The government has decided to set up five Centres of Excellence (CoE) for classical languages, including Bengali, Pali and Prakrit.
The ministry of education will set up a CoE for Classical Pali at Central University of Odisha, Koraput, and one for Classical Prakrit at Central University of Gujarat. These universities do not have departments or courses in the respective subjects.
CoEs will also be set up for Classical Bengali at Visva-Bharati, Classical Assamese at Tezpur University, and Classical Marathi at Deccan College for Postgraduate and Research Institute, Pune.
Former UGC secretary R.K. Chauhan said centres of studies are generally established in universities with departments in the respective subjects. He said universities without such departments may lack experts to run the centres effectively.
A linguist said several universities have Pali and Prakrit departments and could have done a better job than those awarded the centres.