India, July 9 -- A senior minister, grateful to his alma mater for "shaping his political and public career", has urged the trust that runs the college to apply for autonomous university status. The suggestion came from Maharashtra's higher and technical education minister, Chandrakant Patil, at an event to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the People's Education Society (PES), on Tuesday.

Patil, an alumnus of Siddharth College run by the PES in Mumbai, said the trust has educated generations through its colleges, hostels and academic programmes over the last eight decades. Founded by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1945, the trust is now well-positioned to transition into a university, he remarked. "Becoming an autonomous university will empow...