BUSINESS NEWS:Reliance plans world-class university

MUMBAI: The Reliance Group is setting up a ‘world-class’ university as it seeks to promote education and research in sectors ranging from liberal
Education
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Reliance Foundation, which will spearhead the project, is expected to start the university either in Mumbai or Delhi. Nita Ambani, the wife of RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, will head the new project.

India’s largest business conglomerate has started the process of identifying land for the proposed university , according to persons familiar with the development.

The university, modelled on the lines of American universities such as The University of Pennsylvania, will tie up with foreign universities. “It will be international in scale and in best practices, but with an Indian soul,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Group.

Nita Ambani told ET that the proposed university would be located either outside Mumbai or Delhi. “We are looking for sufficient land to set up a world-class university,” she said.

Mr Ambani made this announcement while making the acceptance speech at Mumbai’s Tident Hotel after receiving the Dean’s medal from the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school. His father Dhirubhai Ambani was earlier conferred Dean’s medal from Wharton School of Management.

The university will initially offer undergraduate courses. It will later offer postgraduate and doctoral courses, Ms Ambani said. India’s big business houses are strengthening their focus on education as it is poised to become a $80-billion opportunity by 2012. Indian spend $50 billion on private education annually, according to a research report by IDFC. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16%, said a CLSA Pacific study.

The Aditya Birla Group, which has already played its hand at commercial education with the Sarala Birla Academy in Bangalore. It has plans to open schools to offer modern education to students in the country’s hinterland. Ditto Jaiprakash Industries, which is already running engineering institutes , while London-listed mining giant Vedanta Group has announced a large university near Puri in Orissa.