SOS from Vedanta University or Vedanta University’s Good Bye indication to Odisha??
July 25th, 2010
Last month there was an article in Business Standard about the difficulty Vedanta University is facing and its consideration of shifting to the southern states. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4767.
Today I was pointed to a new article in Business World. Following are some excerpts.
Agarwal’s other project in Orissa — Vedanta University — seems to be going nowhere. It appears it would take years before the first brick is laid on his most ambitious, and grandest, education project.
Agarwal, founder of London-based Vedanta Group, turned heads in 2006 when he said he would set up an 8,000-acre, $3-billion university under the aegis of Vedanta Foundation (which later changed its name to Anil Agarwal Foundation or AAF) in the state’s coastal town of Puri. He also offered $1 billion from his personal funds. Agarwal’s holding in his companies is worth more than $10 billion (as on 31 March 2010).
However, as with most projects requiring land acquisition, the university project, too, got mired in controversy. On 17 March, Orissa Lok Pal Justice P.K. Patra recommended a vigilance probe against AAF’s land deals. In May, the environment and forests ministry withheld clearance for the university, citing “irregularities, illegal, unethical and unlawful deeds”.
With the odds stacked against it, AAF is weighing other options. “Two states have extended an invitation; a decision is likely to be taken on a new site in two months,” says Ajit Kumar Samal, in-charge of the university project. He, however, refuses to divulge more details. Experts say the alternatives to Orissa could be Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which have good educational infrastructure. “Any place near Hyderabad or Chennai would be a good location,” says Narayanan Ramaswamy, head of education practice at consultancy firm KPMG.
The more important question, though, is: is a large university of this kind feasible in India?
Too Ambitious?
Vedanta’s justification for requiring so much land is simple — to build an institution on the lines of Stanford and Harvard. The 8,180-acre Stanford University was established in 1891. Harvard, set up in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the US, and has about 5,000 acres. But both were set up when land was not a precious commodity. Besides, the US is a far bigger country than India, and can afford to have universities of such scale.
I was also told that in a CNBC TV show (mentioned here, but no video there yet) Mr. Anil Agarwal said that they are looking for land for Vedanta University in some southern states.
Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),BJP attempt to steal it to Karnataka,Congress attempt to steal it to Andhra,Congress ruled Andhra's overture,Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, Congress MP from Andhra, creates hurdles,Vedanta University, Puri
10 Writeup
1. R.K. Ghosh | July 26th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Looks like anything grand in India does not actually happen. The most fundamental question one has to ask Mr. Agarwal is why something smaller scale could not be initiated in last 3-4 years. Possibly common people may have understood the grandeur of the plan and supported the project. The fight for land acquisition would have been shouldered by people themselves. Either project management is at fault or actually vedant was not really serious about Odisha as a location for the university.
2. pabitra kumar barad | July 27th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Journey of thousand miles starts from a single step.So Vedant should start the mega university programme and should learn from KIIT University which was started with an ITI.How can we convince people for sucha greaterrequired of land and also the lands are not barren land.If Vedant is actually intrested it should not leave odisha.Also a goodwork faces many trouble. it should keep patience.
3. Abhisek | July 27th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
What is the need for investment summits to woo potential investors to Orissa if they can’t be retained and dealt with properly? If an investor is treated and perceived like a criminal by people and political parties then we have no business inviting them to our state. As for tranparency, it is the job of the government of the day to ensure that. But, if the Govt fails in its duty then is this the fault of the investors?
4. Purna Mishra | July 27th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
I could not believe we have people amongh us who are questioning why Mr. Agarwal has to build his institute at this grand scale and why not he start as KIIT start as an ITI?
If this is our mind set, we have no one other than us to blame us.
Mr. Agarwal is bringing his own money and his own plan to build a university that could potentially become a world class some day. You could build a KIIT from an ITI but you could not even build an IIT from an ITI.
As Ronald Reagan use to joke you do not make chicken sandwich from chicken sh*t.
If we could not support Mr. Agarwal, there are several states who are eager to provide all kinds of incentives if they could get Vedanta to move the university to their states. Andhra committed 8,000+ acres for Vedanta in HYDERABAD where we as Oriyas excel as brick layer or restaurant cooks in Hyderabad.
