[4] [5] [6] Anil Agarwal, an Indian businessman, who heads the London based Vedanta Resources corporation and Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha state in eastern India, had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a world class, multidisciplinary university, Vedanta University.

[9] The foundation has identified 6,000 acres (24 km2) of land near the Puri-Konark marine drive between Nuanai and Balighai for the proposed Vedanta University.

However the land acquisition for the university has hit a roadblock with the Supreme court ordering a status quo and hence the project has been stayed.

In May 2010, Government of India asked the Anil Agarwal Foundation to stall the construction of the proposed Vedanta University at Puri to address issues related to environmental violations in the project.

[15] On 16 November 2010, the Orissa High Court declared the land acquisition for the Rs 15,000-crore Vedanta University project in Puri town as illegal and void[16] [17][18] [19] A couple of months later, the Supreme court of India based in New Delhi ordered a stay or status Quo on all acquisition proceedings.

He also gave an interview [22] (in Odia) to OTV, a major cable channel in Odisha, where he addressed many questions that were raised by the media on this issue.

[24] However, prior to that, in the previous years (2012, 2013), Anil Agarwal in some of his interviews did talk about his continuing interest in establishing Vedanta University.