Vedanta’s Orissa projects are on schedule: Agarwal
Thaindian.com - Bangkok,Bangkok,Thailand, 26th april 2008
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/vedantas-orissa-projects-are-on-schedule-agarwal_10042388.html


Vedanta to establish hospital first
NewindPress, Sunday April 27 2008 07:06 IST
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20080426204512&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0


Vedanta to be growth engine of Orissa
Statesman News ServiceBHUBANESWAR, April 27
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9&theme=&usrsess=1&id=201506

'Vedanta doing well with Centre and Orissa govt support'
Monday, April 28, 2008; Posted: 12:14 AMhttp://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1446509/

http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/29/stories/2007082955271300.htm

Following is a rejoinder to the above article.

While it is possible that Vedanta University, may not turn out as envisioned,
it is definitely not a flawed pipe dream. We now show why some of the arguments given by Prof. Philip G. Altbach is flawed.

1. This article talks about $1 billion (the number $3 billion is thrown as an afterthought towards the end of his article) and how it is not a lot money. First, Vedanta University folks have talked about $3 billion, not $1 billion. The $1 billion number is the number that Mr. Agrawal has pledged to contribute; not the number he thinks the university needs. He thinks the later number to be $3 billion. If one wonders where the rest of the $2 billion is supposed to come, then there are two likely sources: (i) the tution paid by the students and (ii) the use of the real estate in the planned city around the Vedanta University.

Next, lets look at the budget of some of the existing Indian institutions:

• The 7 IITs had a budget of 683.5 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 1553.70 crores (taking into account the expansion plan) for 2007-08.
• The Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore had a budget of 168 crores in 2006-07 and 283 crores for 2007-08.
• The 6 IIMs had a budget of 74 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 144 crores for 2007-08.
• UGC had a budget of 2700.17 crores in 2006-07 and 3763.52 crores in 2007-08. This include funding about 20 central universities (does not include IGNOU)
  
• IGNOU had a budget of 91 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 98.2 crores in 2007-08.
• SPA (School of Planning and Architecture) had a budget of 10.20 crores in 2006-07 and 22.30 crores in 2007-08.
• National Institute of Design had a budget of 11.25 crores in 2006-07 and 20.25 crores in 2007-08.
• Indian Statistical Institute had a budget of 59.14 crores in 2006-07 and 73.01 crores in 2007-08.
• The new IISERs are to be made at a cost of 500 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
  
• The new IITs are to be made at a cost of 1000 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new central universities are to be made at a cost of 300 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)

What Vedanta University folks have said is that they will spend $1 billion in the initial phase (i.e. Rs 4000 crores) and $3 billion (Rs 12,000 crores) over the next 10-15 years.

Based on the estimates about Rs 4000 crores can be used to build two new IITs (1000 crore*2) + two new IISERs (500 crores*2) + two new central universities (300 crores*2) + two new IIMs (150 crores estimate) + a new National Institute of Design (100 crores estimate). The recurring cost of these would be at 2006-07 estimates would be 2 IITs (200 crores total), two IISERs (200 crores total), two central universities (200 crores), two IIMs (30 crores), an NID (12 crores) = 650 crores. That is about 650/(8000) = 8.125% of the remaining $2 billion of the Vedanta University estimate which is a fairly small percentage of interest. (The Indian market has been making much more in recent years.)

2. Tthe article says: "No research university in the world has 100,000 students or even anything close."

As per, http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php#enroll_large
following are some large research universities in the US

Arizona State University, Main Campus	51,612
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	51,175
The Ohio State University	50,504
University of Texas, Austin	49,696
University of Florida	49,693
Michigan State University	45,166
Texas A&M University, College Station	44,910
University of Illinois, Urbana	41,862
University of Wisconsin, Madison	41,447
Pennsylvania State University, University Park	40,709

As per http://www.asu.edu/enroll/news/news2.html
ASU will have 90,000 students in its campuses by 2020. (Note that
all its campuses are in the Phoenix metro area. It is not like the multi-campus
UC system or U of Texas system.)

