Sep 01 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Digital India Project Could be a Lifeline for MTNL, BSNL

Kalyan Parbat

Kolkata





The Digital India project, which aims at delivering the gamut of government services through cell phone applications, could provide a lifeline to struggling state-run telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) by way of a near .`92,000 crore annual revenue opportunity by 2020.
MTNL has proposed the formation of a separate 50:50 joint venture with BSNL for jointly delivering citizen services across India at a flat rate of .
`25 per transaction on a nomination basis in internal presentations to telecom secretary Rakesh Garg that ET has seen.
The ambitious revenue outlook is based on an estimated 10 crore citizen service transactions a day by 2020 from 1 crore a day now once the Digital India initiative gains traction, said an MTNL director aware of these presentations.
MTNL and BSNL have approached the telecom department (DoT) to deliver citizen services on a nomination basis to skirt potential challenges posed by the tendering route, especially since both are chronically loss-making companies and may not meet eligibility criteria.
MTNL runs telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai while BSNL offers telecom coverage in the rest of India. A top BSNL executive declined to share specifics but said the Digitial India initiative would prise open fresh revenue streams. He also agreed that the project rollout would be “much faster and at lower costs” if MTNL and BSNL combined forces and converted their idle landline exchanges into data centres. Leveraging these potential data centres across India is also aimed at developing a centralised platform for testing and hosting diverse citizen-centric applications generated by third-party content developers.
The MTNL and BSNL joint plan to develop a pan-India, app-hosting platform comes within days of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Rahul Khullar exhorting the government to focus on promoting the development of multi-lingual applications for effective realisation of the .
`1.13 lakh-crore Digital India project’s goals spanned across the health, education, banking, public to social services verticals. Over the past decade, BSNL has lost 40% of its wireline subscribers while MTNL has barely managed to hold on to its 3.5 million landline customers. As a result, “nearly 50% of combined 48,000-plus landline exchanges are idle and can be converted into pan-India data centres at a modest cost to meet Digital India’s services rollout targets”, said the top MTNL executive quoted above. In its presentation to DoT, MTNL suggested that the combined property holdings of both telecom PSUs could be deployed to preserve physical versions of digitised records necessary for effective delivery of services.
BSNL and MTNL have an infrastructure-sharing pact for providing joint services to companies that can be widened to deliver citizen-centric services nationally, the MTNL official added.
MTNL and BSNL share assets such as buildings, mobile masts and international long-distance phone networks to service mostly enterprise customers. The latest developments come at a time when the Narendra Modi government is trying to revive MTNL and BSNL, which continue to suffer hefty losses.MTNL posted a .
`733.2 crore net loss in the first quarter to June 30, while BSNL incurred a .
`7,085 crore loss in 2013-14.

Sep 01 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

A partnership based on principle and pragmatism

Toshihisa FUSE





There has been unprecedented progress in bilateral economic and strategic engagement in recent years resulting in cooperation at various levels

