The University of Oxford, in collaboration with Lavasa Corporation, part of the Hindustan Construction Company [Get Quote], has announced plans to set up the Oxford University India Business Centre to be located at Sa�d Business School, Oxford. The centre will address major business issues through collaborative research between academics in Oxford, India and elsewhere. 

Besides the generation of research-based projects, the centre will be concerned with teaching and will provide doctoral programmes for students and scholarships for the university's degree programmes in Oxford. The centre also plans to develop a range of custom and open executive education programmes. These are expected to be delivered in India in early 2010 at a new facility in Lavasa, a hill station being developed by the Lavasa Corporation near Pune.

Speaking about the initiative, Professor Colin Mayer, dean of the Said Business School, said, "The purpose of the centre is to address major business policy questions in India through collaborative research between academics in Oxford and in India. We will welcome the involvement of both practitioners and visiting academics with the work of the centre, as well as the contributions of colleagues from throughout the University of Oxford, who have an interest in these issues."

Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of the Lavasa Corporation, and Dr John Hood, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, will sign the official Memorandum of Agreement at The World Economic Forum at Davos on January 25, 2008.