Page 57 - EducationWorld January 2023

institutions such as Ashoka, Jindal education (engineering, pharmacy,
Global, Krea, Anant among others business management, nursing, hos-
have quickly established national pitality etc) and was awarded univer-
reputation, science, technology, skills sity status by the state government
universities necessary for transform- in 2010. In 2008, the government of
ing India’s predominantly agriculture Himachal Pradesh, established the
economy into a modern manufactur- affiliated Chitkara University Hi-
ing and digital services driven nation, machal through special legislation.
are also springing up countrywide. Currently the two private universities
F OR INSTANCE, THE crowd- 1,552 well-qualified faculty.
have 20,000 students mentored by
“I am very satisfied with the prog-
funded Plaksha Uni-
versity, Mohali (PU,
estb.2021), which bills ress and development of CUP in
particular during the past decade.
itself as India’s first technology uni- We have been awarded A+ grade
versity promoted after the 23 IITs by NAAC; Platinum Ranking by the
(Indian Institutes of Technology). London-based QS; ranked # 2 among
This mint new state-of-the-art digital Rudra Pratap: smooth roll-out private universities under the Central
technologies driven fully-residential government’s Atal Innovation Mission
private university established at a cessive state governments have been and #3 under the Swachhata campus
project cost of Rs.850 crore on a proactive to make up for lost time, cleanliness mission, and last but by
50-acre campus in Mohali (Punjab) is fast emerging as a hub of new age no means least, Punjab’s #1 private
has 250 students and 30 faculty in private universities. Another high- university and #2 in Himachal and
four new-age interdisciplinary study potential private HEI established by among the national Top 10 by Educa-
programmes — computer science & special state legislation is the Chan- tionWorld. Currently we are focused
artificial intelligence; cyber security digarh-based Chitkara University, on implementing the National Educa-
systems; biosystems engineering and Punjab (CUP) ranked among India’s tion Policy by introducing schools of
data sciences, economics and busi- Top 10 private universities and #1 liberal arts and converting both our
ness. in Punjab (pop. 29.6 million) in the institutions into multidisciplinary
“These future-oriented interdisci- latest EducationWorld India Higher universities. Moreover we have
plinary study programmes have been Education Rankings. signed academic and joint research
ideated and designed with inputs from Promoted in 2002 as the Punjab collaboration agreements with 180
some of the world’s most respected Technical College, it rapidly trans- universities around the world and are
academy and industry leaders, to pre- formed into a college of professional rapidly transforming our institutions
pare professionals equal to resolving Dr. Madhu Chitkara (centre): global research hub goal
several grand challenges confront-
ing humankind — digital agriculture,
health, water security, clean energy
and climate change. On December
17, we celebrated Founders Day and
I was very pleased to announce that
we have enrolled students in all these
programmes. Project Plaksha is be-
ing rolled out smoothly; everything
is going according to plan,” says Dr.
(Prof.) Rudra Pratap, an alum of
IIT-Kharagpur, Cornell (USA) and
former faculty at the top-ranked In-
dian Institute of Science, Bangalore
(1996-2021), appointed founding vice
chancellor of this ambitious, high-po-
tential technology university earlier
this year.
By all indicators the northern
border state of Punjab in which suc-

JANUARY 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 57