Why in news?

The University Grants Commission held a meeting with international publishers to discuss bringing out textbooks for undergraduate courses in Indian languages, and has set a timeline of six to 12 months for the same.

Highlights

• Representatives from Wiley India, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press India, Cengage India, and McGraw-Hill India were part of an online meeting
• Apex committee to prepare a road map to work towards bringing out textbooks in Indian languages used in undergraduate programmes such as BA, B.Com. and B.Sc.
• Course books will be translated into various languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odiya, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu.
• The Bar Council of India has also formed a panel headed by former Chief Justice of India S. A. Bobde for translating legal books into regional languages.
• All India Council of Technical Education has brought out 270 first-year engineering textbooks in 12 regional languages

About University Grants Commission (India)

• Nature : Statutory body
• Parent ministry : the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education,
• Statutory law : In accordance to the UGC Act 1956
• Set up under the chairmanship of S. Radhakrishnan
• Charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education in India.
• Provides recognition to universities in India, and disbursements of funds to such recognized universities and colleges.
• Provides doctoral scholarships to all those who clear JRF in the National Eligibility Test.

• Chairman: Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar