News for all Mumbai MP members...............
Mumbai Univ may seek stock market listing
MUMBAI: When finance minister P Chidambaram said he wanted to make Mumbai Asia's financial hub, he certainly wouldn't have imagined the folks at Mumbai University latching on to every word of his.
But quite obviously, they did. Why else would a proposal come up to convert the university into a company and get itself listed on the stock exchange?
The idea, which some experts politely described as "unusual", is among nine new initiatives chalked out by the university's top brass for the coming academic year.
"Several universities in developed countries have listed themselves on the stock markets. Of late, several prominent universities in China and Korea have followed suit. University of Mumbai will be the first Indian state university to do so," said the ebullient vice-chancellor, Vijay Khole.
While several universities in the UK, Australia and China have their shares traded on the US Nasdaq, most of these are privately-run institutions owned by corporate groups.
There is no existing model for a subsidised, state-run university to go public. For a 150-year-old university, among the first to be set up in India, the listing is seen as a prelude to raising funds from the market for future expansion.
How that squares with the institution's objective to provide quality higher education without a profit motive is unclear.
Source: TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2007 10:34:54 AM]
Mumbai Univ may seek stock market listing
MUMBAI: When finance minister P Chidambaram said he wanted to make Mumbai Asia's financial hub, he certainly wouldn't have imagined the folks at Mumbai University latching on to every word of his.
But quite obviously, they did. Why else would a proposal come up to convert the university into a company and get itself listed on the stock exchange?
The idea, which some experts politely described as "unusual", is among nine new initiatives chalked out by the university's top brass for the coming academic year.
"Several universities in developed countries have listed themselves on the stock markets. Of late, several prominent universities in China and Korea have followed suit. University of Mumbai will be the first Indian state university to do so," said the ebullient vice-chancellor, Vijay Khole.
While several universities in the UK, Australia and China have their shares traded on the US Nasdaq, most of these are privately-run institutions owned by corporate groups.
There is no existing model for a subsidised, state-run university to go public. For a 150-year-old university, among the first to be set up in India, the listing is seen as a prelude to raising funds from the market for future expansion.
How that squares with the institution's objective to provide quality higher education without a profit motive is unclear.
Source: TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2007 10:34:54 AM]