Art of Living to enlighten Orissa

Bhubaneswar: The Art of Living has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for setting up a multi-faculty university in Orissa.

The MoU was signed between the government and Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir (SSRVM) Trust, educational initiatives of the Art of Living, in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

Yezdi Batliwala, trustee of SSRVM and Shri Ashok Kumar Tripathi, commissioner cum secretary, higher education, government of Orissa, signed the MoU in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The curricula of the university, to be named Sri Sri University of Art of Living, will be a blend of both traditional and modern. Traditional subjects such as ayurveda, yoga and spirituality will be taught along with emergent disciplines such as basic science, medicine, management, information technology, media studies, biotechnology, engineering, aviation and law.

"This is an initiative in value education aimed at building responsible future citizens. The vision is to produce global leaders who are firmly rooted in Indian culture and ethos," Sri Sri said after the signing ceremony, which attended by several ministers, bureaucrats and other officials.

Lauding the efforts of Sri Sri, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said it was apt that His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has chosen Orissa to establish a world-class university and fulfill his dream of a stress-free crime-free society. The university will impart stress-free education and transform the future generation into responsible citizens, he added. He assured all the supports of the state government.

Regretting that 17 per cent of the country's graduates and 51 per cent of postgraduates were unemployed, Sri Sri said the present educational system is designed for white-collar jobs.

"This is where we will make a difference. Those passing out of the proposed university would rekindle enthusiasm among the youth and serve the needs of society in the field of science, technology, arts, humanities and spirituality," said Sri Sri.

The university will have a core campus with facilities to house over 15,000 students and 1,500 faculty members. It will have centres of excellence driving research in areas such as rural economics, rural development, alternative energy sources, public policy, ayurveda, agriculture, etc.