Cabinet clears 3 Bills

The Union Cabinet 3 Bills:

1. The Universities for Research and Innovation Bill, 2012
2. Copyright (Amendment) Bill
3. National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2012

The Universities for Research and Innovation Bill, 2012:

Key Objectives:

• To set up world-class institutes focussed on high-quality research.
• Allow existing varsities to conditionally upgrade to Innovation University status.
• These Universities can be fully public-funded, fully private-funded or in the PPP mode.
• The previous target of setting up 14 such varsities has been cut down on grounds of non-feasibility and the debate that even a couple of them will serve the purpose of rearing a research ecosystem as aimed.

National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill:

Key Objectives:

• To provide mandatory assessment of human and physical infrastructure of higher educational institutions before they commence academic operations, besides accreditation of academic quality of their programmes after completion of 6 years of existence by independent accreditation agencies.
• To establish a statutory authority for registering and licensing the accreditation agencies and regulating the process of accreditation.

Copyright (Amendment) Bill:

Key Objectives:

• To amendment to the Copyright Act, 1958
• The Bill makes the following changes to rights of authors of different types of work:

a) Changes copyright provisions for films

b) Gives artists such as lyricists or composers greater control over rights in their work

c) Broadens the ‘moral’ rights that authors enjoy over their work and extends this right to performers.

• The Bill also makes the following changes to the rights of users of various types of works:

a) Copyrighted works can now be produced in ‘special’ formats for the use of disabled persons without infringing copyright

b) Allows for the free import of copyrighted works from other countries

c) Prescribes penalties for persons who circumvent technologies used to protect copyright

d) Provides for statutory licences to be issued to broadcasters and producers of version recordings.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2012