10 corporate houses in race to set up pvt varsities in Punjab

The state Government has already started Adarsh schools at the primary level with the support of blue chip companies. As many as 50 such model schools would be functional in rural Punjab by next year. The board for these school, which was set up recently, comprises industrialists like Sunil Munjal of the Hero Group and Rakesh Mittal of the Bharti Group.

Punjab has five government-run universities and of these, three have been added in the past 30 years. “The aim is to have specialised private universities,” said a Government official. Apart from sprucing up educational facilities, the state Government is also setting up Knowledge City, spread across 320 acres in Mohali. A team from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, which is planning to open its second institute at Mohali, will visit the state on February 6, said chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh. Besides the ISB, Max India will also set up state-of-the-art centres in the Knowledge City.