Ashoka University gets largest donation of Rs 250 crore from Harish and Bina Shah foundation

NEW DELHI: Ashoka University received the largest donation of Rs 250 crore from the Harish and Bina Shah Foundation. The grant is focused on driving teaching and research excellence in the humanities disciplines including languages, literature, history and philosophy and supporting interdisciplinary research initiatives in the social and natural sciences at the university. The grant will be deployed over a period of five years to accelerate the university’s growth.

HBSF is a private charitable foundation based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2002 by Harish and Bina Shah, of Signet Excipients Pvt Ltd, a pharmaceutical raw materials business.

The HBSF donation will be especially directed to strengthen the undergraduate and graduate programmes across humanities, while promoting global collaborations and supporting interdisciplinary research initiatives in areas connected with social and natural sciences, such as development economics, artificial intelligence, technology for society and healthcare among others.

“As Ashoka University embarks upon its next phase of growth towards being a global research-focused university, we at the Harish and Bina Shah Foundation are honoured to support one of the most important institutions shaping Indian higher education. As a foundation, one of our goals is to promote world-class education and research through Indian-origin institutions, and in Ashoka University we find an ideal partner,” said Harish Shah, director, HBSH.

“Investing in home-grown institutions is fundamental to our nation’s growth and social development as it provides great opportunities for quality higher education, retention of top talent locally, and bringing international academic expertise to India – among many other benefits. We look forward to building a meaningful and long-lasting association with the University and its partners,” he added.

“Today, we are at a very exciting phase at Ashoka, where we are venturing into some unique areas of interdisciplinary research where humanities play a major role. We are also entering into collaborations for education and research with noted global institutions, and simultaneously scaling our capacity to serve more students. Given our world-class infrastructure and high quality of faculty and students, Ashoka is uniquely positioned to produce outstanding scholarship in India. The grant by HBSF will contribute towards building a global institution of excellence in and for India and we are very excited about the possibilities it creates for Ashoka”, said Professor Somak Raychaudhury, Vice Chancellor, Ashoka University.