Kharara

                   The UGC Act 2026 — context, controversy and key provisions - Article by Dr. Rahul S. Kharat The University Grants Commission (UGC) Act 2026 — and the companion University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026 — arrive at the end of a turbulent five-year period for higher education policy in India. The move is best read as a policy response to parliamentary scrutiny, poor representation of disadvantaged groups in elite institutions, and repeated evidence that existing campus grievance structures (notably Equal Opportunity Cells) have often failed to prevent or remedy caste-based exclusion. This article summarizes the background of the bill, the Digvijaya Singh committee’s findings that shaped parliamentary recommendations, why new regulation was felt necessary, criticisms of existing Equal Opportunity Cells (EOCs), the politics of extending protections to OBCs al...