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Singapore: India plans to set up three new universities for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs), Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said on Saturday.
The three new universities will be along the same lines as another university, also for NRIs and PIOs, that is being set up in Bangalore, Ravi told journalists.
The minister is in Singapore to attend a conference of non-resident Indians, the mini-Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, being held in the city state.
The NRI university in Bangalore, which will begin functioning from the 2010 academic year, will be run by the privately-run Manipal University and offer courses in engineering, medicine and the humanities. Fifty per cent of the seats are reserved for children of NRIs and PIOs.
Asked if land for the university had been acquired in the context of the problems faced by the Tatas in Singur, the minister quipped: "Singur is not India. As soon as the Tatas decided to withdraw from Singur, at least six states immediately offered to host the Tata small car project. That is the real India."
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The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has begun processing the proposal for setting up the three new universities. "We expect the clearance from the ministries of human resource development and home, and cabinet approval to take about a year," Ravi said.
The overseas Indian affairs ministry has increased the number of scholarships for children of NRIs and PIOs to 120 since last year.
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