So Vedanta's goal of 100,000 students around the same time is not that different.

3. Location: It seems the author does not have much idea about the location. The Vedanta University location is about 30 miles from the outer periphery (read Khurda) of Bhubaneswar metropolitan area (the capital of Orissa) . Bhubaneswar is very well connected with the rest of the country both by train (BBSR, Khurda Rd Schedules, Puri Schedules) and by plane and it is expected to have international flights within a year or two. The Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has a current population of 1.6 million and at the rate it is growing (both in area and population) it is likely that by 2020 it will be more than 3 million and its periphery would be close to (if not completely engulfing) Vedanta University.

4. India is hungry for good higher education and people are willing to pay for it. May be the example of KIIT, Bhubaneswar (Orissa) will open the eyes of the author. KIIT was started in 1992 by three young people with an initial investment of few thousand rupees. In 15 years it has programs in multiple fields (engineering, management, medical science, Rural management, biotechnology, Social Sciences, Dentistry, Diploma, ITI, international high school) and is a deemed university. The growth and revenue of ICFAI and Amity also illustrates the revenue potential. Although none of the above are research universities, Vedanta University can collect similar revenues and spend a big part of it in research.

So it is not unreasonable that Vedanta University will have enough students paying enough in tuition to sustain it. Moreover, one should not take the real estate aspect of Vedanta University lightly. With 6000 acres, there will be enough land left beyond the core university, to earn a handsome income, which can then be ploughed into Vedanta University's research programs.
Currently, Bhubaneswar is a destination for many IT companies for their development centers. It has the big 4 of India (Wipro, Infosys, TCS and Satyam), IBM and many small and medium sized IT companies. With a top-notch environment the research park around Vedanta university should be able to attract research divisions of international companies.

Face value

Tested mettle

Jul 26th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Anil Agarwal has built a mining and metals giant in less than a decade

AS HE looks out over Mumbai's main airport, where a queue of planes wait their turn to ascend into the leaden monsoon sky, Anil Agarwal describes the transformation he has watched through his office window. In three years, he says, “the number of planes has grown four times—can you imagine?” Many Indian-based companies have experienced galloping growth in recent years, airlines among them. But few have kept pace with Mr Agarwal's Vedanta Resources, a London-listed mining and metals group, of which he is the chairman, founder and, with his family, owner of a 54% stake.

When Mr Agarwal founded the company in 1979 he was a scrap-metal merchant with ambitions to own a cable-making company. By the early 1990s, when India embarked on the liberal reforms that were to enable him to make his fortune, he was battling to establish a modest copper smelter. But in the past two years the market capitalisation of Vedanta—named after Mr Agarwal's mother—has increased fivefold to $10 billion. Last month 20% of the group's flagship company, Sterlite Industries, one of India's biggest producers of zinc, copper and aluminium, was floated on the New York Stock Exchange for over $2 billion—the biggest overseas sale of shares by an Indian company. Last year Vedanta turned over $6.5 billion, an increase of 76% on the previous year, and nearly half of it profit.

High metal prices, driven in part by India's own rapid growth, help explain the surge. But so do Mr Agarwal's instincts for his market: Vedanta's float in London in 2003 proved to be brilliantly timed. He has been equally adept at turning around a series of unprofitable, formerly state-owned companies. The group encountered little competition when it bid for a controlling stake in Hindustan Zinc, a loss-making state-owned firm, in 2002. It proceeded to cut its costs in half and increase its capacity fivefold. Hindustan Zinc is now the group's most profitable unit and the lowest-cost zinc producer in the world. With such a record, Mr Agarwal laughs at the prospect of lower prices. “Everyone's going to die,” he says. “But we must die last.”

In an industry in which size matters, he is pushing ahead with Vedanta's expansion. The group plans to invest $8 billion in the next three years to consolidate existing ventures and launch new ones. In April he extended his reach into iron ore by acquiring 51% of Sesa Goa, India's largest iron-ore exporter. The group also has ambitions in power generation, arguably the biggest constraint on India's growth. It has proposed building a $1.9 billion power station in Orissa, where it is also awaiting approval for a vast greenfield bauxite mine. Despite big investments in Australia, Zambia and elsewhere, India is where Mr Agarwal sees the group's greatest potential for growth. The group is skilled at handling the country's sometimes slippery officialdom—unlike foreign-based rivals, such as BHP Billiton and Anglo American, which have no presence in India. “It helps that we understand India,” says Mr Agarwal.

