National Knowledge Commission - Working of The National Knowledge Commission

Working of The National Knowledge Commission

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) consists of the following eight members.

• Sam Pitroda, Chairman
• Dr. Ashok Sekhar Ganguly, Corporate leader
• Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
• Dr. Deepak Nayyar, former Vice-chancellor, University of Delhi
• Dr. Jayati Ghosh, economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Dr. Sujatha Ramdorai, internationally reputed algebraic number theorist and professor of mathematics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
• Dr. Padmanabhan Balaram, director of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• Prof. Amitabh Mattoo, Former Vice Chancellor, Jammu University

The Terms of Reference of the NKC are:

• “Build excellence in the educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century and increase India’s competitive advantage in fields of knowledge.
• Promote creation of knowledge in Science and technology laboratories.
• Improve the management of institutions engaged in Intellectual Property Rights.
• Promote knowledge applications in Agriculture and Industry.
• Promote the use of knowledge capabilities in making government an effective, transparent and accountable service provider to the citizen and promote widespread sharing of knowledge to maximize public benefit.”

The organisational structure of the NKC is flat. The Secretariat is headed by an Executive Director and consists of around 8-9 research associates. It also has four advisors who advises the commission on different issues. The Secretariat of the Commission is located in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

In December 2006, the Commission brought out a 'Report to the Nation 2006'. It includes the following recommendations submitted to the Prime Minister:

• Libraries
• Knowledge
• E-governance
• Translation
• Languages
• National portal of india

Many of the recommendations of the NKC are already in the implementation stage by different ministries of the Government. This includes areas such as Libraries, e-governance and translation.

Some of the major areas under work are higher education, vocational education, entrepreneurship, school education etc. The NKC consults a wide range of stake-holders and experts on each area before submitting the recommendations to the Prime Minister. Each area has a working group which is headed by a prominent person in that field. The Working Group members meet several times to submit a report to the NKC. The NKC members then hold discussions on the report before submitting it to the Prime Minister. After submitting the recommendations, an extensive coordination also takes place with the Planning Commission of India and relevant ministries of the Government.

As many of the components of the education sector remains state subjects in India, NKC representatives also visit various state governments and conduct deliberations with secretaries of education departments for reforming of the education sector at the state level.

The Commission was mandated to last till October 2008. But now, looking at the good work the Commission has done, it has been extended until March 2009.