Akkineni Nageswara Rao College
ANR College (also known as Akkineni Nageswara Rao College) is located on the outskirts of Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, India. The college was founded in 1950 and continues to provide excellent education to over 3000 students every year.
History
Early History
ANR college is the result of the munificence and zeal for higher education of the people of Gudivada taluk and of the neighboring taluks in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, situated in a rich agricultural area midway between Vijayawada and Machilipatnam, well connected by road, rail and canal with the leading towns and villages in the district. Gudivada has always been a center of great cultural and political activity and its citizens have played a prominent part in the life of the nation GeneRally and in particular of Andhra Pradesh.
In the education sphere too, need for a seat of higher learning was felt, and to meet this need a strong committee of local leaders was formed early in 1950, and an appeal for funds was made in the name of the following as members:
- Sri Pravataneni Venkataratnam (President)
- Sri Kaza Venkataramaiah (Secretary)
- Sri Vemulapalli Ramabrahmam (Joint Secretary)
- Sri Uppalapati Veerabhadra Rao (Treasurer)
- Sri Vadde Sobhanadri (Member)
- Sri Lingam Venkata Krishnaiah (Member)
- Sri Upadrasta Papanna Sastri (Member)
The College Organising Committee sought and obtained permission from Andhra University and the college was formally inaugurated under the name "The Gudivada College" by Prof. V.S.Krishna, the then Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University on 6th July 1950. The college was temporarily located in a fine building on the main road of Gudivada. The Secretary of the organizing committee Sri Kaza Venkataramaiah became the Correspondent of the college and Sri A.F. Thyagaraju, M.A.(London) was deputed by the Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University, to be the First Principal.
Through out the fifties new courses, combinations and sections were opened and in July 1958 the Three Year Degree courses were started in the college in conformity with the national pattern of collegiate education. In 1958 philanthropic people of Pedaparupudi and Bhushanagulla donated 15 acres of land and Rs 1,00,000 for construction of permanent buildings to which a sum of Rs 1,00,000 was added by Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao and his admirers. As a result of his generous donation and interest in education the college was named after him from April 1959.
Sri Yerneni Venkateswara Rao, a philanthropist of Mudinepalli donated a sum of Rs.60,000 to construct a spacious auditorium in memory of his father Yerneni Chalamaiah.
The college shifted to its present location in July 1959. Sri A.F.Thyagaraju, the founder Principal, after having laid firm foundation for academic excellence, left the college on July 16, 1966 and Dr. Y.Venkateswara Rao, M.Sc., Ph.D., took over as Principal.
He took up the challenging task of construction of R.C.C. buildings with the ACTIVE involvement and cooperation of three popular local doctors, A.V. Raghavaiah, T.L. Perumallu and P.L.Narasimha Rao, and handsome donations from the public and matching grants from the University Grants Commission. It is perhaps not out of place to say that even the academic and administration foundation of the college were laid under the leadership of Dr. Y.Venkateswara Rao who as Principal, had rendered yeoman service for the all round development of this college. The successive Principals followed the footsteps of the first two Principals of the college in maintaining the same standards of excellence.