George Yeo is Nalanda Varsity Chancellor

Amartya Sen will be replaced by former foreign minister of Singapore George Yeo Yong-Boon as the next chancellor of Nalanda University. Sen quit earlier this year, blaming it on the delay in approval to his second stint.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup informed that George Yeo, former FM of Singapore is to be the new Chancellor of Nalanda University.

It is significant in several ways to appoint Yeo – it maintains Nalanda’s importance as an international university. It’s a fitting recognition of his contribution as Yeo has been the driving force of the whole project since its inception.

More important though, the Indian government wants a pair of hands at the helm of the university that can bring efficiency to the project. The MEA has been frustrated at the delay in the project and in 2013 appointed an official to maintain oversight of the project.

The university is likely to appoint a governing board as well, something it has not done for years, in violation of the Nalanda Act. This might even involve a change in the academic leadership of the university, including the vice chancellor.

Yeo (60), is currently serving as a member of the governing board of the prestigious university, was conferred Padma Bhushan in 2012.

Proposed in 2005, a number of member-countries of East Asia Summit grouping involved in the project, the university is being built near the ruins of the historic academic place in Bihar. The Nalanda University Act was enacted in 2010.