Bengaluru: Home to the premier Indian Institute of Science and the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru will soon have a top notch Economics School on the lines of the London School of Economics too with former PM Dr Manmohan Singh arriving to inaugurate it on October 4 in the city.
Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy said on Thursday that the state government was also working on a faculty exchange programme with the London School of Economics and had concluded the first round of negotiations with it.
With the new institution’s building still not ready, the first batch of students will attend classes in two rooms at the Bangalore University’s Jnana Bharathi campus. Although the school will be affiliated to the Bangalore University to begin with, it will gain autonomy after the required Bill is passed in the legislature.
The first batch has 50 students selected through CET held in four divisional headquarters of the state, besides Pune, Delhi, Kolkatta and Chennai. Once the school becomes fully operational it will have 1,100 students and a hostel built on 46 acres, making it residential.
“Thirty per cent of its seats will be reserved for scheduled caste and tribe students and 40 per cent for students from other states. While other students will pay a fee of Rs 50,000 a year, SC/ST students will be admitted for free,” Mr Rayareddy told reporters here.
Asked about objections raised by the Director of Collegiate Education, he said he wanted the building plan to be approved by the Cabinet when it has no authority to do so.
“Only the school’s Governing Council can do this and the tender has to be floated by the Housing Department,” he said.
The Minister said it had been decided to distribute free branded and of Pentium-3 or equivalent grade laptops to 1.86 lakh students in government and aided colleges at a cost of Rs 275 crore.
The tenders would be floated in all the four divisional headquarters of the state, he added.
On the scandal rocking the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) in Mysuru, Mr Rayareddy said that he had asked the law department to explore ways to file criminal cases against those indicted by the Justice Bhaktavatsala Commission of Inquiry.
