OP Jindal Global University (JGU), and its largest vertical JGLS Sonepat, which teaches law, has announced that its long-time benefactor, billionaire industrialist, politician and namesake Naveen Jindal would be loosening his considerable purse strings to the tune of another Rs 1,000 crore.
The funding, which would come “entirely from [Jindal] as a philanthropic contribution” according to JGU vice-chancellor (VC) Prof Raj Kumar, would be applied over the next nine or so years, under a new “JGU Vision 2030” plan.
Jindal commented in a press release that under the plan “we will have offices for 1600 faculty members, housing facilities for more than 12,000 students, a world-class sports centre with shooting ranges totalling an investment of Rs 1000 crores”.
If that plan comes to fruition, that would equate to a near doubling of current capacity: Kumar said in the release that currently the university had more than 830 faculty members and 6,600 students.
According to JGU’s press release:
The focus of the investment plan will be on academic, infrastructure development, creation of new world-class student facilities, hostels, schools, faculty offices and teaching facilities. Substantial commitment of financial resources for the JGU Vision 2030 by Chancellor Mr. Naveen Jindal will bolster efforts to achieve financial, academic and physical outcomes that were laid down in its implementation plan of becoming an ‘Institution of Eminence’ that has global recognition and standing.
The university was named after and established in memory of Naveen Jindal’s late father OP Jindal, which had put the resources of the Jindal steel fortune behind the young university.
JGU had been selected as an Institution of Eminence (IOE) by the government in 2019.
The newest injection of cash would give JGU quite a bit more cash to play with: in June 2020, it had inked a deal for Rs 900 crores to outsource student housing to a Goldman Sachs-owned business, which it said would allow expanding the campus from 80 to 300 acres.
We have reached out to Kumar with further queries, including whether:
- Jindal had previously also contributed funds, and how much,
- JGU has ever been cashflow positive in its normal operations.
We will update this article when we hear from him.
Comments
Not really the harbinger of access they are!
Law school (arguably the best of NLUs) charges Rs. 2,75,100.00 per annum (~14 lakh in 5 year).
Faculty of Law at DU charges 5,500 per annum. The 3 year course is 16,500 and even if you include an undergrad you will still be done under 50,000 including expenses for education and other stuff.
The contribution of DU is much more than any other national law school, be it the number of judges, academicians, senior advocates, in-house counsels etc.
Unfair is NLUs talking about access while charging such exorbitant fees and their student making a case against Jindal. Long live CLC!
JGLS has the purse (the most important weapon in a modern state) and slowly but surely it'll kill everything that stands in its way. The "islands of excellence" had a good time till the early 20th century, but may become irrelevant in the years to come, simply because they may not be in a position to compete with the financial muscle of JGLS. Is it fair? No. Is it a possible reality? Yes. Accept and live with it. A bunch of "law schools" mostly comprising of people who themselves are products of privilege (bureaucrat/ judge/ rich parents, urban english medium education, etc. etc.) given our nation's socio economic context becoming irrelevant wouldn't exactly be an earth shattering event.
I do not advocate violence against the rich like Maoists, but there should be a peaceful form of income redistribution. Maybe the BCI can charge students from JGLS who give the bar exam the same fees they charge foreign law graduates who appear for it (1 lakh or something). This money can be used to give scholarships to IDIA students. If 400 students from JGLS pay a levy of 1 lakh, then it comes to 4 crores worth of scholarships.
Focus on your career mate, this obsession with JGLS is not healthy.
"[i]The survey results show that households in the top quintile earn nearly four times as much as households in the bottom quintile. But given that poorer households also tend to be bigger, the difference in per capita incomes is greater. [b]The per capita income of the top quintile, at Rs7,974 per month, is nearly 6.5 times that of the bottom quintile.[/b] Given the lower-income and the bigger household size, poorer households end up spending most of what they earn. The poorest quintile is able to save just 10% of household earnings. In contrast, the top quintile is able to save 47% of household earnings, the survey shows[/i]."
Of course, logic need not conform to reality as long as it suits your myopic worldview. Looking at the figure above, please help me understand how NLUs charging 10 lakh for 5 years are accessible even with a loan. Even if the education loan rate is at 10%, the annual interest in itself is not affordable to a three-quarter of the population and even in the top quintile they can barely afford to pay interest.
If JGLS is affordable to 0.001%, NLUs are at max affordable to 1% of the population and while that may be a massive improvement, but calling something that is affordable only to 1% of the population as accessible is a tight slap on everyone else's face who cannot even dream of going to a NLU.
But for the top 3-4 NLUs how are any of the NLUs better situated at placing students than JGLS. Stats of RGNUL, RMLNLU, NLUO, HNLU etc are in the public domain and I don't see any material difference over there.
[quote]And you keep harping about the 'claim' that NLUs are accessible to everyone under the sun, even though nobody has made such a claim.[/quote]
JGLS hasn't made any claim of being accessible to all either but yet that is what I keep on hearing about a day in and out.
[quote]Random quotes about household income that have got nothing to do with the point being argued merely reveal your ignorance and arm-chair activism.
