Former ISRO chairman and eminent scientist K. Kasturirangan was on Monday appointed  Chairman of the committee to finalize the draft of the National Education Policy. Besides the chairman, the committee will have the following eight members: the Vice-Chancellor of SNDP University, Mumbai, and educationist Vasudha Kamat; retired bureaucrat K.J. Alphonse; Princeton University Mathematics professor Manjul Bhargava; Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhau, Vice-Chancellor Ram Shankar Kureel who has written on inclusion of the marginal in mainstream education; Vice-Chancellor of Tribal University, Amarkantak, TV Kattamani; KM Tripathy from Uttar Pradesh; Gauhati University Persian language professor Mazhar Asif, and CABE member M.K. Shridhar. An official release said "The council will start its work from immediate effect. In an exhaustive democratic exercise carried for the last 30 months, the HRD ministry has received thousands of suggestions from educationists, teachers, experts, students and other stakeholders from across the country." "Consultations were held at Tehsil, District and state level. Regional conferences were organized where state governments have given their detailed opinion. Rajya Sabha debated the issues and a special education dialogue was organized in which 48 MPs from all parties participated. Many MPs have given their views in writing. On MyGov platform 26, 000 people gave their views online," the release said. The HRD ministry release said all these inputs - alongside the inputs offered by the T.S.R. Subramaniam Committee - would be considered by the committee.