Hyderabad's Osmania University (OU) has received Rs 1.5 crore from the CSR funds of the Transmission Corporation of Telangana Limited (TSTRANSCO) and Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TSGENCO) on Thursday, April 7. The amount will contribute to the construction of a girls' hostel for SC, ST and OBC students, said the university in a statement. In the 100+ years of the university's existence, this is the first time a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) grant has been issued to OU.

OU's Vice-Chancellor Prof D Ravinder had set out to gather funds for the project, which could cost a total of Rs 58 crore and had approached the Member of Legislative Council (MLC) of Nizamabad, K Kavitha, who then brought the matter to the notice of D Prabhakar Rao, Chairman, TS TRANSCO and TS GENCO. In a statement, the varsity and the VC extended their gratitude to the MLC, TS TRANSCO and TS GENCO for their contribution.

"We are also approaching some more corporate companies for funds. We require about Rs 20 crore more to get this project going. We would also like to thank the state government, which has enhanced the budget allocation this year to Rs 65 crore. Some of this money will also be utilised for the hostel," the VC shares. 

Apart from this, OU reportedly needs at least two more girls' hostels with a capacity of 500 students each, in addition to the seven it already has. "One of the boys' hostels was recently converted to a girls' hostel, but it was still not sufficient," says Prof Ravinder.

A girls' hostel was also inaugurated recently at Nizam College in the city, under the HMDA funds, and OU has plans to shift about 350 students there soon.