Bill Gates to fund IT Univ

Microsoft founder and the richest person in the world Bill Gates will be setting up an ‘IT Science University’ in the emerging IT city of Bangalore. According to confidential sources, the state government had sent a proposal for setting up an IT university to the Microsoft founder recently.

Gates has agreed in principle with the idea which was likely to cost anything between Rs 7 to 10 billion. The Karnataka government has been in touch with the Microsoft boss since last year and had sent a couple of letters to him in this regard.

The government was waiting for a reply from Bill Gates to begin the formalities for setting up of the university. The state government has also offered prime land in Gachibowli where major IT companies like Infosys and Microsoft had set up offices.

However, it is yet to be decided whether the university would have the status of a Central university or private university, sources said.

The government wants Bill Gates to finance the project and he was also willing to see that it materialised, recognising Andhra Pradesh as a major supplier of trained manpower for IT industry the world over, the sources added.