The friendship between India and Japan has a long history in strong cultural and civilisational ties. The modern nation states have carried on the positive legacy of the old association which has been strengthened by shared values of belief in democracy, individual freedom and the rule of law. Over the years, the two countries have built upon these values and created a partnership based on both principle and pragmatism.Today, India is the largest democracy in Asia and Japan the most prosperous.The arrival of Indians in Japan for business and commercial interests began in the 1870s at the two major open ports of Yokohama and Kobe. In recent years, there has been a change in the composition of the Indian community with the arrival of a large number of professionals.These include IT professionals and engineers working for Indian and Japanese firms as well as professionals in management, finance, education, and research who are engaged with multinational as well as Indian and Japanese organisations with Nishikasai area in Tokyo emerging as “mini-India“.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, and Shinjo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, share a very special relationship, and both are bullish on Japan and India's economic growth in the fast shifting geo-political and geoeconomic order of Asia. The friendship between Abe and Modi gained steam in 2007 when the former visited Gujarat. Both Abe and Modi share very similar views on economics and to a large extent are on the same page regarding world affairs, specifically India, and Japan's place in the rise of Asia.
India and Japan have firmed up their first-ever defence cooperation agreement, which is slated to be signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tokyo. Economic ties between India and Japan are being reinforced with the two countries expected to clinch a $1.65-billion defence aircraft deal during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan.
As India is expected to build a train network between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in Western India, Abe is expected to pitch Japanese Shinkansen high speed bullet train technology. The global and strategic partnership with the provision of annual prime ministerial summits between India and Japan has formed the foundation for the strengthening ties in diverse fields, including identifying strategic convergences. India is the only country with which Japan has such annual summit meetings alternating between Delhi and Tokyo. Thanks to the elevation of relations and the annual summit mechanism, there has been unprecedented progress in the bilateral economic and strategic engagement in recent years resulting in cooperation in various fields including defense and security, and the conclusion of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2011.
In the economic sphere, the complementarities between the two countries are particularly striking. (i) Japan's ageing population (23% above 65 years) and India's youthful dynamism (over 50% below 25 years); (ii) India's rich natural and human resources and Japan's advanced technology; (iii) India's prowess in services and Japan's excellence in manufacturing; and (iv) Japan's surplus capital for investments and India's large and growing markets thanks to the burgeoning middle class.
In FY 2013-14, Japan-India bilateral trade reached $16.31 billion, which is 11.89% lower than $18.51 billion in the previous fiscal year. The fall in the total trade was mainly due to reduction in Japanese exports by 23.53%.However, India's exports have risen by 4.36% in 2013-14. The share of the India-Japan bilateral trade has been hovering around 1 per cent of Japan's total foreign trade, while it was in the range of 2.2 to 2.5 per cent of India's total trade in the last couple of years.
India's primary exports to Japan have been petroleum products, iron ore, gems and jewellery, marine products, oil meals, ferroalloys, inorganicorganic chemicals, etc. India's primary imports from Japan are machinery, transport equipment, iron and steel, electronic goods, organic chemicals, machine tools, etc.
Japanese companies have made an investment of $15.359 billion in India between April 2000 and December 2013. This accounted for 7% of total FDI inflow into India and made Japan the 4th largest investor in India.Japanese automakers are moving to bolster Indian production bases. Japanese heavy electrical machinery manufacturers and trading houses are also eyeing demand stemming from India's efforts to improve its underdeveloped power infrastructure. Japan has been extending bilateral loan and grant assistance to India since 1958.Japan is the largest bilateral donor to India. Japanese ODA supports India's efforts for accelerated economic development particularly in priority areas like power, transportation, environmental projects and projects related to basic human needs. The number of Japanese companies coming to India is increasing rapidly in recent years.More than 1,000 Japanese companies are operating in India as of 2014. JCCII takes the initiative to undertake, encourage, facilitate and promote the development of trade industry between India and Japan.
This visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan is a remarkable development and will attract a large number of new investment and technology from Japan to India to create new opportunities in employment. I am very confident of the great success of Japanese companies in India. And also believe that the Abe-Modi dynamics, in all likeliness, will boost the trade relations between the two counties significantly in the years to come.
--The writer is President of Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India

