NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday scripted Parliamentary history by taking the oath as a new member of the Rajya Sabha and later successfully piloting the NDA Government’s first Bill, that declared National Institute of Design (NID) as an “institute of national importance”.
She said the Bill would make the NID “a body corporate to nurture and promote quality and excellence in design education, to conduct research and training in all disciplines related to design and to confer degree, postgraduate degree, diplomas, honorary degrees, certificates, awards and other academic distinctions or titles in disciplines related to design and to act as a nucleus for interaction between academia and industry”.
Interestingly, Sitharaman described the Bill in her remarks as “National Institute of Design Bill, 2014”. Deputy Chairman P J Kurien pointed out to the MoS that it should instead be “2013”.