NEW DELHI: Spread over 100 acres on the foothills of the Aravali range at Neemrana, the eco-friendly NIIT University (NU) campus was formally inaugurated by its chancellor Dr Karan Singh on Sunday. The "seamless'' campus comprising 54 buildings with residential facilities for 5,000 students and over 500 faculty members would be built over 10 years at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crores.

Speaking about the core principles of the university, founder of NIIT, Rajendra S Pawar said: "The university has been established on four principles industry linked, technology based, research driven and seamless education. Our idea is to create a leader in innovation and learning in emerging areas of knowledge.''

After being given recognition by the Rajasthan government on October 14, the university admitted 19 BTech and 10 MTech students in its founding batch and the founding faculty members include names such as Dr Mashelkar, Dr Kasturi and mathematician professor Dinesh Singh among others.

The highlight of the campus has been its environment-friendly designs and initiatives. While NU officials claim 95% of the water is recycled and harvested, there is no use of air conditioners in the two academic and hostel blocks. Pawar also informed that chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Ghelot would launch the Harit Rajasthan initiative from the NU campus itself.

On the inclusive plans of the university, Pawar said that 15% of the total intake would be supported with scholarships and two of the nearby schools will be adopted by the students of NU.

While the university started with offering BTech programmes in computer science and engineering, ICT and biotechnology, its MTech programmes include computer science and engineering, ICT, bioinformatics and educational technology. Its PhD programmes include computer science and engineering, ICT, educational technology and bioinformatics and biotechnology. The university has plans for management programmes as well.

source: TOI