[/quote]
I apologize if I came across as harsh or unreasonable. I still don't understand how this is irrelevant? I had already stated that NLUs are more accessible in my response but still our of reach of the majority of the population. Of course, when you accuse others of being elitist and inaccessible, you can't do so without putting your house in proper order.
I don't understand why JGLS needs to be as equitable as a state-funded institution when it is neither legally nor morally obligated to do so. As for me being ignorant or an armchair activist, you assume a bit too much but this is not the right forum for that.
[quote]By the way, I had graduated from an NLU after having taken such a loan and paid it off in exactly the same manner. Despite my family income being around 2.5 lakhs a year.[/quote]
Good for you. My father is in defence services at a subordinate level, [b]not[/b] an officer. We were comparatively better off but by no way could have afforded JGLS without the full waiver. Post the tuition fee waiver, it was cheaper than the law school. I myself had got into GNLU but GNLU was an expensive option and one of the factors into consideration. JGLS also gave ample opportunities to earn at the campus. I was paid 7,000 per month for being a TA.
I stand with JGLS folks because at the end of the day they don't deserve the hatred they seem to get everywhere. I know the looks you get when you tell that your alma mater is Jindal. I work at one of the big law firms and I fail to see see how my colleagues from NLUs are any better off than someone taught at JGLS.
What's this you are talking about? Not trolling, just wish to understand how the government is meting out stepmotherly treatment to NLUs in comparison to JGLS.
[/quote]
Bcoz Modi govt gave Eminence status and autonomy to JGLS, not NLUs.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/naveen-jindal-commits-rs-1000-crores-to-expand-op-jindal-global-university-6555691.html
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26EjjFPjq5Y[/youtube]
I doubt if Rajkumar will admit this to Kian, but it seems likely.
https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/indias-institutions-of-eminence-allowed-to-set-foreign-campuses-ugc-releases-guidelines/story/427499.html
In fact, JGLS was initially meant to start in Bangalore itself, and when Mr Jindal faced issues with the land acquisition process and did not receive the kind of support he was expecting from the state government, Sonipat was chosen to be the destination. The cause was only helped by the fact that Bhupinder Hooda, the CM at that time has cordial relations with Jindal and was in midst of establishing Sonipat as a premier place for education (Read about the Rajiv Gandhi Educational City in Sonipat - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Gandhi_Education_City).
Haryana Private University Act, under which JGU was formed was amended to ensure that C. Raj Kumar the current VC doesn't have to leave his position. There is a lot more than meets the eye in running a university and it is for these reasons I see it unlikely that JGLS will expand anywhere else. They already have a satellite campus in Delhi for weekend sessions and administrative work but beyond that I doubt they will expand it further especially considering the fact that so far being in Sonipat, the growth they have shown, there seems to be no handicap with regard to their growth.
Universities need land, people, access to utilities such as power, water etc and for each of these, there are 1000s of governmental regulation that you need to tackle.
Sometimes, I feel tired of how little the lawyers know about the ground realities of doing business in India. No wonder most Indian businesses trust have a very different relationship with their CA than the one they have with their lawyer.
I hope the 1000 crores is used to set up a world class medical and nursing school with advanced post graduate and R&D.
We need more well trained doctors and support staff.
Not everyone giving the LSAT-I will get a 100% scholarship, is that even in question? Do I need to explain what a scholarship means? As for official data on the subject, you're right, they should be more upfront about this information.
Also, this tribalistic worship of institutions that generally cater to a more elite class of students (yes, NLUs aren't cheap either, especially for public universities), is stupid. See what costs you the least and question the larger institutional problems at hand.
Other than the above stated, there are a select few and highly competitive positions to get into of TA and other admin jobs where they pay 10-12k per month.
5154. SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI:
Will the Minister LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:
(a) whether the Government proposes to nationalize the National Law Universities (NLUs) and providing them the same status as accorded to other National Institutes and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the Government is planning to undertake measures to provide adequate complaint mechanism in NLUs keeping in mind the constant strikes and protests therein and if so, the details thereof along with the complaints/protests during the last two years; and
(c) whether the Government is proposing to provide uniform academic standards and centralized funding to reckon with the problems in the NLUs and if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (c) There is no proposal before the government to nationalize National Law Universities. The management of NLUs is done by them and the academic curriculum and standards is decided by them in consultation with the Bar Council of India.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0RUvuKs8-k]
https://www.livemint.com/education/news/naveen-jindal-to-invest-rs-1000-crore-to-expand-jindal-global-university-11613984344132.html
https://www.livemint.com/education/news/naveen-jindal-to-invest-rs-1000-crore-to-expand-jindal-global-university-11613984344132.html
https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/delhi/2021/feb/23/on-12th-year-of-founding-university-to-get-rs-1000-crore-investment-from-jindal-2267715.html
JGLS was, is and always will be a college for the wealthiest.
The university is called 'Jindal' global law school
Its like NJ's baby
Why will NJ donate to NLUs? Is everybody a saint? No. Cause he's not obligated, no khali fukat ka CSR
Instead he will donate to JGU to make JGU better in terms of education