A case of practical, pragmatic and innovative education

The Hindu

28-05-2025

There has been much attention on the issues of the practical utility, employment generating capacity, innovativeness of the research universe and the capacity of the Indian educational universe for global competition under the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The NEP 2020 is a long-term structural reform, designed for phased implementation. It aims to transform India's education system by fostering innovation, strengthening industry-academia collaboration, and enhancing student employability through a wide array of initiatives. The NEP-2020 works in a three-fold way: ensuring originality and indigenously-rooted imagination in research; constant competitiveness in the global educational sphere, and preparing students on a multiple career path.
Towards better employability
The NEP proposes a four-year innovative flexible teaching programme which is certainly not designed to push students into low-paying jobs, as some allege. Instead, students earn other credentials during their educational journey and return later to complete their degrees. This is beneficial to students who might otherwise be forced to drop out without formal qualifications. It enables them to pursue diverse career trajectories with tangible credentials. Along with a vocationalisation of education and industry internships, students gain meaningful knowledge with practical exposure, thereby enhancing their employability. Before the NEP, it was a serious concern whether Indian education provided real world competencies. Under the NEP, there is a push for industry-academia linkages, vocational training, and internships to enhance the employability outcome. Around 167 universities and 59 colleges have already begun four-year undergraduate degrees — 224 universities and 101 colleges offer a multidisciplinary degree programme. To enable an original and innovative research universe, a vibrant research internship programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students has evolved in higher education institutions. This initiative aims to bridge the gap between academic learning and industry requirements by embedding hands-on, practical training within the curriculum.
Additionally, the scheme allows diploma holders, including students who have exited degree programmes or pursued standalone diploma courses, to enrol as apprentices within five years of graduation. These apprenticeships provide on-the-job training at industry establishments and include a stipend, partially funded by the government. Around 197 universities and 93 colleges offer internships to students (3,07,564 students are at the undergraduate level and 58,834 students placed for internships at the postgraduate level). Research and development (R&D) cells have been established in 242 universities, while 113 colleges have established R&D cells that are working to develop innovative research skills among our students.
Global competition and Indian education
As a result of these efforts, 11 Indian universities feature in the QS 500 listing. India also has the highest representation in the QS Asia Rankings 2025, with 163 universities across the continent. Under subject-specific performance, Indian institutions recorded a 25.7% jump in total entries (533), with 10 higher education institutions (including six Indian Institutes of Technology, and two Indian Institutes of Management) placed in the global top 50 across various disciplines.
Such data show that India's capacity has been maturing since the NEP reforms. Patents filed by Indian higher education institutions have grown from 7,405 in 2021-22 to 19,155 in 2022-23, which is a 158% increase. India's performance in the Global Innovation Index has been laudable (39th overall). This is an exponential improvement from a decade ago, when India was 76.
In the post-NEP period, there has been much change in the Indian research and innovation sphere. Policy and schemes such as the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) 2023 Act, the All India Council for Technical Education's (AICTE) initiative to have Idea Development, Evaluation and Application (IDEA) labs and the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) have all contributed in giving depth to the Indian research universe. SPARC has been instrumental in fostering a culture of research and innovation by facilitating collaborative projects between Indian and foreign educational institutions It has identified educational partners from 28 countries, which include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and France to advance joint research efforts.
To develop indigenous scientific imagination and educational wisdom, the NEP 2020 has focused on the Indian Knowledge System (vision and pedagogy). It is being implemented from school to higher education. Initiatives such as the Smart India Hackathon are nurturing innovation at the grass-root level. Since inception, it has empowered over 13.9 lakh students, with idea submissions growing sevenfold since 2017.
Sustainable employment
Employability is a multifaceted issue that must be assessed in the context of various dynamic factors, including industry hiring cycles, global macroeconomic trends, and post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Employment conditions before and after 2014 may be interpreted by some to show a declining trend in employment among educated youth (15 to 29 years) from 2004-05 to the 2017-18, especially among women. But from 2018-19 on, there has been constant growth in the employment rate of educated youth. By 2023-24, the employment rate of men was 53.4% and that of women at 22.7%, approaching 2004-05 levels. The overall employment rate increased to 38.6%.
For all age groups, also, employment grew after 2017-18, touching 43.7% in 2023-24. The female employment rate grew post-2017-18, reaching 30.7% in 2023-24.
The good job ratio has been growing fast in India. It is supported by the fact that the proportion of regular workers has grown, particularly for men (from 17.2% in 2004-05 to 24.88% in 2023-24. It is further documented that there is a constant decline in casual labour, especially among females (30.31% to 16.68%) and overall (28.85% to 19.83%) in NSS employment and unemployment and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data. This suggests a qualitative transition away from irregular, unorganised, low-paying jobs. There is an increase in the proportion of regular workers among men (from 17.2% in 2004-05 to 24.88% in 2023-24), which suggests that more individuals are moving into formal and structured job roles. This data and changing conditions prove that this shift in the employment sector highlights more decent and sustainable employment conditions, contributing positively to economic stability and worker well-being. This cannot be possible without practical, pragmatic and innovative education.
Badri Narayan is Director, G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh