Now there is no need to frequent embassies or consulates for study visas. The ace global universities will soon set up their campuses in India, thanks to the HRD Minister Smriti Irani who is working hard to bring back one of Rahul Gandhi's favourite projects, the Foreign Universities Bill, which allows top Ivy League universities and Oxbridge to set up campuses in India.
The UPA is lost into ignominy but one of its pet projects seems to have found favour with the new Narendra Modi dispensation.
In the former regime, the proposal was staunchly opposed by the Left on the pretext that sub-standard private foreign universities would be able to enter India once the education sector was opened up.
The proposal was then sent for study to a parliamentary committee and was never revived because the UPA did not have the numbers to get it cleared in the Rajya Sabha.
"The contours of the bill will remain the same," informed HRD official to Media Eye, confirming that the proposed legislation has been shortlisted as a must-do for the ministry's first-100-days agenda.
Haunted by certain stray thoughts that ‘inferior institutions’ too would find its way to India along with Ivy League, the Left had opposed the bill. CPM leader P Rajeev said, "Our stand remains the same. We don't want inferior colleges to come in".
The Congress is at its acerbic worst, says that the focus on foreign universities proves that Modi's government is helping itself to UPA polices and lack vision.
Former minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told scribes that it is "easy to copy the policy" but said he doubts that the BJP will be able to deliver top foreign colleges even if the legislation is cleared by Parliament.
