Defence Ministry's NCC panel appoints Jamia VC as member; Baijayant Panda to lead body

The Ministry of Defence has appointed Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar as a member of the high-level expert panel for a comprehensive review of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), intending to make it more relevant in dynamic conditions. The committee will be led by former Kendrapara Member of Parliament (MP) and National Vice President of the BJP Baijayant Panda.

The Ministry in a statement said, "Former Team India Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra, MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, former National Vice President of Bharatiya Janata Party Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Principal Economic Advisor of the Ministry of Finance Sanjeev Sanyal, former VC of the SNDT Women's University, Vasudha Kamat, National Organising Secretary Bharatiya Sikshan Mandal Mukul Kanitkar, Additional Director General of NCC Maharashtra Maj. Gen. Alok Raj (Retd), DICCI Chairman Milind Kamble, SIS India Limited MD Rituraj Sinha, Water.org COO Vedika Bhandarkar, Databook CEO Anand Shah and Mayank Tewari, JS (Trg), DoD are other members of the committee.”

Committee to empower NCC cadets to work for nation-building

The panel among other issues will be widely providing suggestions that can help empower NCC cadets to participate more effectively towards issues of nation-building and development of the society in different spheres of the society. The panel has also been given the responsibility to introduce measures for positive engagement of its Alumni for the development of the organisation as a whole while considering and recommending the finest practices taken up by similar international youth organisations for incorporation in the NCC syllabus.

Who is Najma Akhtar?

Najma Akhtar, born in 1953, is an Indian academician and administrator. She was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia University in April 2019, being the first woman to hold the post. Akhtar pursued her studies at Aligarh Muslim University where she stood as a gold medallist. Akhtar had also earned a scholarship in National Science Talent. Akhtar had been a scholar in Education at Kurukshetra University, Haryana. She had received a Commonwealth Fellowship to study University administration at the University of Warwick in the UK and was also trained at the International Institute of Educational Planning in Paris (France).

Image: ANI/PTI