Chandigarh, August 16:
To attract best quality educational Institutions of National and International repute to the State, the Punjab Cabinet on Monday approved the establishment of Private Self-Financed ‘Plaksha University’ in Mohali’s IT city.
This decision, which will pave the way for the development of the Mohali region as a major educational hub, was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh here this afternoon through video conferencing. The university will become functional from this academic session.
The Cabinet gave the nod to the draft of ‘The Plaksha University Ordinance 2021’, and authorized the Chief Minister to approve the final draft prepared by the Legal Remembrancer, without placing it again before the Council of Ministers.
An official spokesperson said after the meeting that the self-financed private ‘Plaksha University’, being established as a highly research and innovation driven university on a 50.12 acre state-of-the-art campus, will be developed at a prime location in Mohali, SAS Nagar, with an investment of Rs. 244 crore in Phase-1 and total Rs.1145 crore over five years.
The upcoming University would be instrumental in imparting world-class higher education to students to empower them to compete globally and be gainfully equipped. It will have an annual intake of 300-400 students in the beginning, and up to 1500 students when the campus is fully established.
The 21st century technology university will be at the forefront of contemporary technologies like AI, ML, IoT, Robotics and Data Science. The University will also set up research centers to help and solve some of the biggest challenges of the region, including digital health, digital agriculture, cyber security and future of mobility.
The Punjab government has made it mandatory to reserve 15% seats exclusively for students from Punjab in the upcoming University, and full tuition fee concession/freeship to not less than 5% of the total strength from among the candidates belonging to the weaker sections of the society, as part of the ordinance and its terms and conditions. The University would be recruiting teaching and non-teaching staff as per UGC Guidelines. It would also undertake industry-oriented teaching, training and research extension programmes, to provide employable skills with a view to contributing to the development of the society.
