India's union cabinet approves central university in Ladakh

In a slew of decisions, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the setting up of a central university in the union territory of Ladakh, while also giving its nod to an integrated multi-purpose infrastructure development corporation.

The decision was taken at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an aim of addressing regional imbalances in higher education level and stimulating the intellectual current within the broader society of Ladakh.

"Cabinet approves establishment of a Central University in the Union Territory of #Ladakh," Jaideep Bhatnagar, principal director general of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), tweeted on Thursday.

In a press release, the Union government said, "The Cabinet also approved the creation of one post of Managing Director, for the corporation in the pay scale of ₹1,44,200- ₹2,18,200 level."

"The authorised share capital of the Corporation will be ₹25 crore and recurring expenditure will be around ₹2.42 crore per year. It is a new establishment. Presently, there is no such similar organisation within the newly formed UT of Ladakh," the release added.

The government said that the approval has the potential to generate employment as the corporation will be undertaking various developmental activities. "Corporation will work for industry, tourism, transport and marketing of local products and handicraft. Corporation will also work as main construction agency for infrastructure development in Ladakh," the press release added.

"The establishment of corporation will result in inclusive and integrated development of the Union Territory of Ladakh. This will, in turn, ensure socio-economic development of the entire region and population of the Union Territory. The impact of development will be multi-dimensional. It will help in further development of human resources and better utilisation thereof. It increases domestic production of goods and services and will facilitate their smooth supply. Thus, the approval will help in realising the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat."

The Cabinet also approved a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for specialty steel. The duration of the scheme will be five years, from 2023-24 to 2027-28. "With a budgetary outlay of ₹6,322 crore, the scheme is expected to bring in investment of approximately ₹40,000 crore and capacity addition of 25 MT for speciality steel. The scheme will give employment to about 525,000 people, of which 68,000 will be direct employment. Speciality steel has been chosen as the target segment because out of the production of 102 million tonnes steel in India in 2020-21, only18 million tonnes value added steel/speciality steel was produced in the country," the government said.