Five-Year Action Plan to EQUIP India's Higher Education to Global Levels

A five-year master plan titled EQUIP (Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme) has been prepared by an expert team of 10 focussed on various areas of higher education and submitted to Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank", Union Minister for HRD.
The ten expert groups were drawn from senior academicians, administrators and industrialists. They have suggested more than 50 initiatives that would transform the higher education sector completely. The Groups have set the following goals for higher education sector:
-Double the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education and resolve the geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions in India

-Upgrade the quality of education to global standards
-Position at least 50 Indian institutions among the top-1000 global universities
-Introduce governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses
-Accreditation of all institutions as an   assurance of quality
-Promote Research & Innovation ecosystems for positioning India in the Top-3 countries in the world in matters of knowledge creation
-Double the employability of the students passing out of higher education
-Harness education technology for expanding the reach and improving pedagogy
-Promote India as a global study destination 
-Achieve a quantum increase in investment in higher education
For each initiative, the Groups have recommended modalities for implementation, investments and timelines. The proposal would now be taken for inter-departmental consultations and appraisal through the EFC mechanism before being taken to Cabinet for approval.
The ten groups and heads are:
1. Strategies for expanding access-Hasmukh Adhia, Chancellor, Central University Gujarat
2.Towards Global Best Teaching/Learning process-Dr K Kasturirangan, Chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan and former Secretary,Dept of Space, former Chairman of ISRO.
3.Promoting Excellence-Pawan Goenka, Chairman, BoG, IIT Madras
4.Governance Reforms -Prof M S Ananth, Chairman,National Testing Agency (NTA)
5.Assessment, Accreditation and Ranking Systems -Prof Surendra Prasad, former Director, IIT Delhi
6.Promotion of Research and Innovation-Dr Vijaya Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to PM
7.Employability and Entrepreneurship-Ajit Balakrishnan, former Chairman IIM Kolkatta
8.Using Technology for better reach-Prof Deepak Pathak, Chairman, NIT Goa and Prof IIT Mumbai
9. Internationalisation-Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog
10.Financing Higher education-Kris Gopalakrishnan, former CEO of Infosys.