JNU gets funding of Rs 455 crore from HEFA for new academic buildings, hostels, research centres

New Delhi, August 4, 2020

The Jawaharal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi today said it had got approval of the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), for the funding of Rs. 455.02 crore for construction of new academic buildings, hostels, research centres and installation of an integrated and unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

A press release from the university said that various new Schools and Special Centres had been established in JNU recently.

There was also an urgent need for hostel facilities to accommodate students and researchers of these new schools/centres, it said.

JNU has started Atal Incubation Centre and three companies are already incubating. For this purpose, it has already registered the Incubation Centre as a Section 8 company and aspires to incubate 100 companies, which requires state of the art infrastructure, the release said.

JNU Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar said: "The funds allotted by HEFA shall be utilized for the construction of hostels for students and researchers of School of Engineering and Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management & Entrepreneurship, Academic Complex Buildings for the School of Engineering, Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management & Entrepreneurship, Trans-Disciplinary Academic Research, Advanced Animal Research Facility, Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility, Incubation Centre for start-up companies, Special Centre for ELearning, Lecture Hall Complex and setting up of integrated & unified education ERP system in the University."

The ERP will ensure that all academic and administrative processes are totally operated using online means and in an integrated manner. This will surely make all the processes in the University efficient and time-bound, the release said.

Approximately, 1.3 lakh candidates apply for JNU entrance examination, out of which the university admits only about 2000 students every year.

The Special Centre for E-learning shall impart education by offering online degree programs to many such students who could not be admitted in JNU. These students can be benefitted by the expertise of JNU faculty. This is also in tune with the objectives of National Education Policy of increasing the gross enrolment ratio.

Jagadesh Kumar said the new Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility (AIRF) and Advanced Animal Research Facility shall increase the research capability of the University and also be made available for other institutions of the country as National Facility. Advanced Animal Research Facility will be useful for carrying out research on communicable, non-communicable and rare diseases including infectious agents such novel corona virus, he added.

NNN