Spice to enter education, BPO sectors

RAMPUR (UP), INDIA: The Spice Group is diversifying into educational services with plans to set up a global university at Modipur in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh by 2012.

Group Chairman B.K. Modi told IANS here on Wednesday that the university will help propagate "holistic education".

"The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs.1,000 crore, of which Rs.100 crore will initially be pumped in to kickstart the project. The university, we expect, will be complete by 2012," he said.

To be built on nearly 100 acres at the site of the now defunct Modi Xerox factory, the university will be a part of S. Foundation.

"We feel there is a huge market in India in the education sector. In a country whose 50 percent population is below the age of 25, it makes a good business sense to foray into the education sector. We feel there is more scope in this market segment," Prakash Nanani, group president at Spice Corp., who is in charge of the project, told IANS.

The Group is also planning to set up a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit in Rampur, which will start its operations in the next three months.

Asked about providing reservation to the children of local people in the university, Modi said: "We already have a school operating here from which brilliant results are showing up. I don't think there's a need to provide reservations to them. However, financial assistance in the form of scholarships will be provided to the deserving candidates."