Reliance Foundation to set up a university: Nita Ambani

Reliance Foundation plans to set up a university for cutting edge research and innovation as well as nurturing future leaders, musicians, scientists and Olympians. Speaking at the India Today Conclave recently founder-chairperson Nita Ambanis said sports and education are the two pillars on which ‘Indiatomorrow’ will rise.

With her husband Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director, in the audience, she delivered a talk titled ‘The Great Equaliser: Sports and Education For All’. She said “Even the world’s best and biggest companies have a finite lifespan. But educational institutions are timeless. They live and breathe and grow in the generations whom they empower”.

She added that the world-class university based on cutting edge of research and innovation and also focuses on education and sports, art and culture. However she didn’t mention any timeline for setting up of the institution.

The university, she said, will collaborate with the top universities around the world and prepare future generations to face the world, with knowledge and skills. The university is the dream of Reliance Foundation which produce future leaders, musicians, scientists, and Olympians.

Reliance Foundation was set up in 2010 to provide impetus to various philanthropic initiatives of Reliance Industries, the country’s biggest private firm. Ambani said India is home to one sixth of humanity and half of its population is under the age of 25. “One-fifth of all young people in the world are Indians. In the next two decades, while the world ages, India is poised to become younger. India’s youth will build India’stomorrow,” she said. “Mukesh and I have a big dream and a firm commitment – To make the Right Education, and the Right to Education available to all.”

Ambani went on to detail her organisation’s efforts to contribute to the development of sports and education in India. Reliance Foundation has established 14 schools, educating over 16,000 children annually. “Our newest two schools are in Uttarakhand.

These are the schools that were completely destroyed during the floods in Uttarakhand in 2013, which we have rebuilt now,” she said. Stating that scarcity of quality teachers and the lack of infrastructure continue to be India’s major challenges, she said creative and quality content as well as innovative and cost-effective methods are the need of the hour.

Her foundation’s grassroots programme had reached out to 13 million budding sportspeople and athletes, she said narrating inspiring stories of young boys and girls who dared to dream and succeeded. She spoke of Anju Gurjar, a young athlete who received a marriage proposal at the age of 15, but won a competition held by the Reliance Foundation and then went on to compete at the national level. She also spoke of the Pandya brothers, Kunal and Hardik (of Mumbai Indians fame), and their humble beginnings.