CSIR-UGC-NET Question Papers - CSIR-UGC-NET Interview Questions and Answers updated on Dec 2024

UGC - Genesis

From ancient Bharat to modern India, higher education has always occupied a place of prominence in Indian history. In ancient times, Nalanda, Taxila and Vikramsila universities were renowned seats of higher learning, attracting students not only from all over the country but from far off countries like Korea, China, Burma (now Myanmar),Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),Tibet and Nepal. Today, India manages one of the largest higher education systems in the world*.

The present system of higher education dates back to Mountstuart Elphinstone's minutes of 1823, which stressed on the need for establishing schools for teaching English and the European sciences. Later, Lord Macaulay, in his minutes of 1835, advocated "efforts to make natives of the country thoroughly good English scholars". Sir Charles Wood's Dispatch of 1854, famously known as the ' Magna Carta of English Education in India', recommended creating a properly articulated scheme of education from the primary school to the university. It sought to encourage indigenous education and planned the formulation of a coherent policy of education. Subsequently, the universities of Calcutta, Bombay (now Mumbai) and Madras were set up in 1857, followed by the university of Allahabad in 1887.

The Inter-University Board (later known as the Association of Indian Universities) was established in 1925 to promote university activities, by sharing information and cooperation in the field of education, culture, sports and allied areas.

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, Banarasand 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 University Grants Commission 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 late Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research on 28 December 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. In order to ensure effective region-wise coverage throughout the country, the UGC has decentralized its operations by setting up six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The head office of the UGC is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, with two additional bureaus operating from 35, Feroze Shah Road and the South Campus of University of Delhi as well. 


Mandate

The UGC has the unique distinction of being the only grant-giving agency in the country which has been vested with two responsibilities: that of providing funds and that of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education.

The UGC's mandate includes:

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 the Central and State governments on the measures necessary for improvement of university education.

UGC ACT 1956
The University Grants Commission Act And Rules & Regulations Under The Act, 1956

This publication has been printed under the direction and control of UGC and the Govt. of India shall not be deemed responsible for the material reproduced in this copy of the UGC Act, 1956 and Rules and Regulations under the Act, which is strictly meant for official use and shall not be used for commercial purpose.
Logo

Background

It was something that Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said during his speech on the occasion of the initiation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Golden Jubilee Year on 28 December, 2002 that sparked off the idea of revisiting the old UGC logo. In his speech, Shri Vajpayee spoke of the need to take a fresh look at the UGC Act, 1956 in the light of the new challenges for the education sector emerging in the twenty-first century. He also suggested that the Commission could consider changing its name to the `University Education Development Commission”. This name truly captures the changed role of the UGC in recent years.

Traditionally, UGC was entrusted with the task of co-ordination, formulation and maintenance of the standards of university education. To this end, it engaged itself in, among other things, framing regulations on minimum standards of education, determining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities, monitoring developments in the field of collegiate and university education, disbursing grants to universities and colleges and setting up common facilities, services and programmes for a group of universities in the form of Inter-University Centres. 

For more details :http://www.ugc.ac.in

About NET :http://www.ugcnetonline.in/

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) --the premier industrial R&D organization in India was constituted in 1942 by a resolution of the then Central Legislative Assembly. It is an autonomous body registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860.CSIR aims to provide industrial competitiveness, social welfare, strong S&T base for strategic sectors and advancement of fundamental knowledge.

The Strategic Road Map designed for CSIR as it stepped into the new Millennium envisaged:

Re-engineering the organisational structure;
Linking research to marketspace;
Mobilising and Optimising the resource base;
Creating an enabling infrastructure; and
Investing in high quality science that will be the harbinger of future technologies.

Interestingly , the Government of India has also announced a new Science and Technology Policy 2003 in the early years of the new century. It presents Science and Technology with a human face and emphasizes realities such as facing open, global competition; need for examining social, economic and environmental consequences of S&T; and, aggressive international benchmarking and innovation. It advocates strong support for basic research. It emphasizes manpower build-up and retention as important challenges. It advocates dynamism in S&T governance, through the participation of scientists and technologies.

Today CSIR is recognised as one of the world’s largest publicly funded R&D organisations having linkages to academia, R&D organisations and industry. CSIR’s 37 laboratories not only knit India into a giant network that impacts and add quality to the life of each and every Indian but CSIR is also party to the prestigious Global Research Alliance with the objective of applying global knowledge pool for global good through global funding. CSIR’s R&D portfolio embraces areas as diverse as Aerospace, Biotechnology, Chemicals…indeed, almost the ABC-Z of Indian Science!

To provide scientific industrial R&D that maximises the economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India.