The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, would set up its second campus in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. The institute would be allotted 1,000 acres for the campus, about 70 km away from the Bangalore International Airport.
This would enable IISc to utilise the existing laboratories in Bangalore and expand to complementary areas in the new premises besides sharing of faculty due to its proximity with the parent institute.
IISc informed the government that it proposed to set up an advanced research centre, a science park and an incubation centre to extend academia-government- industry interactions.
The Centre would provide the funding for the project and the role of state would be limited to providing the land and creating the physical infrastructure.
Union minister for human resources development Kapil Sibal in a letter informed chief minister K Rosaiah that a memorandum of understanding for land and time frame for creating the basic infrastructure was under preparation.
Rosaiah said the move would trigger economic development in backward Anantapur.
IISc had recently introduced inter-disciplinary PhD programmes in mathematical sciences, chemical biology, earth system science, nanoscience and nanotechnology. It might consider introducing under graduate courses too in Andhra Pradesh, said an official.
It was former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who initiated efforts to get the institute to the state. He had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking the IISc to consider Andhra Pradesh to set up its second campus to create a pool of trained scientific manpower to attract industries.
