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The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, with the Chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Mr Anil Ambani, at the Writers Building in Kolkata on Friday. - A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata , Feb. 10

THE Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) on Friday entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the West Bengal Government for setting up Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communications Technology at Kalyani near here.

The proposed institute, which would be the first private university in West Bengal, would entail an investment of Rs 100 crore.

The West Bengal Government has allotted 50 acres to ADAG for the institute. The institute would offer courses at the graduate, post-graduate and PhD levels.

The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the Chairman of ADAG, Mr Anil Ambani, were present at the MoU signing ceremony held at the state administrative headquarters of Writers' Buildings here.

While Mr Jwahar Sirkar, Principal Secretary in West Bengal's Department of Higher Education, signed the MoU on behalf of the State Government, Mr Rajesh Tiwari, Director of ADAG, signed on behalf of the ADAG.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bhattacharjee said the State government had been in talks with the Reliance Group for some time now for setting up an IT training institute similar to one in Gandhinagar.

He said the institute in in "memory of the late Dhirubhai Ambani" would help generate the human resources required by the growing IT sector in the State.

Mr Ambani said the institute would be "up, operational and running" within 18 months . "Typical of my father's style, this will be a fast-track project," he said.

Mr Ambani said India needed knowledge professionals who could facilitate the creation of wealth. He described this initiative as his "first endeavour in knowledge creation in the state of West Bengal".

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