PIOs to get university

POLICY

The plan is to attract persons of Indian origin by providing quality education.

To lure Indian students from abroad and provide them with better higher education facilities, the government plans to set up a university, primarily for Persons of Indian Origin (PIO).

The Ministry of Overseas India Affairs has prepared a concept note to this effect. PIO students would get priority while admitting a limited number of Indian students too. The idea is to establish a state-of-the-art university which will offer courses on a wide range of subjects "� medical, engineering and humanities and management at the undergraduate and post-graduate level "� and have a hostel facility too.

The fee in this designated university will be foreign currency, according to sources. Even the Indian students will have to pay in foreign currency. The proposal will be presented for discussion to the HRD ministry which post discussion with the Medical Council of India and other technical education departments would decide on the matter in a months time. The concept is said to be on par with the scheme of special economic zones (SEZs) for education wherein the participants may get tax benefits in terms of payment of fee.

A PIO is simply a person of Indian origin who is not a citizen of India. To issue a PIO Card, the Indian government considers anyone of Indian origins up to four generations removed to be a PIO. There is a huge NRI (Non Resident Indian) and PIO population across the world, estimated to be around 25 million.

And they are highly educated. For instance, Indians along with other Asians, have the highest educational qualifications of all ethnic groups in the US. Almost 67 per cent of all Indians have a bachelor's or high degree, according to the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness. The case is no different in other countries. It's their sons and daughters that the government is targeting.

"There are a lot of PIO students studying in India at various universities. Through this proposal we plan to bring the PIO students on one campus and provide them quality higher education. This will also promote India as an education hub," said a source.

The government plans to invite bids from Indian universities as well as international universities for the same. The criteria for the universities to apply would be their experience in the field of education, financial security and credibility. Manipal University is considered to be one of the bidders for this proposed university.

Earlier, Manipal university had mooted a proposal to set up a an exclusive centre for PIO students. Manipal had also offered 100 acres of land available with it in Manipal and Bangalore. The initial idea was to set up a medical university along with a hospital. Courses on engineering, management and humanities were also to be taken up.

Though costing for the university has not been worked out as yet, it is estimated it would run in to few hundred crores. The corporate entity of Manipal education and medical group had decided to invest Rs 400 crore to set up the university.