Chandigarh: Panjab University (PU) is aiming to collect a whopping ₹100 crore in donations from its old students, for various development projects and facilities on campus, during its fourth alumni meet slated for December 23.
Vice-chancellor Renu Vig said the agenda for the meet has been set by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is also the chancellor of the varsity and will be the chief guest on the occasion.
With love for the alma mater
The university has already started receiving the donations, with Dr Arun Verma of the 1966-batch, making the biggest ever contribution – ₹3.5 crore for setting up a pilot lab at Dr SS Bhatnagar University Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology. Dr Verma, along with his brother Arvind Verma, had completed BTech from the institute. The block will be named after the two brothers. Dr Verma the chairman and CEO of Nova Asset management, USA.
Before this, the highest donation was made by Dr Harvansh Singh Judge to set up the dental institute in PU. He had donated around ₹2 crore, as per officials.
This time, the varsity has also received ₹1 crore from Vardhman Group chairman and MD Paul Oswal for the setting up an Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab at University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET).
{{/usCountry}}This time, the varsity has also received ₹1 crore from Vardhman Group chairman and MD Paul Oswal for the setting up an Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab at University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET).
{{/usCountry}}As per dean alumni relations, Anupama Sharma, the money has already reached the varsity. Other donations will also be used to set up such state-of-the-art facilities and labs in the varsity, said Sharma.
The V-C said this is the first time that the university is asking for donations during the alumni meet.
The university is currently suffering from a fund crunch. While the Union ministry of education had written to the University Grants Commission to enhance PU’s grant, the file has been evaluated by UGC’s finance section and a reply will be submitted to the ministry soon.
Notable alumni at the event
So far, 1,500 alumni have registered for the event and around 700 have confirmed they will attend it. Apart from this, around 30 NRI alumni have also given their confirmation for the event.
Notable alumni of PU who are expected to be present at the meet include former governor of Puducherry and retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi, Government of India’s principal scientific adviser Ajay Sood, Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Sahney,
Justice Ritu Bahri, the acting chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court, Reliance Industries Limited executive director Pawan Kapil, environmental activist Vandana Shiva, Cashify cofounder Nakul Kumar, Airbus’ South Asia head Sunny Guglani, Tech Mahindra’s senior vice president Sumit Grover among others.
The event will start at 10am at the various departments and will be followed by the main event at the Law Auditorium where Dhankhar will be present for around an hour. A gala dinner and musical event will be held later.