Sep 01 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

MONDAY Musings - Fin Inclusion: SBI Aims to Create Savings Habit

B SRIRAM MANAGING DIRECTOR, SBI





Public sector banks are always at the receiving end when it comes to their adaptability to latest developments. But the State Bank of India is moving aggressively to remain relevant in a market which is set to witness a revolution with differentiated banks, says B Sriram, managing director, in an interview with Sangita Mehta and MC Govardhana Rangan. Edited excerpts:There is a lot of noise about financial inclusion. What will be its impact on the real economy?
It will have a big impact. We are looking at 10-12 crore accounts to be opened. It's not only opening accounts, they will have balance, there will be transactions, it will have multiple products like pension, insurance and even loan products at a later stage. In phase one, we are looking at opening accounts and creating the habit of savings in all citizens. In phase two, we are looking at bringing all these products to the customer so that not only the banking system develops on that, but the whole economy gets a boost.
There would be payment banks and small banks which would be nimbler than you are in reaching customers and their costs will be low. How do you compete?
I do not see them as competitors. They would be players in the economy like us, in a localised way. They have certain restrictions in the way they operate. They would collect small deposits and invest only in treasury instruments. So, to that extent, they are not in a loan market and they have their role defined by the RBI. They have their own niche in the market either they can be in combination with the bank, or they can be on their own.The intent is you add or multiply. You don't divide and subtract. The purpose is every citizen in every nook and corner of the country has access to banking service or whatever remittance service that payments bank would give is made available to him as close as possible. It is a question of synergy and it's not that they will take my business, or I will take their business.
For long, rural areas were neglected on the pretext that they are not profitable. Has that changed?
I don't subscribe to the view that small-ticket loans are not profitable.For SBI, the CASA (Current Accounts Savings Accounts) franchise is coming out of rural and semi-urban areas.There are circles that drive 60-70% CASA, including the North-East and Odisha. Circle-wise if you see the demography, the more rural or semi-urban you are, the higher the CASA is. They are as important as the big businesses. They have to be served in a way that they remain with the bank. Like small drops in an ocean, these are things that make SBI. There is a character of continuity in terms of benefits available to the bank and they would not swipe in ­ swipe out easily.
Now, every one is talking about the bottom of the pyramid customers.How would SBI differentiate?
SBI was a pioneer in SSI (small scale industries) sector and so, we have a huge level of expertise in financing this sector. Most of the financing we do today is slightly different from what it was. From manufacturing, it has extended to services, it has gone to realty, it has gone to channel financing, vendor, and dealer finance.The full cash flow of the customer is captured by the bank. So, the business model has changed. We have developed products to capture this.
We also have cash management products which are robust and well known. We have also gone in a big way to cash pick-up for SME customers.Here, the cash is picked up at customers' area either at the shop or jeweller once or twice a week and then, it is credited in their accounts.This gives us some CASA balances.
Are not private sector banks better at doing this?
We are also mapping SME clusters to certain branches and creating certain products for those branches. We are also creating specialised position ­ relationship managers small enterprise ­ they will look at the segment between ` . 10 . 1 crore to ` crore and they would be trained in processes and delivery and also in lead generation. How to capture leads?
How to go and market and handling of the account?
Is not the competition from private lenders increasing here as they also feel that urban markets have saturated?
There is no doubt that we have to be a banker of choice. We have the best brand, we have the best reach, we have the best personnel, best IT. But all this best will work only if we are the bank of choice to the customer. For that, it is very essential that our whole system is driven towards being customer friendly and customer focussed. For this, we are rolling out digitised branches. We want to show to customers that we could be as efficient as any of the bank in the world.
How different is that in enhancing the customer experience?
For example, if a person wants a car loan, he has to go to various showrooms to choose the car and go to the bank and try to get a loan. In these sorts of digital branches, he can at the touch of a screen will get all the latest models that are available, their prices in various cities. The moment he chooses the dealer, he can, at the touch of a screen, calculate how much loan he would require, and what would be the monthly payment. Next, for home
loans, we would put on the site all the projects that are approved by SBI and based on this, the customers can choose the right fit whether he wants 10-15 year home loan. Is technology becoming more important than finance expertise?
It has to be a mix of both. We are at an advantageous situation because of our brick-and-mortar branch strength.The strategy is two-fold, grow brick and mortar and at the same time also grow the digital way. There is market for both. The greatest strength of the bank today is its reach.
But e-transactions are still low in the country.The percentage of our transaction through the electronic route is touching 40% and the idea is to ramp it up to 60%. When that happens, that will automatically de-clutter our branches to some extent.
But that may change if your bank starts charging customers for ATM transactions?
I don't think so. Because people would rather pay for the transaction rather than come to the branch. Charges are not so heavy that they would like to come and stand in the queue. A cup of tea also today costs ` . 10. In that context, it is not a very large sum.
There is a lot of hope now when it comes to the economy. Do you see any thing on the ground?
Lots of activities are happening at the ground level. The PM himself is monitoring various things very closely. Overnight, you can't have new projects and suddenly investors come pouring in. But there is an intention on the part of corporates to try and raise resources, try to reduce their debt and clean up their balance sheets and then to look ahead and see where there is scope for enhancement. In manufacturing, the inventories that were built up are now starting to recede.
If economy revives, there could be an increase in demand for funds.Will that put pressure on interest rates?
I don't see any increase or decrease. It will remain more or less at this level.Two-three factors are being looked at.One is the targeted inflation figure, and the other is the revival of the growth cycle which takes at least a few quarters. Also, the stressed assets in the economy are still there. So, looking at all these factors, I can't see an increase or decrease.

