Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 17: The proposal to upgrade the Xavier Institute of Management to a university has received the approval of chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik, who has directed the law department to facilitate the process of making the ambitious project a reality.

The law department had kept the proposal on hold since 2009 because of certain legal issues, which The Telegraph reported on October 9.

According to the procedure, an institute, in order to be converted into a university, must de-affiliate itself from the varsity, of which it is a constituent member. Authorities of the law department said they could not approve the project since the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) was neither affiliated to any university nor was under the University Grants Commission (UGC). XIMB is a part of the Jesuit Society, which has colleges and varsities across the world.

The law officials had also raised objections to the procurement of 35 acres on lease by XIMB from the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation for 90 years. They had argued that the corporation could provide land only for industrial purposes and XIMB was in no way an industry.

Patnaik, however, said the corporation could provide land for educational purposes as well. “It was reasoned that technical institutes were incidental to industry and the corporation could give land for educational purposes as well,” said secretary of the higher education Gagan Kumar Dhal.

While directing the department to expedite the file work, Patnaik has also asked the XIMB authorities to increase the endowment fund for the project. The premier B-school had, in its proposal, mentioned an endowment fund of Rs 3 crore, which a law official said was “meagre” according to a 2005 Supreme Court ruling.

The authorities said they would abide by the amount fixed by the higher education department regarding the endowment fund. They also clarified that the institute had attained the approval of the All India Council for Technical Education for its programmes.

“We did not have the council’s approval in 2009, because our institute has been set up on forestland. But now, we have received due approval following an Orissa High Court order,” said XIMB director Father P.T. Joseph.