Structural consolidation without decentralized empowerment often results in cosmetic reform. True autonomy cannot flourish if regulation is merely renamed or reorganized, rather than fundamentally rebalanced in favour of institutions and states.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 15, 2025, certainly warrants a wide, transparent, and participative public debate. Any serious reform of higher education—particularly under the transformative vision of the National Education Policy (NEP)—must be assessed not merely for administrative restructuring, but for its ethical depth, fiscal realism, and civilizational purpose.
Viewed through the Needonomics School of Thought (NST) – the economics of needs – the Bill presents a mixed promise. While progressive in intent, it remains constrained in its ability to deliver genuine autonomy, equity, and holistic transformation of India’s higher education ecosystem.
Structural Reform or Centralized Repackaging?
The Bill seeks to replace the UGC, AICTE, and NCTE with an overarching Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA), supported by three councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and academic standards. At first glance, this appears to rationalize regulatory complexity. However, placing all councils under a single apex body risks reproducing centralized control rather than resolving the long-standing problem of regulatory overreach.
Needonomics cautions that structural consolidation without decentralized empowerment often results in cosmetic reform. True autonomy cannot flourish if regulation is merely renamed or reorganized, rather than fundamentally rebalanced in favour of institutions and states.
Missing Pillar: Fiscal Empowerment
The most serious limitation of the Bill is the absence of financial powers for the proposed Commission and its Councils. At a time when higher education institutions (HEIs) suffer from chronic underfunding, denying the apex regulator any role in grant allocation weakens both its moral authority and functional effectiveness.
Ironically, while an education cess is collected at the national level, it is neither equitably shared with state governments nor meaningfully accessible to most central and state universities. Instead, benefits remain largely confined to a few premier institutions, deepening systemic inequality. From a Needonomics perspective, this reflects a disconnect between resource mobilisation and need-based distribution.
Without genuine fiscal autonomy, regulatory reform risks becoming procedural rather than purposeful, bureaucratic rather than transformative.
Governance, Appointments, and Accountability
The Bill further centralizes authority through appointment mechanisms dominated by the central government. Appeals against decisions of the Commission and Councils lie before the central government itself, raising legitimate concerns about conflict of interest and erosion of institutional independence.
Needonomics emphasizes trust-based governance, where accountability arises from ethical conduct, transparency, and shared responsibility—not from excessive penalties or hierarchical command-and-control structures. Heavy fines, threats of closure, and government-controlled adjudicatory mechanisms may enforce compliance, but they are unlikely to inspire creativity, excellence, or intrinsic motivation among institutions.
Education beyond Regulation: Ethical Mandate
Higher education reform cannot succeed through institutional engineering alone. As mandated by Needonomics, education must restore its natural ethical sequence, beautifully articulated in the Hitopadeśa:
Vidyā dadāti vinayam,
Vinayād yāti pātratām;
Pātratvād dhanam āpnoti,
Dhanād dharmam tataḥ sukham.
(Knowledge leads to humility; humility to worthiness; worthiness to wealth; wealth to dharma; and dharma to happiness.)
This civilizational wisdom reminds us that education is not merely a pipeline to employment, but a pathway to character, responsibility, and social harmony. Regulators must therefore nurture values and purpose, not merely police institutions.
Exemptions and Regulatory Fragmentation
By excluding legal and medical education from its purview, the Bill perpetuates regulatory fragmentation. Needonomics argues for harmonization across disciplines, especially in an era where multidisciplinary education is central to innovation, inclusion, and national development.
Towards a Truly ‘Viksit Bharat’ in Education
Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, is a significant step but not a sufficient one. To genuinely advance the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047, the reform must go beyond structural rearrangement and address deeper systemic needs:
- Genuine fiscal empowerment of the Commission and HEIs
- Decentralized, trust-based autonomy, not centralized supervision
- Ethical anchoring of education, aligning knowledge with humility and dharma
- Equitable utilisation of education cess, guided by needs rather than institutional status
- Independent and transparent appellate mechanisms, beyond executive control
From a Needonomics perspective, education reform must begin with inner reform—of purpose, priorities, and principles. Without this, regulatory restructuring may change the form, but not the soul, of Indian higher education.
True national development lies not in producing more degrees, but in cultivating needo-best minds rooted in wisdom, guided by restraint, and committed to the collective good.
Conclusion
Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, marks an important attempt to streamline higher education regulation in India. Yet, viewed through the lens of Needonomics, it falls short of the deeper transformation required. Structural reform, by itself, cannot be a substitute for ethical clarity, fiscal empowerment, and genuine institutional autonomy. Without addressing these foundational concerns, the risk remains that regulation will change its form while control persists in substance.
A truly Viksit Bharat demands universities that are not merely compliant, but conscientious; not centrally supervised, but responsibly autonomous. Education must once again follow its natural civilizational path—where knowledge cultivates humility, humility nurtures worthiness, and worthiness serves dharma, leading ultimately to collective happiness. Unless reform moves beyond administrative rearrangement to inner renewal, higher education will continue to struggle between intent and impact.
India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat @2047 will be shaped not by the number of regulators it creates, but by the quality of minds it nurtures. Only when policy is guided by needs rather than control, trust rather than coercion, can higher education become the true engine of national regeneration.
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About the author
Prof. Madan Mohan Goel, Former Vice Chancellor and Propounder of Needonomics School of Thought.
Excellent presentation done by Prof M.M.Goel sir.Institutions will also benefit when we move from a fragmented system to a harmonised and responsive regulatory architecture. Under the proposed framework, the Regulatory Council will maintain a single digital interface. All institutions must disclose key information on financial probity, audits, infrastructure, faculty and academic outcomes on this portal. We have to follow the path shown by PROF GOEL SIR.