Azim Premji Foundation medical college and hospital will come at Itki near Ranchi.

Jharkhand cabinet on Monday evening gave its nod for setting up of a medical college and hospital at the nearly 150-acre land in Itki which will also house the foundation’s biggest university.

Significantly, the foundation had inked a pact with the Jharkhand higher and technical education department in Ranchi in September last year for the university.

“We already have a university at Bangalore and Bhopal and hope to start the university in Ranchi in July 2024. It will be a multi-disciplinary institution catering to students of eastern India. It would be our biggest university so far committed to serve the society through direct contribution to education research,” foundation CEO Anurag Behar had then informed the media.

Azim Premji Foundation state head Kailash Chandra Kandpal said the 500-bed tertiary hospital would be functional in the next three years and the medical college would be functional two years after the hospital starts operation.

“It would be a tertiary hospital and the medical college would also have a philanthropic aspect catering to meritorious but marginalised, tribal students who will be given free education. Our work on the university has already begun,” said Kandpal.

Sources in the chief minister secretariat revealed that as part of the MoU, five per cent seats in the university will be reserved for students from economically weaker sections, while 25 per cent seats will be reserved for students from Jharkhand.