Two days after assuming the charge of the companies demerged from the Reliance conglomerate, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Friday announced his first project -- Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information Technology -- and dedicated it to the memory of his father and founder chairman of the group.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with the West Bengal government for setting up an IT institute in West Bengal.
The 50-acre institute will have an outlay Rs 100 crore.
Anil Ambani said the institute would offer bachelor, post-graduate and post-doctoral programmes, and could be expanded in future.
Ambani said, two days after assuming the chairmanship of Reliance Communications, "My father, the founder and creator of Reliance group, Dhirubhai Ambani, had a special love and affection for Jyoti Basu and I am sure he will be delighted in heaven that the first thing I have done after assuming the charge of the company is to come to Kolkata to sign this agreement."
Reliance Communications is one of the companies which emerged from the demerger of Reliance Industries as part of the settlement with elder brother, Mukesh Ambani.
The project will be put on fast track and will be completed in 18 months. This will be the second Dhirubhai institute in the country, the first being in Gandhinagar.
The MoU was signed between Reliance, the government of West Bengal and the state higher education department. The project will be executed by Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Trust.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the state government would contribute land to the project and all other responsibilities would be borne by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group.
Sources said the 50-acre plot was expandable by another 50 acres.
"We feel that we require professionals for the IT sector and this advanced IT professional training institute will be a great help in providing the same," Bhattacharjee said.
The institute will be a private university and will be located at Kalyani.