In a way, he is emblematic of India's emergence. Around half of India's dozen richest businessmen are self-made men. But none more so than Mr Agarwal, now 53, whose personal fortune is estimated at $5.4 billion. When he left school at 15, he knew no English, the language of India's seasoned elite. Even after a decade based in London, his English remains imperfect. “We are very humble,” he says, his unwitting use of the royal “we” perhaps making him sound rather grander than he intended.

Start small, think big

In the 1990s Mr Agarwal's copper and cable businesses grew on the back of the telecoms boom. He then raised his game in 2001 with Sterlite's successful bid for 51% of the Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), India's first privatisation. The deal was consistent with his strategy of backward integration—but also with Mr Agarwal's record for controversy. In 1998 Sterlite was briefly banned from India's capital markets over allegations of insider trading, though the order was later repealed. The BALCO deal was marred by a two-month strike by the company's workers. As the symbol of a still-controversial (and now apparently mothballed) divestment programme, it remains politically sensitive. Sterlite has therefore been unable to exercise an option to buy the remaining 49% of BALCO.

Few Indian companies have grown so fast without stirring controversy. Just as remarkable was the ease with which Mr Agarwal graduated from managing a medium-sized company to running a large group. This has not sated his appetite for risk. As he puts it: “As an individual, we're very strong as an entrepreneur.” Mr Agarwal says he remains interested in further acquisitions, but concedes that his hands are rather full. If approved, Vedanta's plans in Orissa, which holds the world's fourth-biggest bauxite deposit, will keep him particularly busy. He faces strong opposition from environmentalists and local tribes, however. The example of POSCO, a South Korean steelmaker, is not encouraging. Three years after announcing plans for a $12 billion steel project in Orissa, it is still waiting for the requisite permits and land. Then again, Mr Agarwal is not South Korean.

He is Indian, and proud to be—hence, he says, his philanthropic scheme to donate $1 billion to found a world-class university in India. Vedanta University will be constructed on a 3,200-hectare site in Orissa and will cater for 100,000 students when it is completed, around 2025. “When you go to the US, you see their large universities, Harvard and Berkeley, and we don't have them,” says Mr Agarwal. “Yet the biggest thing you can give to people is education.” Sceptics say he has chosen Orissa as the site for the university for political reasons. It is certainly an extraordinarily ambitious scheme. But there is no doubting Mr Agarwal's ability to overcome obstacles and establish giant enterprises with surprising speed.

Chronicles of Higher Education has two premium articles ( one needs a subscription to read the full article). Following are links to those articles and excerpts from them.

• Article 1: For Planners, the Opportunity of a Lifetime
  By LAWRENCE BIEMILLER
  Baltimore

  In an office a few feet from the chop of the Baltimore harbor, architects are drawing plans for a vast university campus on the east coast of India that would be shaped like twin blossoms, bordered by a lake, and entered through any of 34 gates, each with its own name and symbolism. As beautiful as a mandala and as intricate as a postgraduate mathematics problem, it’s almost certainly the most ambitious campus plan ever conceived.

  On more than 7,500 acres, Vedanta University and its environs would accommodate a liberal-arts program, an engineering school, an agriculture college, a medical campus, Olympics-grade sports facilities, townships for faculty and staff members, parklands, a resort, and even its own airport. At the behest of Anil Agarwal, an industrialist who has pledged $1-billion toward its construction, the campus is being designed to house 100,000 students and to fulfill the donor’s dream of creating an institution that is Indian and world-class at the same time. … MORE

• Article 2: In Rural India, an Ambitious Academic Vision:

  A mining mogul with big ideas is determined to build an elite, American-style university for 100,000 students in Orissa. Farmers, who own the land he wants to develop, plan to resist.

