The university started operations from its permanent campus and aims to have 2,000 students and 150 faculty members by 2020.
New Delhi: Ashoka University, India’s first liberal arts university, is looking to raise a total of Rs.750 crore from businessmen, non-resident Indians and corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds of companies, in one of the biggest ever collective philanthropy initiatives in education.
The university, located in Kundli, Haryana, on Monday said that it had already raised Rs.400 crore from “80 philanthropists, businessmen and entrepreneurs”.
“The university has revised its project cost to Rs 750 crore from the original Rs 500 crore. The total philanthropic capital raised so far has crossed Rs 400 crore. The number of contributors to Ashoka University will exceed 100 over the next few months, making it the largest collective philanthropic initiative in Indian education,” the university said in a statement.
Ashish Dhawan, co-founder of venture capital fund ChrysCapital, is in charge of raising funds for the university. He is a co-founder of the university.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder and executive vice-chairman of Info Edge (India) Ltd; Puneet Dalmia, managing director of Dalmia Cements Ltd; Jerry Rao, chairman of Value and Budget Housing Ltd and founder and former CEO of MphasiS; and Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware Technologies Ltd (which he sold in 2013); and Dilip Shanghvi, founder and managing director, Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd, are some of the university’s other co-founders.
The university started operations from its permanent campus and aims to have 2,000 students and 150 faculty members by 2020.
[“source-Livemint”]