A Rs 382.35 crore budget for 2011-12, making few provisions worth a mention, other than the allocation for a new technology department, an integrated MTech-PhD course and the Pune University Network (till recently known as the Triple Connectivity), was tabled before the senate of the University of Pune (UoP) on Sunday.

The overall provision is up by Rs 73.47 crore, over the Rs 308.88 crore budget that was presented for 2010-11. The projected deficit, too, has gone up from Rs 86.95 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 100.17 crore for the impending financial year.

Moving the budget proposal, director of UoP's board of college and university development W N Gade said, the deficit ought to be viewed closely in terms of the long-term investments made by the university towards meeting the challenges of the emerging knowledge-based society and creating capable human skill set.

Gade made specific mention about the new technology department and an inter-disciplinary MTech-PhD integrated course to be run under the same. A substantial provision of Rs 5.85 crore has been made under the development and maintenance heads. This includes Rs 5 crore for a new building to house the tech department.

Similarly, the Pune University Network project has been allocated Rs 11.15 crore under the development head and Rs 2.63 crore under the maintenance head.

Another Rs 3 crore allocation is made for new academic initiatives, while Rs 3 crore have been earmarked for grant of MPhil and PhD scholarships. A provision of Rs 10 crore each has been made for the proposed new convention centre and the sports complex.

Gade spoke about the initiatives to strengthen the existing bandwidth capacity on UoP campus, and push initiatives such as wireless network and connectivity. The varsity has reaffirmed its commitment to push research initiatives by way of an allocation of Rs 8 crore. Among the student-centric initiatives, Rs 2.40 crore have been allocated for the soft skill training programme, while Rs 1.57 crore and Rs 1.45 crore have been allocated to the student hostels and the International Students Centre.

The Students Welfare Board, which drives most of the student-centric programmes of the university, has received Rs 7.30 crore allocation, which is down by Rs 20 lakh from the Rs 7.50 crore that was made last year.