A Kolkata-based corporate group has given grants to 14 colleges in West Bengal and one college in Jharkhand so that they could upgrade their libraries and laboratories and turn them into knowledge centres. The grants were handed over to the colleges during a programme held in the city last week and Rs 2 lakh each were given to them under the corporate group's project called 'Gyandhara'. The amount is meant to be used for infrastructural development such as upgrading, renovating or building a library/laboratory or acquiring new books/equipment, an official of the corporate group said. Teams comprising experts visited the institutions and decided to give them financial help after visiting the libraries and computer centres where there was immediate need for buying more books, setting up online cataloguing system and upgrading of the computer system, a spokesperson of the corporate group said. While most of these colleges in West Bengal are located in suburbs, one college is located in Kolkata. "Education is a key to the progress of any country and is a powerful tool of empowerment.
We believe that providing proper infrastructure is a very important factor that will help every student with suitable opportunity in pursuing his or her academics and career aspirations by setting up these Knowledge Centres," Prosanto Chandra said on behalf of the group. "We have got the cheque. This financial grant will enrich our college library through online catalogue searching which will be immensely helpful for our girl students," the principal of Hooghly Women's College Sima Banerjee said.
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