Sep 01 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Fake Accounts may Cloud `Jan Dhan' Plan

Atmadip Ray

Kolkata:





Attached insurance cover gives rise to duplicates, which may be as high as 15th of newly opened acs; experts call for proper screening

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's financial inclusion drive is off to a flying start, but some who enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana may have accounts elsewhere and could have been persuaded to open new ones because of the attached insurance cover. This could account for about a fifth of the newly opened accounts, top bankers said, although there's absolutely no way of knowing for sure yet.On the launch day, August 28, banks opened 1.5 crore accounts through 77,852 special camps held across the country, finance minister Arun Jaitley said. That exceeded the 1 crore target.
The programme is aimed at making financial services available to every household instead of taking a villagebased approach followed by the previous Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government. Some senior bankers estimate those who already have accounts at 15-20% of the total. “At present, we are opening new accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme for everyone who is coming to us. The screening will be done later,“ United Bank of India executive director Deepak Narang told ET.“A survey has to be done at the rural level to identify the finan cially excluded pop ulation.“
State Bank of India deputy managing director Sunil Sri vastava said there could be some dupli cation of financial inclusion accounts, but it would be diffi cult to put a number to it. “Even if there is 5-10% repetition, still 90% people have ounts. This is going to received new accounts. This is going to be a game-changer,“ Srivastava said.
The accounts come bundled with ` .1 lakh accidental insurance cover, a . 5,000 overdraft (after six months of op` eration), a micro-pension and a RuPay debit card. What's more, Prime Minis ter Narendra Modi has announced . 30,000 life insurance cover on accounts ` opened before January 26 next year. The government has told banks to open 7.5 crore financial inclusion accounts in the next five months.
Bankers aren't sure whether existing account holders would get ` . 1 lakh acci dental insurance cover. It's also not clear as to who is going to foot the bills for the insurance premium and other costs to keep accounts running. “The government needs to spell out clearly who are the targeted people for this scheme,“ said HK Pradhan, professor of finance and economics at XLRI, Jamshedpur. “If banks try to merely achieve the target without proper screening, the entire purpose of the new drive will be defeated.“
The government appears to be in the process of developing an integrated portal for household information based on the 2011 census. Sources close to the development said the information would be reconciled with the district-level database and banks' existing deposit account holders. This integrated database will provide information on the progress of financial inclusion and build credit information.
According to minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla, about 42% or 10 crore households out of 24.64 crore don't have access to banking facilities. About 45% of 16.76 crore rural households and 33% of 7.88 crore urban households don't have bank accounts. The accounts will allow easier transfer of benefits. “We disburse 90 lakh scholarship schemes for minority communities across the country. With this facility, we will be able to transfer the money with transparency,“ Heptulla said.
The programme is a critical part of the fight against poverty, Prime Minister Modi said at the inaugural function in New Delhi. “Crores of Indians are still outside the ambit of organised financial system even after 45 years of bank nationalisation. I call it financial untouchability. Gandhiji ended social untouchability, it is our mission to eradicate this kind of untouchability to eradicate poverty,“ he said.
XLRI's Pradhan has recently launched Sanchetana, a financial literacy initiative. He welcomed the aims of the programme. “When every household gains access to banking, receives cash transfers under several welfare programmes and benefits from a range of financial products, they will be able to come out of the grip of moneylenders,“ he said.

