and aspirations of the country. 

• It recommended that the University Grants Committee be reconstituted on the general model of the UGC of the United Kingdom with a full-time chairman and other members to be appointed from amongst educationists of repute.

• In 1952, the Union government decided that all cases pertaining to the allocation of grants-in-aid from public funds to the central universities and other universities and institutions of higher learning might be referred to the University Grants Commission. 

• Consequently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) was formally inaugurated by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research on December 28, 1953.

• The UGC, however, was formally established only in November 1956 as a statutory body of the government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination, and maintenance of standards of university education in India. 

Mandate of UGC

The UGC has the unique distinction of being the only grant-giving agency in the country which has been vested with two responsibilities: 

i) Providing funds.

ii) Coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education.

Other functions include:

• Promoting and coordinating university education.

• Determining and maintaining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities.

• Framing regulations on minimum standards of education.

• Monitoring developments in the field of collegiate and university education, disbursing grants to the universities and colleges.

• Serving as a vital link between the Union and state governments and institutions of higher learning.

• Advising central and state governments on the measures necessary for improvement of university education.

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