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Shriram group grows in education, plans to set up full-fledged university
Arun Bharat Ram-promoted SRF Group is eyeing a bigger pie of the country's booming education industry. The group is considering setting up a full-fledged university. Mahua Venkatesh reports. Class act
Arun Bharat Ram-promoted SRF Group is eyeing a bigger pie of the country's booming education industry. The group is considering setting up a full-fledged university.
The move, once fructified, will complete the group's presence in the sector. The group is known for setting up two of Delhi University's iconic colleges — Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College for Women.
"We are discussing the proposal to set up a full-fledged university internally within the top management," said Karthikeya Bharat Ram, group deputy managing director.
SRF, earlier known as Shri Ram Fibres, is part of the Shriram Group founded Lala Shri Ram more than a century ago and has strong legacy in the education sector.
Besides LSR and SRCC, the group runs a chain of schools — The Shri Ram Schools — in the National Capital Region.
Human resources development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal has said that the government wants private participation in establishing 14 Innovation Universities focused on cutting-edge research proposed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to help India emerge a global knowledge hub.
The government is keen to attract private investment in higher education to meet its ambitious target of 30% gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education by 2020.
India's GER in higher education currently stands at 12.4%.
Bharat Ram did not give out details about the proposed university.
"We are very keen to set up a university as education has been one of our core areas," Bharat Ram said.
Current UGC regulations on private universities, brought in 2003, specify that "each private university shall be established by a separate State Act" and shall "operate ordinarily within the boundary of the state" though in exceptional cases additional campuses can be allowed.
