UGC to bring undergraduate textbooks in English in other Indian languages.

• UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar is in talks with international book publishers to discuss the possibilities of bringing out undergraduate textbooks in English in Indian languages in higher education institutions across the country
• The UGC intends to translate a large number of textbooks in Indian languages in the coming six to 12 months and will also encourage Indian authors/academicians to write textbooks in various Indian languages and will involve publishers in bringing those out, Kumar said.
• The UGC has also formed an apex committee to prepare a roadmap and work towards bringing out textbooks in Indian languages used in undergraduate programmes such as BA, BCom and BSc, he added.
• The discussion with foreign publishers laid stress upon bringing out translation of textbooks in Indian languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odiya, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu.
• Representatives from Wiley India, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press India, Cengage India and McGraw-Hill India participated in the interaction and expressed their willingness to be partners in this national mission.

University Grants Commission – UGC 

• The UGC was established in 1953 and made into a statutory organisation with the UGC Act in 1956.
• UGC is responsible for coordinating, determining and maintaining standards of higher education.
• The University Grants Commission provides recognition to universities in India and disburses funds to such recognised universities and colleges.
• The UGC has its Head Office in New Delhi and six regional offices:
  • Bengaluru
  • Bhopal
  • Guwahati
  • Hyderabad
  • Kolkata
  • Pune

Languages in Indian Constitution in Eighth Schedule:

• It lists the official languages of the republic of India. Part XVII of the Indian constitution deals with the official languages in Articles 343 to 351.
• The Constitutional provisions related to the Eighth Schedule are:
• Article 344:Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution.
• Article 351:It provides for the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.
• However, It can be noted that there is no fixed criteria for any language to be considered for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule.

Official Languages:

• The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of the following 22 languages:
• Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
• Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution.
• Sindhi language was added by the 21^stAmendment Act of 1967.
• Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71^stAmendment Act of 1992.
• Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added by the92^nd Amendment Act of 2003 which came into force in

Classical Languages:

• Currently there are six languages that enjoy the ‘Classical’ status in India:
• Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
• All the Classical Languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.