View from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research- Tirupati. Photo: Special Arrangements
The highlight of Tirupati as a famous temple town needs no explanation. This temple has been venerated for more than a millennium and attracts millions of devotees every year. However, the temple town has been slowly and steadily transformed into a center of higher learning over the past seventy years. When Andhra Pradesh bifurcated, Tirupati became the largest academic hub in the State, with many important educational institutions, including State universities, private universities and institutions of national importance.
beginning
While Osmania University in Hyderabad and Andhra University in Visakhapatnam catered to the educational needs of the Telangana and Coastal Andhra regions of neo-independent India, the lack of such facilities was felt in the Rayalaseema region, which was far from the mainland. Higher education naturally flourished in the Nizam-ruled state of Hyderabad.
As the Chennai – Kolkata national highway passes through the fertile coastal region, it flourishes in terms of prosperity and education. The largely backward and drought-prone Rayalaseema was left behind. The decision to establish a State University in this area was discussed when this glaring difference was felt in the corridors of power.
In 1954, Sri Venkateswara University was established in Tirupati, giving the much-needed fillip to the area that included the erstwhile districts. The rural youth of Rayalaseema, who till now had to go to Chennai, Bengaluru or Hyderabad for higher studies, are finding better options.
NTR initiative
After thespian NT Rama Rao plunged into politics and became the Chief Minister of the State within a year, he recognized the need for an all-women university to promote women’s education. He chose Tirupati for the same and laid the foundation stone for Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidylayam (Women’s University) in 1983. Today, it is the leading women-only university in the country and boasts high-end research and innovation facilities.
Finding inadequate and ineffective medical facilities in these backward areas, NTR again announced the need for a super-specialty hospital on the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to treat serious illnesses at affordable rates. Enlisting the services of the well-funded Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), he laid the foundation stone for the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) in 1986. SVIMS began functioning in 1993 and became a State University in 1995.
A view of the Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati (IIT-T) Yerpedu campus. Photo: Special Arrangements
Veterinary and Vedic University
While agriculture and veterinary science coexist in the full curriculum at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Hyderabad, then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy envisioned the establishment of a separate university to lay exclusive emphasis on the faculty of agriculture and veterinary science.
Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) was established in 2005 and the College of Veterinary Sciences campus, Tirupati, was selected for upgrading. In addition, the horticulture wing was separated from agriculture and the Andhra Pradesh Horticultural University was established at Venkataramannagudem in West Godavari in 2007, named after Dr. YSR in 2011.
While the Vedas are one of the earliest sacred texts known to man, their contents hardly reached the common people due to lack of language and knowledge. It was with the idea of ​​continuing research on Vedas and deciphering knowledge for the benefit of the masses that TTD established Sri Venkateswara Vedic University in 2006.
Thanks to the initiative of Governor Rameshwar Thakur, the university was formed under an act of the state legislature, with TTD as the sponsoring agency. The University is not only a binding force for the scores of Vedic Patashalas scattered across the country, but is also regarded as an institution of higher learning for scholars.
The impact of bifurcation
With the bifurcation of the State leaving the remaining State without institutions of national importance, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act mandated the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Tirupati. After Sri City became a thriving industrial and technical hub, the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) was also planned to be established there.
Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani laid the foundation stone for all three institutions in March 2015 at Yerpedu, in the presence of Union Ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu (Urban Development), YS Chowdary (Science and Technology) and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Nine years later, all three institutions of national importance have become a reality and have started functioning in their own permanent campuses, which are crowded with thousands of students.
Apart from this, there are private universities like KREA University (Sri City) and Mohan Babu University (Tirupati) which are highly sought after by students across the country. In short, Tirupati is no longer known only as a temple town, but as a place for the ‘temple of modern knowledge’.
