Which of the following are Central Universities ? 1. Pondicherry University 2.…

Concept

In India the category of a university is fixed by the authority that brings it into existence. A Central University is incorporated by an Act of Parliament and is funded and maintained by the Union Government, largely through the University Grants Commission. A State University is incorporated by an Act of a State Legislature and is maintained by that State. An institution can move from one category to the other only when Parliament passes a law converting it.

Applying the test

Ask, for each institution in the list, which legislature created it:

1. Pondicherry University was brought into existence by an Act of Parliament in 1985 and is funded by the Union Government, so it sits in the Central category.

2. Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan, West Bengal, grew out of Rabindranath Tagore’s institution and was made a Central University by an Act of Parliament in 1951.

3. H.N.B. Garhwal University at Srinagar, Uttarakhand, began in 1973 as a State university and was converted into a Central University with effect from January 2009 by an Act of Parliament, so on the date of this paper it had already been Central for five years.

4. Kurukshetra University, Haryana, was set up in 1956 by an Act of the State Legislature and is maintained by the State Government, so it stays in the State category.

Cross-check

Three of the four institutions — Pondicherry University, Visva-Bharati and H.N.B. Garhwal University — owe their status to Parliament, while Kurukshetra University owes its status to a State legislature. The code that names exactly those three is 1, 2 and 3.