Sep 01 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Outsourced: Modern-day parenting

Washington: PTI





Many modern-day parents are comfortable off-loading traditional parental duties to professional care-givers, researchers, including one of Indianorigin, have found.Recognizing a need for help, many businesses now offer traditional care-giving services ranging from planning birthday parties to teaching children how to ride a bike. Researchers found that by outsourcing traditional parental duties, modern-day parents feel they are ultimately protecting parenthood.
To better understand the role of the marketplace in modern-day parenting, the research authors Amber M Epp and Sunaina R Velagale ti, both from the University of Wisconsin, conducted indepth interviews with participants who varied in parenting views, practices, and challenges ranging from income to social class and the availability of help from immediate family .
The interviews showed that parents are more willing to turn to the marketplace for help once they have provided a strong baseline of activities that allow them to direct how care is given, protect their connections as parents, and assert their role as the primary caregiver. Achieving this balance helps parents maintain their feelings of responsibility , control, and intimacy , the authors said.
Understanding this can offer insight for companies looking to better market their services to parents.
“Our findings run counter to the widespread idea that family and the local community should always be the first and second lines of parenting help. Often times, businesses can resolve parenting tensions more effectively due to the contractual nature of the services they provide,“ the authors concluded.

Changing the Face of Higher Education

ICT interventions are required to reach out to the masses and provide learning opportunities to the deprived, says Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and Mission Director, National Mission on Education through ICT. In an interaction with ENN, he says the real challenge now lies in enabling and empowering teachers in adopting a technology- enabled environment and making them adept in the emerging modes of technology-based delivery. Excerpts from the interview

What are the challenges of higher education and how can ICT interventions help?

The biggest challenge faced in higher education today is the provision of quality higher education to the masses in a cost-effective manner. For the 26 million that go to college today, we have 675 degree-awarding institutions and 37,204 colleges. In all developed countries, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education is above 40 per cent and the global average is 23 per cent, whereas in India it is only 22 per cent. By 2020, the government envisions to enhance it to 30 per cent. This would mean an extra 40 million going to colleges. The biggest challenge is to provide for those 30 per cent who will need another 700 universities and 40 to 50 thousand colleges in the future. With limited resources, existing ‘brick and mortar’ campuses alone cannot cope up with the current and future demand for higher education. Therefore, ICT interventions are required to reach out to the masses and provide learning opportunities to those who are otherwise deprived.

How do you visualise the transformation that ICT-enabled education will bring in the education system?

ICT-enabled education is rapidly changing the face of higher education as it attracts students of all ages and provides training and learning opportunities just-in-time. It has the potential to overcome barriers of physical distance and time, lower institutional or organ- isational costs and increase student enrollment. It offers flexibility to learners through access to courses at any time or place, promotes individualised learning, and provides educational opportunities to those who are unable to attend class either because of constraints of time or distance or due to other socio-economic reasons.

What is the role of National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) in this context?

The National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) was launched on February 3, 2009 at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to leverage the potential of ICT in the teaching and learning process and is envisioned to be a major intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education. NMEICT is a landmark initiative to address all the education and learningrelated needs of students, teachers and lifelong learners. Three major components of the Mission are broadband connectivity to all higher education institutions, providing low cost access devices and developing high quality e-content across disciplines.

What are the major initiatives of the Mission?

