Nilekanis donate Rs50 crore to environment institute

UID chairman and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini have made a donation of Rs50 crore to the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) to fund the establishment of its school of environment and sustainability.

The gift comes as one of the largest for a new school at a prospective national university for urban studies. 

In a joint statement, the Nilekanis said, "IIHS is at the convergence of both our interests in education, urbanisation and sustainability. We are excited about contributing to an institution which will help people engage with new challenges in an innovative and inter-disciplinary manner." 

The Rs50 crore donation forms part of the Rs300 crore IIHS resource mobilisation campaign which would fund five inter-disciplinary schools, one of South Asia's largest reference and digital libraries and other facilities for its Bangalore campus. 

Additionally, Rs100 crore would be raised towards chair professorships. A group of eminent citizens including Xerxes Desai, Jamshyd Godrej, Cyrus Guzder, Deepak Parekh, Vijay Kelkar, Keshub Mahindra , Kishore Mariwala, Rahul Mehrotra, Bansi Mehta, Rakesh Mohan, Nandan Nilekani, Nasser Munjee, Renana Jhabvala, Shirish Patel and Deepak Satwalekar are part of the IIHS effort. 

The school of environment and sustainability would form part of the IIHS mother campus located on a 54-acre site in Kengeri. Work on the project which includes a 0.45 million sq ft campus is in the planning phase at the moment. The project would be delivered over the next five to seven years.