UNENDING ROW
Govt defends ex-HRD secy who appeared as Jio Institute adviser
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: 12.07.2018
The controversy triggered by naming of Jio Institute among the six institutions of eminence refuses to die. The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) on Wednesday denied there was any conflict of interest due to the presence of former HRD higher education secretary, Vinay Sheel Oberoi, standing in as adviser for the private university when it gave its presentation before the empowered expert committee chaired by exchief election commissioner N Gopalaswami.
The Economic Times reported on Wednesday that Oberoi was part of the eight-member Jio team that made its presentation before the committee. Jio Institute of Reliance Foundation was subsequently named as one of the institutions of eminence in the “greenfield category” — a category which facilitates entry to this elite club for yet to be established institutions based on their proposals.
Oberoi was secretary, higher education, at the human resources development ministry in 2016 when the IoE scheme, then called the World Class Institutes programme, was announced in the Union budget. He retired in February 2017. Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers have to take a break, also called a ‘cooling-off period’, of a year after retirement from government before taking up any commercial job offers. While Oberoi did seem to complete the cooling off period of one year, he however is associated with the MHRD as he headed the committee set up by the ministry to recommend measures for examination reforms following CBSE board exam paper leak in April 2018.
While Oberoi could not be contacted over phone for his comments till filing of this report, R Subrahmanyam, secretary, higher education, MHRD said that Oberoi was not involved with the framing of the regulation or implementation of the scheme.
“This insinuation is completely wrong. He is a man of repute and he retired long before the regulations came on August 2017. Also the plan of the IoEs was at the nascent stage when he was the secretary and no concrete decision was taken at that point of time,” said Subrahmanyam.
Govt defends ex-HRD secy who appeared as Jio Institute adviser
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: 12.07.2018
The controversy triggered by naming of Jio Institute among the six institutions of eminence refuses to die. The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) on Wednesday denied there was any conflict of interest due to the presence of former HRD higher education secretary, Vinay Sheel Oberoi, standing in as adviser for the private university when it gave its presentation before the empowered expert committee chaired by exchief election commissioner N Gopalaswami.
The Economic Times reported on Wednesday that Oberoi was part of the eight-member Jio team that made its presentation before the committee. Jio Institute of Reliance Foundation was subsequently named as one of the institutions of eminence in the “greenfield category” — a category which facilitates entry to this elite club for yet to be established institutions based on their proposals.
Oberoi was secretary, higher education, at the human resources development ministry in 2016 when the IoE scheme, then called the World Class Institutes programme, was announced in the Union budget. He retired in February 2017. Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers have to take a break, also called a ‘cooling-off period’, of a year after retirement from government before taking up any commercial job offers. While Oberoi did seem to complete the cooling off period of one year, he however is associated with the MHRD as he headed the committee set up by the ministry to recommend measures for examination reforms following CBSE board exam paper leak in April 2018.
While Oberoi could not be contacted over phone for his comments till filing of this report, R Subrahmanyam, secretary, higher education, MHRD said that Oberoi was not involved with the framing of the regulation or implementation of the scheme.
“This insinuation is completely wrong. He is a man of repute and he retired long before the regulations came on August 2017. Also the plan of the IoEs was at the nascent stage when he was the secretary and no concrete decision was taken at that point of time,” said Subrahmanyam.
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