After Bangalore University fallout, Jindal group wary of varsities

After the Jindal Group’s ambitious plan to set up a world-class institute in association with Bangalore University (BU) fell apart, the group is steering clear of education-related philanthropic activities in the state.

“We have had one bad experience and don’t want to get into anything else. Even when we wanted to do something good, it was perceived in a negative way,” said BD Garg, executive director, Jindal Aluminium Limited. He added that the group was not considering giving donations to any university in the state.

The group and BU had made plans to set up the Bangalore School of Economics on the lines of London School of Economics. The Sitaram Jindal Foundation had agreed to donate `100 crore. However, the project became embroiled in controversy as BU vice-chancellor (V-C) N Prabhu Dev was accused of not being transparent regarding the project and this drew the ire of the BU syndicate committee. Later, the group withdrew from the project.

After the fallout, Rani Chennamma University in Belgaum wrote to the group, seeking a public-private partnership in higher education. Recently, the university’s vice-chancellor, BR Ananthan. requested a donation to improve university infrastructure, but the group turned it down. Ananthan said the university received a letter from the Jindal group, which said after its bitter experience with BU, the group had stopped philanthropic activity. Ananthan said the group said that due to its experience with BU, it might review the proposal at a later stage, but not now.

Ananthan is contemplating approaching the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for a Rs100-crore loan. He said the university wanted to construct a building where five-six inter-related subjects would be taught. He pointed out that the university did not have a pure sciences course or laboratories. Ananthan added that the university was lagging behind others and had limited resources. Currently, 1,500 students are enrolled for PG courses at the university.