Bharti family's Rs 7000 crore charity include an advanced science university
Billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of India's largest mobile company Airtel, on Thursday announced that the Bharti family has pledged about Rs 7,000 crore to philanthropy and will open a new university modeled on America's Massachusetts Institute of Technology, primarily to offer free education to meritorious but underprivileged students.
The Bharti family's commitment to give away 10 per cent of their personal wealth, also includes three per cent of their stake in telecom firm Bharti Airtel. The pledged amount, totalling Rs 7,000 crore would mostly go into setting up of a new technology-oriented university in North India, while some part of it would also be used for expanding the existing Satya Bharti School Programme, a flagship initiative of the Bharti Foundation.
"We are not in this for business," said Sunil Mittal at a media conference to announce the family's philanthropic plans. The proposed university will come up on a 100-acre plot and active discussions are on with various states including Punjab and Haryana to finalise the location.
Mittal, who was flanked by his brothers Rakesh and Rajan, said he expected the ground breaking ceremony to take place by early next year and the first academic session would commence by 2021.
The proposed Satya Bharti University for Science and Technology would focus on advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality and virtual reality and Internet of Things in addition to offering degrees in electrical and electronics engineering and management. The setting up of the university will require Rs 1,000 crore initially and a large amount will be needed to run it thereafter, he noted.
"Given our attachment to technology we would like it to be very significantly focused on technology on the lines of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Stanford and Berkeley," said Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises and Bharti Foundation.
The new university will seek partnerships and industry linkages with tech giants like Face-book, Microsoft, Google and Apple, among others. Over a period of time the fully-residential university will have 10,000 students, Mittal said.
About 10 per cent of our family wealth is being earmarked and pledged to Bharti Foundation, the Group's philanthropic arm. There are certain structuring and restructuring that are right now being undertaken by lawyers and accountants (in this regard), Mittal disclosed.
In Satya Bharti School programme there is zero fee, we do not charge anything, and even here, the idea is to bring meritorious underprivileged students to give them education, it will require a lot of money, Mittal said.
While courses will be free for meritorious students who belong to economically weaker sections of society - that being the prime focus of the institution - in case of any unfilled vacancies, only nominal amount will be charged in line with the Government fee.
Mittal's philanthropic move comes close on the heels of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini Nilekani committing half of their wealth to philanthropy by joining the 'The Giving Pledge', a movement spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
The Bharti family's commitment to give away 10 per cent of their personal wealth, also includes three per cent of their stake in telecom firm Bharti Airtel. The pledged amount, totalling Rs 7,000 crore would mostly go into setting up of a new technology-oriented university in North India, while some part of it would also be used for expanding the existing Satya Bharti School Programme, a flagship initiative of the Bharti Foundation.
Mittal, who was flanked by his brothers Rakesh and Rajan, said he expected the ground breaking ceremony to take place by early next year and the first academic session would commence by 2021.
"Given our attachment to technology we would like it to be very significantly focused on technology on the lines of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Stanford and Berkeley," said Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises and Bharti Foundation.
The new university will seek partnerships and industry linkages with tech giants like Face-book, Microsoft, Google and Apple, among others. Over a period of time the fully-residential university will have 10,000 students, Mittal said.
About 10 per cent of our family wealth is being earmarked and pledged to Bharti Foundation, the Group's philanthropic arm. There are certain structuring and restructuring that are right now being undertaken by lawyers and accountants (in this regard), Mittal disclosed.
In Satya Bharti School programme there is zero fee, we do not charge anything, and even here, the idea is to bring meritorious underprivileged students to give them education, it will require a lot of money, Mittal said.
While courses will be free for meritorious students who belong to economically weaker sections of society - that being the prime focus of the institution - in case of any unfilled vacancies, only nominal amount will be charged in line with the Government fee.
Mittal's philanthropic move comes close on the heels of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini Nilekani committing half of their wealth to philanthropy by joining the 'The Giving Pledge', a movement spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
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