  By SHAILAJA NEELAKANTAN
  Bhubaneshwar, India

  A few miles outside the town of Puri, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, lies Beladala, a farming village of thatch-roofed homes. One recent afternoon a group of farmers sat on the porch of the village’s small school eating a lunch of rice, lentils, and vegetables on plates made of broad leaves. … MORE

Oldest varsity to be Bihar’s newest one

Last Updated: 03:29

Nalanda, one of the world’s oldest universities, is being revived by the Bihar government. The state has acquired the land required for the Rs 1,000-crore project and the university could have functioning schools as early as next year, more than eight centuries after Bakhtiar Khilji destroyed it.

Though it taught science, mathematics and logic, ancient Nalanda’s pre-eminence in Buddhist studies has got the governments of Japan, China and Singapore interested in the project. "The university would not belong to Bihar, it would belong to the world," Dr Madan Jha, Bihar’s principal secretary (education), told Sunday HT.

Among the seven schools planned in the five-year first phase — at the end of which it would have 4,530 students and 453 faculty members — would be those that offer integrated post-graduate and research programmes in information technology, bioinformatics, developmental studies, and applied sciences.

The Department of Natural Resource Management would supply agricultural technology to 300 villages around the 500 acres bought by the state for the project.

President APJ Abdul Kalam played guardian angel when, 16 months ago, he listed Nalanda’s reconstruction as one of Bihar’s 10 priorities.

Since then, apart from buying the land, the Nitish Kumar government has enacted the legislation necessary for setting up the university.
According to the project report prepared by the Educational Consultants India, the international character of the university would partly flow from the 46 faculty members that would be hired from abroad (there would be 582 faculty members at the end of the 10-year project).

The report mentions an annual salary of $36,000 (Rs 14.4 lakh) for each of them. The plan for the university buildings, too, would be open to bidding by international consultants.

The way ahead is to be decided by a ‘mentor group’ chaired Professor Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate. The first meeting of the group — which would include Harvard historian Sugata Bose, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeoh and scholars from Japan and China — is scheduled in Singapore in July. The group would later meet in Tokyo, Beijing and India before submitting its recommendations by the end of the year.

Shigeyuki Shimamori, counsellor in charge of cultural affairs at the Japanese embassy in Delhi, said: "We hope this group is not yet closed. The more members, the better. We would think of funding the project only after the mentor group’s recommendations."

Ayers Saint Gross, a Baltimore USA firm, is in charge of Vedanta University’s campus master plan. The client list of Ayers Saint Gross is extremely impressive and as per their web site today includes Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Duke University, Emory University, Franklin and Marshall College, Guangzhou China University City, George Washington University, University of Georgia, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland College Park, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, Rutgers University, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Vedanta University.

Based on their list of current projects they are involved in the Building design and architecture of academic buildings of Vedanta University as well as its campus planning. Following is a blurb from their site.

Vedanta University
Campus Master Plan
Orissa, India

Completion: 2012 (phase !)
Size: 8,000 acres
Cost: N/A

Ayers/Saint/Gross has been selected as the Lead Campus Master Planner and Architect for Vedanta University, envisioned to be a world-class, multi-discipline university in India. This project will entail the design and development of a state-of-the art education and research institute that will rank among the highest caliber schools internationally - at the level of Harvard, Stanford and Oxford.

This new University will be built around several colleges and ‘Centers of Excellence’ for cross-disciplinary research. The colleges will include Graduate, Post-Graduate, and Doctoral programs in various disciplines. It is aimed to have a globally diversified, high-quality student body, comprising an equal mix of Indian and international students – serving over 100,000 students in the long-term. The campus will house state-of-the-art facilities including a global resource library, research and development parks, student and faculty residences, and an Olympic caliber sports complex. The vision also includes the development of a University township that will evolve with the University and drive local development in the region as an education and research satellite city.

We now present several daigrams from the Vedanta University web pages as well as from their architect’s pages.

Masterplan:

Phase 1 plan:

Campus planning view (as given in their website):

Another view:

View of one of their buildings: