Co-operative university in Pune
Following is an excerpt from a news item in Hindustan Times. (After reading it I am not very clear what a co-operative university is.)
India will soon have its first co-operative university and the first of its kind in the entire South-East Asia. The Jawaharlal Nehru Co-operative University will set up in Pune.
The idea to have a full-fledged co-operative university has germinated to counter intense challenges posed by the private players to the co-operative sector institutions, which suffer due to lack of trained professionals in the area.
The Centre has agreed in principle to the proposal, which at present is under the University Grants Commission’s (UGC’s) consideration, the National Co-operative Union of India president Ghanshyam Amin said.
The proposed university will have courses such as BA (Co-operatives), MBA, law and MCE with special focus on the co-operative sector. To begin with, it will start with five courses that would be increased with the addition of new streams in future. Amin said that the existing national level co-operative institution in Pune will be upgraded to a university.
With the infrastructure readily available, the five new courses will be started as soon as the proposal is cleared by the UGC, he added. Significantly, a major source of funding for the university project would be the proposed corps fund of Rs 200 crore to be raised by the NCUI, an umbrella outfit of co-operative institutions and the Centre with both having 50 per cent stake.
November 17th, 2007