Under the NKN/NMEICT schemes, the Mission aims to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 26,000 colleges and 2,000 polytechnics in the country including each of the departments of 419 universities/deemed universities and institutions of national importance as a part of its motto to provide connectivity up to the last mile. The Mission also aims to provide Internet access to every learner and teacher as an academic right. The Mission has funded the development of Ultra Low Cost Computing Devices to enable students, wherever they may be, access to educational content. MHRD, through the NMEICT, has launched an affordable tablet ‘AAKASH’ for use as an educational tool. In the first phase, 1,00,000 tablets have been procured to be deployed in engineering colleges.
E-content creation has been undertaken on a massive scale by many institutions and universities. NPTEL is a joint initiative of IITs and IISc funded by this Mission to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by providing free online courseware. The project is now in the second phase of development where more than 990 courses in 23 disciplines in engineering and science are getting generated. Other major initiatives of e-content generation have been taken up by CEC for 68 subjects at UG-level courses and UGC for PG-level courses in 77 subjects. Apart from this, many other institutions are generating e-content in specialised subject areas. All the courseware is to be made available as Open Educational Resources (OER) under the Creative Commons CC-BY license for the benefit of the learner and teacher community in the country.
On the virtual reality front, interesting projects have been initiated under NMEICT such as virtual labs, E – Yantra: Robot-enhanced teaching of subjects in engineering colleges and haptic devices for vocational education. Teacher’s training is another important component of NMEICT. Under the ‘Talk to a Teacher’ project sanctioned to IIT, Bombay, A-VIEW developed by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is being used as the collaboration tool for the National Teacher Empowerment Program. It is a programme to train thousands of college teachers across the nation. More than 36,000 teach- ers have already been trained under this programme.

“An important area that requires urgent intervention is to put in place a policy acceptable to all stakeholders for integrating technology-enabled learning as a part of curriculum and recognising degrees/ diplomas earned through the online or blended mode.”

The initiatives of the Mission sound impressive. What plans do you have to ensure optimum utilisation of these NMEICT products and services?

Significant progress has been made by the NMEICT in developing low-cost access devices and software applications for ICT-based education, generating e-content across disciplines and providing connectivity to colleges and universities. The challenge now lies in embedding the technologies in the teaching-learning processes. For this, two major initiatives are coming up to ensure maximum utilisation of the NMEICT products and services.
The first initiative is developing a National e-Library which will be aggregating all the e-content being developed under the Mission and providing personalised services to the learner as per their educational requirement. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is a phenomenon gathering momentum over the past few years that integrates the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study and a collection of freely accessible online resources. The second major initiative is in this direction. Under the Mission, work is on to set up MOOCs for different discipline areas such as engineering and technology, social sci- ences, humanities and fine arts, medical sciences and agriculture. Initially these courses are to be offered as open courses with the option for request for certificate of participation. In the long run, the plan is to roll them out as Virtual University platforms providing online degrees and diplomas.

What are the challenges you envisage in the implementation of ICT-enabled education in our country?

The major challenge of the Mission is to enable and empower teachers in adopting a technology-enabled environment, supporting them in acquiring skills in e-content development and make them adept in emerging modes of technology-based delivery. Another important area that requires urgent intervention is to put in place a policy acceptable to all stakeholders for integrating technology-enabled learning as a part of curriculum and recognising degrees/ diplomas earned through the online or blended mode.

Current Challenges are Accessibility, Quality and Equality’

It is only through education that minorities can join the mainstream, believes Justice M S A Siddiqui, Chairman, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. In an interview to ENN, he says that the salvation of minority communities lies in acquiring strong knowledge economies powered by information technology, innovation and education

It has been a decade since the National Commission for National Minority Educational Institutions was established. Was the mandate of safeguarding the educational rights of the minorities a challenge? What are the achievements so far?

The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004 was established for safeguarding the educational rights of minorities enshrined in the Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. This Act has created a new dispensation for expeditious disposal of cases relating to grant of affiliation by the affiliating universities, grant of minority status, certificates to minority educational institutions, violations and deprivations of educational rights of minorities enshrined in Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. This Commission has been vested with judicial powers and the authority to adjudicate all matters enumerated under the Act without being bogged down by the technicalities of the code of civil procedure. This Commission has successfully achieved its objectives. We have issued approximately 10,000 minority status certificates to minority educational institutions. We have also made certain recommendations to the state governments concerned for safeguarding the educational rights of minorities guaranteed under the Constitution. Some of the state governments have assured us that orders passed by this Commission shall be implemented. This Commission has created a sense of confidence among the minorities about protection of their constitutional rights.

