India, Feb. 4 -- A parliamentary committee on Tuesday reiterated its concern at a plan to set up an overarching Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) as the principal regulator of higher education in India, warning that this would lead to excessive centralisation and inadequate representation of states.

In a report tabled in the Rajya Sabha, the parliamentary standing committee on education, women, children, youth, and sports, led by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh said multiplicity of regulators led to inconsistency in standards and monitoring, making it difficult for institutions to function effectively.

"Moreover, state universities, which educate over 90 per cent of the student population, are caught in between national and state-...