BANGALORE, INDIA: Infosys co-founder and the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini Nilekani have announced a gift of Rs.. 50 crore ($ 11 million) to the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) to fund the establishment of its School of Environment and Sustainability.

“IIHS is at the convergence of both our interests in education, urbanization and sustainability. We are excited about contributing to an institution which will help people engage with new challenges in an innovative and interdisciplinary manner,” Nandan and Rohini Nilekani said in a statement on Monday.

IIHS said this is one of the largest gifts in India’s history for a new school at a prospective national university.

Expressing the institute's deep appreciation of this gift, IIHS Board and its Director, Aromar Revi said India is returning to a tradition of philanthropy to build independent national institutions for the common good.

“Rohini and Nandan Nilekani’s support to IIHS’s School of Environment and Sustainability is in the spirit that created some of India’s greatest universities almost a century ago. We hope we can match up to this aspiration,” said Aromar Revi.

IIHS said this is a major step in a Rs.. 300 crore ($ 67 million) IIHS resource mobilization campaign to fund five interdisciplinary schools, one of South Asia’s largest reference and digital libraries and other facilities for its Bangalore campus. An additional Rs.. 100 crore ($ 22 million) will be raised for chair professorships.