Ministry of Education (India)
The Ministry of Education (MoE), [formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development (1985–2020)], is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further divided into two departments: the Department of School Education and Literacy, which deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and the Department of Higher Education, which deals with university level education, technical education, scholarships, etc. The current education minister is Dharmendra Pradhan, a member of the Council of Ministers. India had the Ministry of Education since  1947. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi government changed its name to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and with the public announcement of newly drafted "National Education Policy 2020" by the Narendra Modi government, Ministry of Human Resource Development was renamed back to Ministry of Education. Policy. The new National Education Policy 2020 was passed on 29 July 2020 by the Union Council of Ministers. The NEP 2020 replaced the existing National Policy on Education, 1986. Under the NEP 2020, the name of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) was changed to Ministry of Education (MoE). Numerous new educational  institutes, bodies and concepts were legislated under NEP 2020. Department of School Education and Literacy. The Department of School Education and Literacy is responsible for the development of school education and literacy in the country. Department of Higher Education. The Department of Higher Education is in charge of secondary and post-secondary education. The department is empowered to grant deemed university status to educational institutions on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India, under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. The Department of Higher Education takes care of one of the largest higher  education systems of the world, just after the United States and China. The department is engaged in bringing world-class opportunities of higher education and research to the country so that Indian students are not found lacking when facing an international platform. For this, the government has launched joint ventures and signed MoUs to help the Indian students benefit from world opinion. The technical education system in the country can be broadly classified into three categories – Central Government funded institutions, State Government/State-funded institutions & Self-financed institutions. The 122 Centrally funded institution of technical and science education are as  under: List of centrally funded technical institutions: IIITs (25), IITs (23), IIMs (20), IISc Bangalore, IISERs (7 - Berhampur, Bhopal, Kolkata, Mohali, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati), NITs (31), NITTTRs (4), and 9 others (SPA, ISMU, NERIST, SLIET, IIEST, NITIE & NIFFT, CIT) Organisational structure. The department is divided into eight bureaus, and most of the work of the department is handled through over 100 autonomous organisations under these bureaus. Objectives. The main objectives of the Ministry are: MoE's Innovation Cell (MIC). MHRD’s Innovation Cell, now renamed as MoE's Innovation Cell, was established in Aug 2018 by Ministry of Human Resource  Development (MHRD) at All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to systematically foster the culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and startups in all major Higher Education Institutions in India. Abhay Jere was appointed as first Chief Innovation Officer. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). In April 2016, Ministry of Human Resource Development published the first list of rankings of Indian colleges under National Institutional Ranking Framework. The entire ranking exercise involved NBA, All India Council for Technical Education, UGC, Thomson Reuters, Elsevier and INFLIBNET (Information & Library Network) centre. The ranking framework was launched in September 2015. All 122 centrally-funded institutions – including  all central universities, IITs and IIMs – participated in the first round of ranking.