The GERD figure deserves care, because it is easy to misread as good news. Gross Expenditure on Research and Development more than doubled in absolute rupees between 2010-11 and 2020-21, but GERD is the measure that includes private research, and India's persistent problem has never been the rupee total - it is the share of GDP, which has stayed close to 0.6-0.7 per cent while comparable economies spend multiples of that. Doubling over a decade in which nominal GDP also roughly doubled is standing still in ratio terms. Read alongside the Rs 99,494.24 crore sanctioned to the IITs, NITs, IIITs, IISERs and IISc, the picture is of research money concentrated in a small set of elite institutions rather than spread across the university system where most students actually study - which is precisely the gap PM-USHA's Rs 12,926.10 crore for State universities is meant to address, at roughly an eighth of the scale. The regulatory news is the more consequential item. Thirty-two fake universities on a published list is a symptom; the disease is that a student cannot easily verify an institution's status before paying fees. Moving to public self-disclosure through a single window, as the pending Bill proposes, would shift the burden from the student's diligence to the institution's declaration - which is why the Bill's passage through the Joint Committee is worth following.