After a two-year delay the government of the Indian state of Orissa passed a bill approving the establishment of Vedanta University, an ambitious, $3.5-billion project backed by Anil Agarwal, a metals-and-mining mogul, The Economic Times reported.
In May 2008 an Indian court halted land acquisition for the controversial university, acting on a petition from villagers who would lose land. The bill approved last week includes amendments setting up admissions quotas for meritorious but poor students from the state and for children of those who will lose land. Other amendments required the inclusion of two members of the state's legislative assembly on the university's governing board, and state monitoring of university appointments.
Orissa's higher-education minister, Debi Prasad Mishra, said the university planned to build a self-contained campus that eventually would serve the needs 25,000 faculty members and 25,000 non-teaching staff members, in addition to 100,000 students. The first phase of academic programs is expected to start in mid-2011, and will include colleges of arts and science, engineering, and management.
Sam Pitroda, former head of the National Knowledge Commission, will be the university's first head, reported siliconindia.com, a news Web site.
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