Reliance Industries Ltd is planning to invest around Rs 1,500 crore in its proposed university, Jio Institute, in the next two years, it has informed the government’s Empowered Expert Committee (EEC). The Indian conglomerate is looking to create a world-class centre of learning across 800 acres in Karjat near Navi Mumbai.

The Mukesh Ambani-led group also informed the government that it is in talks with the academic and institutional experts at Stanford University and Northwestern University in the US as well as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for setting up the facility, the Economic Times reported citing sources.

This development comes after the EEC, which is the monitoring authority for all Institutes of Eminence had in April voiced its displeasure to the Jio team over delays in opening the institute.

Ambanis’ Jio University which was the only Greenfield institute chosen as an Institute of Eminence by the NDA government in 2018 had been embroiled in a controversy in the past. There was a heated debate as many people and academicians questioned the government as to on what basis the Institute which doesn’t exist can be selected as an Institute of Eminence.