A 'Light but tight' regulatory framework to ensure

Correct option is D

The "Light but tight" regulatory framework in educational governance is designed to balance autonomy with accountability, ensuring Integrity, Transparency, and Resource efficiency.
Information Booster:
· NEP 2020 Vision: The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 explicitly introduces the phrase "light but tight" as a foundational principle to reform the regulatory architecture of higher and school education systems in India.
· "Light" Component (Autonomy & Flexibility): The regulatory setup is designed to be "light" by reducing bureaucratic red tape, over-regulation, and heavy-handed state control, thereby encouraging self-governance, academic freedom, innovation, and institutional autonomy.
· "Tight" Component (Accountability & Standard Compliance): The framework is "tight" regarding core normative standards, insisting on strict financial integrity, public disclosures, ethical standards, and high-quality educational delivery.
· Triple Pillar Objectives: By combining both approaches, the system ensures Integrity (preventing commercialization and malpractice), Transparency (requiring public disclosures and clear accreditation standards), and Resource efficiency (optimizing educational assets, funding, and operational overheads).
Additional Knowledge:
· Integrity: While maintaining moral, ethical, and academic integrity is a central outcome of the framework, selecting this point in isolation overlooks the equally important goals of open public disclosures and operational resource optimization.
· Transparency: Public disclosure of outcomes, fees, faculty credentials, and governance structures is a major requirement, but focusing solely on transparency misses the complementary objectives of ethical integrity and resource management.
· Resource efficiency: Ensuring that institutional assets, teacher deployment, and financial resources are utilized effectively without waste is a key objective, but focusing exclusively on resource efficiency ignores the core ethical and administrative dimensions of integrity and openness.