AURO UNIVERSITY

Business Overview

• Auro University is a private university at Hazira, Surat, Gujarat, promoted by the Rama family of the JHM Hotels group (USA) and inspired by the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh.
• It originated as "Auro University of Hospitality and Management", per Gujarat High Court case records and a Gazette notification referencing a Section 25 (now Section 8) body corporate, and has since grown into a multi-disciplinary university offering programs through seven schools: School of Business, School of Information Technology, School of Hospitality Management, School of Law, School of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences, School of Design, and School of Journalism & Mass Communication, plus SAILC, Sri Aurobindo Integral Learning Centre.
• It is reported, unverified, single low-reliability source — a Facebook post, to have been the first UGC-approved university in South Gujarat.
• Source: aurouniversity.edu.in, Gujarat High Court records via Indian Kanoon.

Sector & Classification

Education — private university (classified "not-for-profit private" / Section 8 company per Tofler and KnowYourGST "Company U/S 8")

Directors & Key Management

GST Registrations

Primary GSTIN: 24AAGCA4964J1ZI (Gujarat, state code 24). PAN: AAGCA4964J. Registration type: Company under Section 8 (non-profit company) per KnowYourGST. Only 1 GST registration found (Gujarat only — single-campus entity), registered approximately 01/07/2017 per an FnShift Solutions snippet. Status not independently confirmed as Active/Cancelled beyond the listing existing. Confirmed via 2 sources (KnowYourGST, FnShift Solutions/Google snippet).

Financials

Funding History

• Not applicable — Auro University is a not-for-profit Section 8 company, educational institution, not an equity-funded startup.
• No VC/PE funding rounds found.
• It is capitalized/backed as a wholly-owned subsidiary of its promoter group entity, see Shareholding/Related parties, rather than through funding rounds.

Shareholding

• Not obtained as a current shareholding table, Section 8 companies have members, not conventional shareholders, and MCA-style shareholding pages are blocked sources.
• However, CARE Ratings press releases provide historical ownership context: a 26 Feb 2019 CARE release states "Auro University, 100% subsidiary of ADCPL, is operational.
• GJHM [Gujarat JHM Hotels Ltd] now holds 100% equity in Auro University," and a later CARE release, 18 Dec 2024, on Gujarat JHM Hotels Private Limited, describes "GJHPL has two wholly owned subsidiaries: Auro University (AU) ... and Regency Rent a Cab Private Limited." Net: Auro University functions as a 100%-owned subsidiary/group entity of Gujarat JHM Hotels Private Limited (GJHPL), part of the JHM Hotels group (USA)/Rama family.
• Source: CARE Ratings press releases, careratings.com, found via search snippets — full PDFs not directly retrievable, so treat as partial.

Loans & Charges

• Per Tofler, single source, partial — not cross-verified: Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited holds 2 charges totaling ₹61.5 crore — ₹60.0 crore, created 25 June 2019, and ₹1.5 crore, created 06 July 2020. Current open/satisfied status of these charges not confirmed.

Related Parties

• Group structure per CARE Ratings press releases, careratings.com, search snippets: Parent — Gujarat JHM Hotels Private Limited, GJHPL, earlier "Gujarat JHM Hotels Limited"/GJHM, part of the JHM Hotels group of the USA, promoted by the Rama family.
• GJHPL's other wholly-owned subsidiary: Regency Rent a Cab Private Limited.
• An intermediate holding reference "ADCPL" also appears in a 2019 release as an earlier 100% parent before GJHM.
• A separate entity "Auro Sundram International Private Limited", food/food-processing business, appeared in a CARE annexure alongside Auro University but its exact relationship to Auro University was not confirmed — flagged as a possible but unverified group-name overlap, entity-confusion risk, do not treat as confirmed related party.

Credit Ratings

• CARE Ratings (CareEdge) has rated Auro University's bank facilities multiple times: press releases dated 01 Apr 2020, 31 Mar 2021, 21 Mar 2022, and 15 Mar 2023, "Auro University (Revised)", plus an earlier Gujarat JHM Hotels-linked release on 26 Feb 2019.
• A CARE Annexure (15 Oct 2020) lists "Auro University — Education — Term Loan — 600.0 [amount, units unclear in snippet] — Unlisted — CARE BBB-
• Stable." Exact current-year grade/amount not independently confirmed beyond this snippet, PDFs could not be directly retrieved in this session, — treat as partial/directional, rating in the BBB- band as of ~2020, with subsequent reaffirmations/revisions through 2023 whose exact grades are not confirmed here.
• No ICRA or CRISIL ratings found.

Legal & Compliance

• Gujarat High Court, Ahmedabad: "Auro University of Hospitality and Management vs.
• State of Gujarat," Special Civil Application No.
• 14353 of 2017 — a fee-regulation dispute, with multiple orders: 03 Aug 2017 (S.G.
• Shah, J.), 01 Nov 2017 and 20 Dec 2017 (N.V.
• Anjaria, J.), 15 Feb 2018 (R.M.
• Chhaya, J.), 11 Mar 2019, 07 May 2019 and 22 Aug 2019 (Bela M.
• Trivedi, J.), and 26 Aug 2019 (Bhargav D.
• Karia, J.).
• A related case, "Society of Higher Education vs.
• Gujarat University," references Auro University for fee-approval comparisons.
• Source: Indian Kanoon.

Competitive Landscape

• Comparable private universities in Gujarat, regional peers, similar-to-larger scale, not individually source-verified for this comparison — based on sector/region context: Parul University, Vadodara, much larger multi-discipline private university, Navrachana University (Vadodara), Ganpat University (Mehsana), Marwadi University (Rajkot), Nirma University, Ahmedabad, larger and more established, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, design/planning-focused, smaller.
• Within Auro's hospitality-management heritage, IIHM, International Institute of Hotel Management, campuses are also relevant niche peers.

Frequently Asked Questions