Punjab CM inaugurates Plaksha University to pioneer transformation of technology education in India

Mohali: Inaugurating India’s first next-generation engineering university in the country, Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, today, laid the foundation stone of Plaksha University’s 50-acre campus in Mohali. Plaksha University is founded on the collective vision of over forty technology entrepreneurs and industry leaders across five countries. Their vision is to build a Next Generation University at the intersection of technology, science and humanities to transform the world in the 21st Century.
Plaksha University is founded on the collective vision of over forty technology entrepreneurs and industry leaders across five countries. Their vision is to build a Next Generation University at the intersection of technology, science, and humanities to transform the world in the 21st Century.
“India is at a cusp of a technology revolution and there is dire need to support initiatives that nurture a new generation of technologist who will have the knowledge, skill and the temperament to harvest the benefits of accelerated technology to leapfrog India in its journey to becoming a global superpower”, Singh said on the eve of inauguration.
“Successful innovation-driven ecosystems are built around great universities, such as Stanford in the Silicon Valley, MIT in Boston, Technion in Israel. We are excited at the prospect of Plaksha replicating the same in Mohali and my government is committed to its success,” he added.
“As technology continues to deepen its impact on business and society, at Plaksha, we aim to create a playbook for a 21st century technology education in India, a paradigm shift to an interdisciplinary education that reimagines the pedagogy, curriculum, faculty, culture and process of learning”, said Plaksha Co-Founder and former Executive Vice Chairman, Tech Mahindra, Vineet Nayyar, who spent his formative years in Chandigarh as an IAS officer.
The vision of the founders is being guided by an Academic Advisory Board, which includes pre-eminent academic leaders at MIT, Princeton University, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Purdue University, Harvard Business School and IIT Delhi. “It is a time of change in higher education and this effort cannot come at a better time. Plaksha is truly reimagining higher education. In successful institutions globally, it is very hard to make big changes. Having a clean slate opportunity is an opportunity of a lifetime”, said Dr S. Shankar Sastry, former Dean of Engineering, UC Berkeley and Founding Academic Advisory Board member.