People with knowledge of the matter stated on Monday that the University Grants Commission (UGC) will soon present a blueprint for implementing undergraduate and graduate programs in regional languages across the nation in all academic fields, including business, the humanities, and science. According to authorities, the higher education authority would shortly notify an apex committee to create the strategy in partnership with the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, a body of experts under the Union ministry of education to promote Indian languages.
The action builds on the numerous measures taken by the Union government to implement regional languages as a medium of instruction in both schools and colleges in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Engineering and medical courses have previously been offered in regional languages by the Center in a number of states. The Bar Council of India (BCI) also assembled a team in June to make suggestions about the implementation of regional language courses at law schools.
UGC head M. Jagadesh Kumar stated that the planned committee will initially begin discussions with publishers of the common, widely used textbooks for the translation process. Without appropriate textbooks, Kumar stated that colleges would not be able to begin offering courses in regional languages. Therefore, the committee’s first task will be to begin the process of identifying books by international authors that we have been using in our colleges and universities for decades and to speak with renowned international publishers and authors about our intention to translate them into a number of Indian languages. The UGC has already met with some well-known worldwide publishers, and we have gotten positive feedback from them, he continued.
The UGC director continued by saying that the new committee will also find literature by Indian authors that could be translated into local tongues. He added that it will engage Indian authors in discussions and encourage them to write in local languages
