Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is guest at Adda today

With the NEP guiding policy decisions in education, a set of reforms have been introduced. School textbooks have seen an overhaul and attempts are being made to lower board exam stress. Besides, agencies like University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education are set to see a churn with a new Bill proposing a merger of these regulatory bodies. Some of the changes have been contested, with Opposition-ruled Karnataka and Tamil Nadu developing their own education policies.

In recent years, Pradhan has also been key to BJP’s state election victories in Bihar and Haryana, where he was the party’s poll in-charge, as well as in Odisha.

Pradhan cut his teeth in politics with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Son of veteran BJP leader Debendra Pradhan, who served as Minister in the A B Vajpayee government, Dharmendra Pradhan was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly in the early 2000s. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004, and later served as a Rajya Sabha member, till he contested the polls again in 2024.

The Express Adda is a series of informal interactions organised by The Indian Express Group and features those at the centre of change.

Previous guests include External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, philanthropist Bill Gates, and motivational strategist Gaur Gopal Das.