Shiv Nadar Foundation scouting for land in UP

Shiv Nadar Foundation is scouting for 40 acres in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP) for its educational initiative, VidyaGyan. The Foundation has already invested Rs 500 crore in VidyaGyan, which runs two boarding schools at Bulandshahr and Sitapur districts for underprivileged rural children.

"We have planned to open another school in eastern UP and are on the lookout for about 40 acres of a congruous stretch of land in any of the three districts of Varanasi, Allahabad and Gorakhpur," Foundation trustee and VidyaGyan's management board chairman T S R Subramanian, also a former Union cabinet secretary, told Business Standard.

VidyaGyan schools follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus and conduct classes from VI to XII. The students are picked up from the government schools on merit and, upon selection, are offered quality education free of cost until standard XII.

The Foundation aims that VidyaGyan would not only be successful in providing quality education to poor children, but its model would be replicated by other philanthropists and even governments.

"On an average, we spend over Rs 1 lakh on each student every year on education, boarding, lodging, clothing, etc. This way, the foundation would spend nearly Rs 10 lakh on every student during the seven-year period in school," he informed.