Given that the economic development, accelerated by the expanding base of higher education may lead to the reduction of other kinds of disparities—social, regional, political—its contribution in stabilizing our civil society at this juncture of volatility cannot be underestimated which in turn may help the process of speedy national development further. The book raises all such issues. The insight of ‘university administration and systems in India’ is considered the most common issue for all the stakeholders engaged in higher education especially at post-graduate level and the readers have to wonder for authentic source of literature to understand the same. This predicament of interested readers particularly requires instantaneous efforts on the part of academe. The present book is an endeavour to put a match to the expectations of those readers particularly teachers, students and policymakers who are peripatetic for evocative lone text on the subject matters. The book includes thirty-three chapters. The basic concepts have been elucidated with suitable illustrations for covering the underlying spirit on the subject. All the chapters have been deliberated by the scholars into an uninterrupted sequence and all conceptual details provided in this text are in self-instructional mode. It is expected that the readers would find this book quite valuable and receptive.

Proceedings of the Symposium on Administrative Reforms, New Delhi, 3 January, 2000, organized by Indian Council of Social Science Research.

Demand for quality higher education, is continuing to outpace the supply due to growing population of young people, gains in school education, growing middle class and their rising aspirations. At the same time, the country has a unique opportunity to convert this demographic surplus to its economic strength by providing its young people the right kind of skills. Thus, higher education now occupies a central position in the country's strategy for global competitiveness and inclusive growth. Steps have been initiated to augment supply, improve quality and fix problems. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has made several useful and important recommendations and the government has significantly increased funding during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. In the backdrop of these developments, Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future, describes the Indian higher education landscape. The author spells out the needs, identifies the gaps, and based on the lessons learnt from the experiences of other countries provides perspectives to shape its future.