What are the benefits that an institution can avail after getting minority status under the NCMEI?

In a landmark judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in T M A Pai Foundation versus State of Karnataka, the Supreme Court has interpreted the expression ‘administer’. They have held that this expression, that they can also administer educational institutions of their choice, comprises the following rights:
the Right to Education Act does not ap- The first right is that a minority educational institute can constitute its own governing body or managing committee without any interference from the government. Secondly, a minority educational institution can raise a reasonable fee structure for its institution. The third right, which is a very important one, is that a minority educational institution can select and appoint teaching and non-teaching staff of its institution, subject to the condition that the qualification of eligibility therefore shall be prescribed by the government. That is the only area of interference and that too is in the interest of academic excellence, which is permissible according to the said judgment of the Supreme Court. The fourth is that they can admit 100 per cent students from their own community. But if the institution is receiving any financial aid from the state, then Article 29(2) obligates it to admit non-minority students also to a reasonable extent. The fifth right is that they can take disciplinary action against any member of their staff. So, these are the benefits which are guaranteed to a minority institution. In addition, the Supreme Court has recently held that the Right to Education Act does not apply to minority educational institutions governed under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. A minority educational institution is also exempted from the policy of reservation in admission and employment. So, these are the benefits which a minority educational institution is entitled to, provided it has been declared so either by the legislature, the Parliament, the central or state govern- ments or by this Commission. Except them, there is no authority to declare a minority educational institution.

“This Commission has successfully achieved its objectives. We have issued approximately 10,000 minority status certificates to minority educational institutions”

So far as the state of UP is concerned, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court has held that the state government does not have the power to declare a minority institution as a minority educational institution because that jurisdiction rests with the Civil court. Now, this Commission is a quasi-judicial body and it enjoys all trappings of a court. Therefore, this Commission is competent to declare and determine the minority status of a minority institution. These benefits are available only if the institution has been declared as a minority educational institution. If a member of the minority community has established an institution, it cannot be presumed that it is a minority educational institution unless it has been declared so by the competent authority. Then what are the indicia of proof for getting a minority educational institution status? First is that it must be established by one of the members of the notified minority communities. Six communities have been notified as a minority community – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Jains. Now, these institutions are established either by a society or by a trust. The Supreme Court has held that the Memorandum of Association of the Society or the Deed of Trust must reflect that the beneficiaries of the institution are members of that community which has established it. If that does not reflect, then the institution will be treated as a secular institution and not a minority institution.

Which, according to you, are the current challenge areas that need immediate attention?

The current challenges are accessibility, quality and equality. The Muslim community, according to the Sachar Committee, is virtually scratching the bottom of the educational barrel of the country. So, they need special attention because they can join the mainstream only through education. I have been telling the minorities that our salvation lies in acquiring the strong knowledge economies powered by information technology, innovation and education. Now, due to financial crunch, the Muslim community has no access to higher education. The need of the hour is enhancement of quality in education. In some southern states, the Muslim community has established good institutions. But, in other parts of the country, their educational institutions are found lacking in quality. Minorities should have access to quality education and equal opportunities must be available to them to get the benefits of quality education.
As far as the Centre and state governments are concerned, they are actually trying to help the minorities in general, and Muslims in particular, to improve their quality of education. Recently, in the Presidential Address, you may have noted that the government wants to modernise Madrasa education. It should be taken to be as the government intends to introduce modern education in Madrasas because a Madrasa cannot be modernised. Only modern education like computers, mathematics and science labs can be introduced. Both the Centre and state governments are very positive in their approach in this regard 

Source .http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/current-challenges-are-accessibility-quality-and-equality

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