Gujarat's GIFT City has formed a three-member expert committee comprising eminent academicians for scrutiny and evaluation of applications from foreign universities keen on setting up their offshore campuses in India. The committee formed in late January is headed by Prof Sudhir Jain, founding director of IIT, Gandhinagar (IITGN) and present Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, and includes Prof Rajat Moona, current IITGN director, and Prof Pramath Raj Sinha, founding dean of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and founder and trustee at Ashoka University. The GIFT City, Gandhinagar, through International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), on February 23 notified applications for setting up International Branch Campuses or Offshore Education Centres under the IFSCA Regulations, 2022. “The GIFT City recently formed the expert committee after the government notified the rules in October 2022. The members are well known educationists from across the country who are recognised by the government,” Tapan Ray, Managing Director and Group CEO of GIFT City, told The Indian Express. In over one month since its formation, the committee has already met thrice — both offline and online — to understand the functioning and mandate of the panel, the logistics, among other things. The most recent meeting was held in the third week of February to look into the application of Australia’s Deakin University, the first foreign institute that showed interest in setting up its independent campus in the country. Though there is no mandate on the frequency of meetings, the committee is likely to meet once in a month and as and when there are applications. The official announcement about Deakin University campus in GIFT-City will be made by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his two-day visit to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar on March 8 and 9. On the status of Deakin University’s application, Prof Moona said, “We have had two rounds of meetings with Deakin University. They have given presentations both the times. The process of forwarding them to the GIFT City Board of Directors is still under process.” Tapan Ray confirmed, “No applications have so far been forwarded by the expert committee.” Deakin University has submitted two postgraduate programmes to the committee — cybersecurity and management. They are planning about 100-150 students in the first year. They have proposed to get the faculty from both India and Australia. Initially, they will get their faculty from Australia but later source them locally. Deakin University Vice-Chancellor visited the GIFT City on February 17 to attend meeting with the expert committee. “The GIFT City is working on at least two-three more applications. They are currently being scrutinised. Some may have shown initial expression but may not have submitted the applications. GIFT City had reached out to several universities. They might be getting applications now,” Prof Moona said. Sources in the state government revealed that initially the regulatory authority — IFSCA — was keen to get into the scrutiny process but was asked to maintain a distance due to “conflict of interest”. The applications are first scrutinised by GIFT City officials; if they contain all the information they are forwarded to the expert committee for discussion where the applicants are supposed to give presentations. After that, the committee makes recommendations, which are then forwarded to the GIFT City Board of Directors. The committee has been given the mandate to look into the requirements in whichever aspect it wants to. “The idea is check if they meet the goals and are they robust. They should not become fly-by-night operators. If somebody comes and two years later just runs away what happens to our students? So there has to be a robust plan — both financial and academic. We look at their plan as in how many students they would like to take in the first year and how would they progress in the second and third year and so on. They do not require an approval on the number of seats though,” Prof Moona said. According to the norms, the committee has to look into where the applicants are getting their faculty from, what is their plan for sourcing faculty, the quality of education, their plan for enrolling students and financially is their plan viable or not. The committee is not to talk in terms of the number of seats, as it concerns the applicants' commercial interest; the more students they enroll the higher will be their revenue. Deakin University has four campuses across Melbourne (Burwood), Geelong (Waurn Ponds and Waterfront) and Warrnambool. As per the regulations, the university will have to use the same or similar name for their Indian campus. IIT-Kanpur connect All three members of the expert panel have IIT-Kanpur connect. While Prof Jain and Prof Moona are faculty at IIT-Kanpur, Prof Sinha and Prof Moona are its alumni. Dr Sudhir Jain was appointed BHU Vice-Chancellor in 2022. Before that, he held the position of founding director of IITGN for three terms since June 2009 and was the dean of resource planning and generation at IIT-Kanpur. Prof Moona holds a BTech in electrical engineering from IIT-Kanpur (1981-1985) and a PhD in computer science from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (1985-1989). Before joining IITGN, Prof Moona served as a faculty of computer science and engineering at IIT-Kanpur. He has also served as Director of IIT-Bhilai and Director General of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. Prof Moona has been instrumental in defining some of the key applications for the country such as the smart card driving licence, vehicle registration, e-passport, electronic toll collection, mobility card, etc. He is an active member of the Technical Expert Committee of the Election Commission for EVMs and has been instrumental in defining the EVMs and VVPAT. He has also contributed in defining the national voter service portal and national electoral search for voters. Prof Sinha completed his BTech in Metallurgy in 1986 from IIT-Kanpur and then went on to do his Masters' and PhD in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his PhD, Sinha worked in McKinsey & Company for 12 years and was a partner in the firm. He took a year off from McKinsey & Company to serve as the founding dean of ISB from June 2001 to June 2002.
