The first meeting of the mission authority of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) was held in New Delhi on 8 January. Issues like funding pattern and quality of education in higher education institutions were discussed in the meeting which was headed by the Human Resource Development Minister, M M Pallam Raju. Planning Commission member Narendra Jadhav, Health Secretary K. Desiraju and higher education ministers of various states attended the meeting. Chairpersons of the University Grants Commission and the All India Committee for Technical Education were also present in the meeting.
The RUSA is a scheme of the central government which envisages strengthening of the higher education system. The mission authority approved the RUSA guidelines, including programmatic norms of the various components of the scheme, and the equalization formula based on which the funding support would be determined. The mission authority also gave its approval to consider the applications of the states of Goa, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and West Bengal to participate in RUSA. The authority also discussed the logo for RUSA which will soon be finalised and adopted.
