VBSA Bill: D Purandeshwari appointed to head 31-member committee, last date extended till monsoon session

By Samira Vishwas On Feb 12, 2026

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has appointed BJP MP D Purandeshwari as the chairperson of the 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) formed to examine the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025. The Bill aims to restructure India’s higher education regulatory system by creating a single overarching authority.

The committee constituted on Tuesday comprises 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. Soon after its formation the House approved a resolution moved by Purandeshwari to extend the last date for submitting the panel’s report till the first day of the last week of the upcoming Monsoon session. The extension was cleared through a voice vote.

Last date for VBSA report extended

The JPC has been tasked with reviewing the provisions of the VBSA Bill and submitting its recommendations to Parliament. With the extension approved, the panel now has additional time to deliberate on the proposed overhaul of the higher education framework.

The House also passed a separate motion extending the deadline for the Lok Sabha Select Committee’s report on the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, allowing it to present its findings by March 13.

Panel members, purpose of the Bill

The 31-member committee includes prominent Lok Sabha MPs such as Bhartruhari Mahtab, Sambit Patra, Tejasvi Surya, Anurag Singh Thakur, Varsha Eknath Gaikwad, Sougata Ray, TR Baalu, Shrikant Eknath Shinde and others. From the Rajya Sabha, members include Digvijaya Singh, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sagarika Ghose, M. Thambidurai, Ram Gopal Yadav and several others.

Introduced during the Winter Session, the VBSA Bill proposes setting up a unified higher education regulator. At present, India’s nearly 60,000 higher education institutions and around 1,200 universities are governed by three separate bodies which include the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).