IITS, JNU, DU

So far, they added, six private institutions have also applied to be named institutes of eminence. The private institutes will not be eligible for government funding if they get the tag.

The ministry is expected to start on the process of shortlisting institutes soon.

“The response has been overwhelming and we are hoping to get more applications by tomorrow, which is the last day. Central and state universities, and IITS have also applied ,” said a senior University Grants Commission (UGC) official on condition of anonymity.

In 2016, the government announced plans to create 20 world class universities in India -- 10 each from the private and public space. Existing as well as upcoming institutions can bid for the tag. Since then, the name has changed from world class university to institutes of eminence.

The UGC has already notified the UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017, for private institutions and UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines, 2017, for public ones.

Unlike other institutions, the 20 institutes with the status of eminence will get greater autonomy to start new courses, set fees, admit foreign students, hire foreign faculty, and collaborate with foreign educational institutions without seeking government approval.

The government will invest Rs10,000 crore over the next few years in the 10 public higher education institutions short-listed.

“The objective is to provide for greater academic, financial, administrative and other regulatory autonomy to 10 public and 10 private higher educational institutions to emerge as world-class teaching and research institu-

Automatic suspension will allow the Chair to take prompt action against any unruly MP after the Rajya Sabha passes a resolution against the member. Complaints of unruly behaviour are currently referred to a House panel for its recommendation.

Publicly naming an MP for disturbing proceedings is a measure popularly called “naming and shaming”. It is an extremely rare step taken by the Chair after several warnings to the unruly lawmaker.

The Chair mentions the MP in the House and the lawmaker’s name is then published in bulletins.

Opposition leaders were sceptical about Naidu’s suggestions.

“There are set rules and welllaid precedence by which the House runs in Parliament. We hope the chairman will adhere to those well-established practices and precedence,” CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

According to the Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi, rules need not be tinkered unless there is an exigency. “The Vice President has not really had to yet chair any session substantially. Nothing has changed suddenly for him to seek enhanced power,” he said, underscoring that uniform rules for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha “may not be always necessary”.

As a senior minister in the government before being elected Vice President this August, Naidu has experienced the difficulties of pushing through important bills in the Rajya Sabha, where the Bjp-led NDA has fewer members than the Opposition. The House witnessed more disruptions than the Lok Sabha, where the NDA enjoys a brute majority.

The Congress-led UPA, which governed the country for a decade before 2014, faced similar problems as bills were often held up in the Upper House in the