Capital compounds for decades, Education compounds for generations.
No asset compounds longer than a mind and nothing compounds minds like a university. Its returns accrue to people not yet born; its duration is measured in centuries, not fund cycles.
The Varma Centre, Ashoka University
Ashoka is founded collectively: more than three hundred founders, and no monuments. Dr. Amit Varma joined that collective as a Trustee — not a name above the gate, but a founder among founders, with the accountability that implies.
India's first interdisciplinary centre for planetary health, the Varma Centre is named in the memory of Dr. Amit’s father, Dr Ajit Varma. Our role at Ashoka is more than capital: time, judgement and conviction, committed across the university. It runs to teaching and curriculum — scientific rigour made translational and employable — to the career pathways and industry partnerships that decide what a degree is worth after graduation, and to the incubation that carries research from lab bench to balance sheet.
The Varma Centre is where those threads converge.
The planet’s health and ours studied as on one
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Air, heat, water, food — the largest determinants of health are planetary, and the least studied. India bears the heaviest burden, with the fewest institutions built for it. Ashoka will have the first.
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Depth before breadth: 2 flagship problems first — (a) climate and health systems, and (b) pollution and exposure science.
A director, advisory board, and venture studio from day one; all else earns its way through stage gates.
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The reference institution for South Asia — the region’s first Master’s and doctorate in the field, discovery carried to venture and to policy, and a gift that becomes a magnet for the likeminded founders and funders.