VC’s Desk.

Greetings.

The Gandhigram Rural Institute (GRI), established as a separate entity for rural higher education way back in 1956 by the adherent of Gandhiji namely Dr.G.Ramachandran and Dr.T.S.Soundaram Ramachandran under the auspicious of Government of India. The Institute is fully funded by Government of India since its inception. The Institute is a centrally controlled Deemed to be a University under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The Governing Body of the Institute is headed by the Hon’ble Union Minister for HRD.

The main objective of the university is to uplift rural students, rural people and villages through integrated rural development services by focusing on education, skill development, health and sanitation, agriculture, empowerment of rural institutions and women and by adopting constructive programme as envisioned by Gandhiji’s.

The Institute was started only with less than 100 students under 5 departments at the time of its inception. Now, the Institute has 30 multi disciplinary academic centres with 3700 students hailing from different parts of the country. The Institute offers various academic programmes from Certificate to Doctoral studies, PDF, D.Sc./D.Litt. Nearly, 24000 graduates have so far passed out from GRI. In addition to the academic and skill development programmes, students are taught with moral and ethical values as desired by Mahatma Gandhi.

The Institute was accredited thrice by NAAC with ‘A’ grades. It secured 79th Rank in NIRF, 83rd Rank in Web of Institute, 43rd Rank in research quality among Deemed to be Universities. These achievements speak in volumes about the quality of teaching, research and outreach programmes of the Institute. Apart from these, the Institute has received Green Award from Tamil Nadu Government (2017) and Appreciation Award from the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) (2018) for maintenance of serene campus environment and effective use of renewable energy resources. The Institute has received TVN-KIDAO Award (2018) meant for Outstanding Educational Institutions from National Institution for Quality and Reliability in the 16th NIQR Global Quality Convention held in August, 2018.

The Institute’s outreach programmes have helped thousands of rural people including SHGs, rural youth, school dropouts, rural women and children, farmers and village panchayat functionaries in terms of empowerment both economically and socially.

It is one among a few institutions in the country which actively implemented GoI programmes namely Digital India, Skill India, Make in India, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and Doubling the income of farmers.

The Institute was empanelled as National Level Monitors (NLMs) for monitoring the flagship schemes implemented by Ministries of Rural Development & Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India since the year 2015.

Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, the former President of India visited the campus thrice and wanted to serve as a Visiting Professor. While IITs and IIMs are well known for Technologies and Management, the zeal for GRI is on Rural Development.

The faculty, staff and students of this institute feel proud of being associated with GRI (DTBU) for its uniqueness, historicity and national characters.

The Institute celebrates 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi for a period of one year starting from 2nd October, 2018.