India should not miss this opportunity. If we do not have vision to support a world class institution let someother place in India get it and we will support it by sending our brothers to lay bricks to build Vedanta in that state and work as cooks in the dhabbas around Vedanta.
Why is lack of vision and execution is trademark of we the Oriyas? Why are we happy with selling our daughters to work as maids and our sons as helping hands and stay as the most poverty ladden states of India.
We need to rise and see how we could support people who could bring money to our state. Our small vision coupled with small mind of our politicians should not make Vedanta to reduce his goal to build an ITI.
I would rather be happy if Vedanta moves her plan to somewhere else and build this great university without diluting their vision.
— Purna
5. pabitra kumar barad | July 28th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Mr Mishra I am agree with you. but as you know how there are difficulties the mega projects facing in land acquisition front in odisha.Thats why our suggestion is starts from ITI not directly an IIT.If it wants to move out from odisha that is opt to him.It is easy to commet like you made but what is the real problem the Vedant group well known .After establishing the VAL at lanjigarh still they facing problem to get bauxite.So please do not question on our mind set suggest solution how the university will be established in odisha.If you will be a part of solution we will be happy.
6. R.K. Ghosh | July 28th, 2010 at 9:59 am
I think Mr. Mishra is missing the point. Thinking begins with a concept which gets crystalized into an implementable idea. And implementation start through a boot strap process. No big industry ever started without a pilot. I guess Vedant itself was not built overnight. Reliance, Tatas started with a small plants. Do I need to give more examples. What I and others want to convey is that a small specialized institution could have been a beginning for great university. Also using a Ronald Regan joke on small beginning is perhaps not very interesting. Mr. Mishra could have used a better analogy to paraphrase for junking the opinions of others.
7. Purna Mishra | July 29th, 2010 at 11:08 am
No I am not missing the point. It is you and others who do not see the big picture. So that i could show how wrong is your analogy, the biggest refinery in the world Reliance refinery did not start with Reliance building a petrol pump. In the past people like Ambani and Tata built those pilot projects as they did not have skill and no such skill was readily available. However they did not start as small pilot when they branch to their mobile operations. RIL just aquired a compnay for a billion dollars to get the jump start with 4G technology. It is in old days that they used to build these small prototypes. These days they raise money and hire skill and start big. This is the new mantra. How many of the engineering colleges that are opening in every street corners started as ITIs?
Also if we look at Vedanta’s plan, they are not building the entire university in one phase either. In their first phase they are building a hospital, a few heath science related departments and they will build the university in multiple phases.
What Orissa needs to provide is the support and a challenge. Support should be in terms of providing a helping hand and challenge is in terms of making sure Vedanta stays honest with their plan.
The standard mantra in West is “Trust but Verify”. The mantra back home is “Think small, stay small and keep everyone around small by pulling their legs”.
8. pila | July 29th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
if it is really creating a very cvr problem in land allocation in puri region
my suggestion is to shift the totalo university between jsg and rkl region
9. Purna Mishra | July 29th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
>if it is really creating a very cvr problem in land allocation in puri region my suggestion is to shift the totalo university between jsg and rkl region
This is an excellent suggestion. Let Orissa convince Vedanta University to move it to Rourkela. Infrastructure wise Rourkela has better facilities than Puri. Rourkela is better connected with the rest of India and also the air strip with 6000 feet runway that is maintained by RSP could easily be converted to a service airport.
Orissa is already lagging all other major states in having at least 2 competing cities as Knowledge cities. Orissa has one. Vedanta will make Rourkela the true knowledge capital of Orissa.
What will Orissa gain if the university moves to Hyderabad as the rumor mill says?
— Purna
10. alok | August 2nd, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Editor: Your comments are being edited out as you have been saying the same thing over and over and over regardless of what the context of the main article is. Saying it once or twice or even thrice is fine. If you want to say it over and over and over then this is not the right place for that. Also, you often try to change the discussion away from the main topic; I may let it go if it is done once or twice but you have done it too many times. So far 87 comments of yours appear in this blog and 40 in the orissagrowth blog. In the future, unless you write something new and relevant to the topic, they will be edited out.